The Conversation

‘We painted our fear, hope and dreams’ − examining the art and artists of Guantánamo Bay

Written by Alexandra Moore, Professor of Human Rights in Literary and Cultural Studies, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Sailing ships are a common feature of Moath al-Alwi's art.Moath al-Alwi, 2016, CC BY-SA

When Moath al-Alwi left Guantánamo Bay for resettlement in Oman, accompanying him on his journey was a cache of artwork he created during more than two decades of detention.

Al-Alwi was detainee number “028” – an indication that he was...

Gen Z seeks safety above all else as the generation grows up amid constant crisis and existential threat

Written by Yalda T. Uhls, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers and Assistant Adjunct Professor in Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles

Asked to rate the importance of 14 personal goals, Gen Z reported 'to be safe' as the top goal.Darya Komarova/Getty Images

After many years of partisan politics, increasingly divisive language, finger-pointing and inflammatory speech have contributed to an environment of fear and uncertainty, affecting not just political dynamics but also the...

Philly Whole Foods store becomes first to unionize – a labor expert explains what’s next and how Trump could stall workers’ efforts

Written by Paul F. Clark, Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, Penn State

Workers at a Whole Foods store in Philadelphia voted 130-100 to unionize.Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Whole Foods workers at the Philadelphia flagship store in the city’s Art Museum area voted to unionize on Jan. 27, 2025. They are the first store in the Amazon-owned grocery chain to do so.

Paul Clark, a professor of labor and employment...

Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded

Written by Timothy J McCoy, Supervisory Research Geologist, Smithsonian Institution

This photo of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 Polycam images collected on Dec. 2, 2024, by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.NASA

A bright fireball streaked across the sky above mountains, glaciers and spruce forest near the town of Revelstoke in British Columbia, Canada, on the evening of March 31, 1965. Fragments of this meteorite, discovered by beaver...

Problematic Paper Screener: Trawling for fraud in the scientific literature

Written by Guillaume Cabanac, Professor of Computer Science, Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse

Have you ever heard of the Joined Together States? Or bosom peril? Kidney disappointment? Fake neural organizations? Lactose bigotry? These nonsensical, and sometimes amusing, word sequences are among thousands of “tortured phrases” that sleuths have found littered throughout reputable scientific journals.

They typically result from...

Why building big AIs costs billions – and how Chinese startup DeepSeek dramatically changed the calculus

Written by Ambuj Tewari, Professor of Statistics, University of Michigan

DeepSeek burst on the scene – and may be bursting some bubbles.AP Photo/Andy Wong

State-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude have captured the public imagination by producing fluent text in multiple languages in response to user prompts. Those companies have...

Fake papers are contaminating the world’s scientific literature, fueling a corrupt industry and slowing legitimate lifesaving medical research

Written by Frederik Joelving, Contributing editor, Retraction Watch

Assistant professor Frank Cackowski, left, and researcher Steven Zielske at Wayne State University in Detroit became suspicious of a paper on cancer research that was eventually retracted.Amy Sacka, CC BY-ND

Over the past decade, furtive commercial entities around the world have industrialized the production, sale and dissemination of bogus...

Rest, reorientation and hope – the pillars of 2025’s Catholic Jubilee year

Written by Timothy Gabrielli, Gudorf Chair in Catholic Intellectual Traditions, University of Dayton

A cardinal opens the Holy Door of the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome on Jan. 1, 2025, one of the events starting the Jubilee year.AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

Pope Francis has proclaimed a Jubilee year in the Catholic Church, which began on Dec. 24, 2024, and will continue through Jan. 6, 2026. But what is a Jubilee, and what is this...

President Carter had to balance employers’ demands for foreign workers with pressure to restrict immigration – and so does Trump

Written by Gabrielle Clark, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Law, California State University, Los Angeles

Jimmy Carter shakes riders' hands in a Mexican American parade while campaigning in Southern California in 1976.AP Photo

President Donald Trump promised during his three presidential campaigns to deport as many immigrants living in the U.S. without legal authorization as possible.

His second administration got underway less than one month after forme...

Skin phantoms help researchers improve wearable devices without people wearing them

Written by Krittika Goyal, Assistant Professor of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology

Skin 'phantoms' are an inexpensive alternative to testing on people. Diana Bachu/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Wearable devices have become a big part of modern health care, helping track a patient’s heart rate, stress levels and brain activity. These devices rely on electrodes, sensors that touch the skin to pick up electrical signals from...