The Conversation

Meet ‘lite intermediate black holes,’ the supermassive black hole’s smaller, much more mysterious cousin

Written by Bill Smith, Ph.D. Candidate in Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt University

Merging black holes generate gravitational waves, which astronomers can track. SXS, CC BY-ND

Black holes are massive, strange and incredibly powerful astronomical objects. Scientists know that supermassive black holes reside in the centers of most galaxies.

And they understand how certain stars form the comparatively smaller stellar mass black...

2 spacecraft flew exactly in line to imitate a solar eclipse, capture a stunning image and test new tech

Written by Christopher Palma, Teaching Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Penn State

The solar corona, as viewed by Proba-3's ASPIICS coronagraph. ESA/Proba-3/ASPIICS/WOW algorithm, CC BY-SA

During a solar eclipse, astronomers who study heliophysics are able to study the Sun’s corona – its outer atmosphere – in ways they are unable to do at any other time.

The brightest part of the Sun is so bright that it blocks...

If everyone in the world turned on the lights at the same time, what would happen?

Written by Harold Wallace, Curator, Electricity Collections, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

This combined satellite image shows how Earth's city lights would look if it were night around the entire planet at once. White areas of light show cities with larger populations.NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@th...

Fetal autopsies could help prevent stillbirths, but too often they are used to blame mothers for pregnancy loss

Written by Jill Lens, Professor of Law, University of Iowa

At least 1 in 4 stillbirths in the U.S. are preventable, research shows. O2O Creative/iStock via Getty Images Plus

About 60 pregnancies per day in the U.S. end in stillbirth.

The best way to find out why a stillbirth occurred is a fetal autopsy – yet these procedures are performed in only 1 in 5 of the over 20,000 stillbirths that occur each...

Fixing Michigan’s teacher shortage isn’t just about getting more recruits

Written by Gail Richmond, Professor of Education, Michigan State University

Finding good candidates to fill that teacher's chair is no easy task.Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Nearly 500 of Michigan’s 705 school districts reported teaching vacancies in the fall of 2023. That’s up from 262 districts at the beginning of the 2012 school year.

The number of vacancies is likely an undercount,...

PBS accounts for nearly half of first graders’ most frequently watched educational TV and video programs

Written by Rebecca Dore, Director of Research of the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, The Ohio State University

Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, speaks during a House hearing in March 2025, months before Congress rescinded two years of public media funding.Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

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At U.S. President Donald Trump’s request, Congress voted in July 2025 to claw back US$1.1 billion it had previously approved for the...

Beyond brute strength: A fresh look at Samson’s search for intimacy in the Hebrew Bible

Written by Tanner Ethan Walker, Assistant Professor of Religion, Wesleyan University

'Samson and Delilah,' by Anthony van Dyck, 1599-1641.DeAgostini/Getty Images

The biblical figure of Samson has long been understood as a man of brute strength, a warrior on the margins of society whose story is often defined by violence and destruction. Yet alongside his strength, Samson is known for his entanglements with women.

Samson’s...

Plantation tourism, memory and the uneasy economics of heritage in the American South

Written by Betsy Pudliner, Associate Professor of Hospitality and Technology Innovation, University of Wisconsin-Stout

The American South – and the nation more broadly – continues to wrestle with how to remember its most painful chapters. Tourism is one of the arenas where that struggle is most visible.

This tension came into sharp relief in May 2025, when the largest antebellum mansion in the region – the 19th-century estate at Nottoway...

The treaty meant to control nuclear risks is under strain 80 years after the US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Written by Stephen Herzog, Professor of the Practice, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Middlebury

The city of Hiroshima was destroyed when the United States dropped atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Aug. 6, 1945.Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Eighty years ago – on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945 – the U.S. military dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, thrusting humanity into a terrifying new age. In mere moments, tens of thousands of...

The World Court just ruled countries can be held liable for climate change damage – what does that mean for the US?

Written by Lauren Gifford, Faculty, Ecosystem Science & Sustainability; Director, Soil Carbon Solutions Center, Colorado State University

Ralph Regenvanu, climate change minister of Vanuatu, speaks outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague on July 23, 2025.John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

The International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion in July 2025 declaring that all countries have a legal obligation to protect and prevent harm to the climate.

The...