The Conversation

• Trump’s opening tariff salvo will hurt US consumers − following through on Canada, Mexico threats will increase the price pain
  There are a lot of unknowns about Trump’s tariffs − but some consequences will be predictable.
• Trump’s tariff gambit: As allies prepare to strike back, a costly trade war looms
  Steep tariffs risk sparking retaliatory measures that could rattle the domestic economy. It’s happened before.
• Who are immigrants to the US, where do they come from and where do they live?
  In 2023, approximately 51 million foreign-born people lived in the United States. Almost three-quarters were in the country legally. Half of the rest had some legal protection from deportation.
• What the ‘moral distress’ of doctors tells us about eroding trust in health care
  When doctors feel unable to provide the care they believe is best for their patients, they may experience what bioethicists call ‘moral distress.’
• Smart brands rein in ad spending when a rival faces a setback − here’s why
  A study of a 2014 product recall shows that problems at one company can hurt its competitors, too.
• Some viruses prefer mosquitoes to humans, but people get sick anyway − a virologist and entomologist explain why
  The virus that causes eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, has evolved to infect mosquitoes. To be able to spread between people, however, it faces extra challenges.
• Why are rubies red and emeralds green? Their colors come from the same metal in their atomic structure
  Even though emeralds and rubies are very different colors, they both have the same secret ingredient in their atomic structure.
• Hunger rises as food aid falls – and those living under autocratic systems bear the brunt
  Talk of the Trump administration closing USAID, the largest provider of food assistance, has sparked concerns on how it might impact global hunger.
• I’m a sports psychologist and diehard Eagles fan - here’s the behavioral science behind a Super Bowl LIX win
  Elite athletes are known to be tough-minded. Research reveals openness is also a key personality trait, one that allows them to execute creative, unscripted plays.
• Musk’s inauguration salute is not the only apparent fascist signal from Trump’s administration
  This is not the first time that Trump or someone close to him has been accused of sending fascist messages. Nor even is it the first time a prominent Trump supporter has made that gesture.
• President Trump may think he is President Jackson reincarnated − but there are lessons in Old Hickory’s resistance to sycophants
  President Donald Trump feels kinship with former President Andrew Jackson. But a presidential historian says that Jackson diverged in fundamental ways from the path Trump is taking.
• Trump’s Project 2025 agenda caps decades-long resistance to 20th century progressive reform
  Presidents often come into office with a blueprint to transform government. Project 2025 – assembled by Trump allies – is part of a lineage of conservative reactions to liberal presidents’ plans.
• 3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future, starting with health care
  Affordable housing is a challenge for rural America, too.
• Drought can hit almost anywhere: How 5 cities that nearly ran dry got water use under control
  Cities across the normally wet Northeast scrambled to reduce water use amid a 2024 drought. It was a reminder that drought isn’t a problem only in the West.
• Trump’s tariff threats fit a growing global phenomenon: hardball migration diplomacy
  Trump isn’t alone in using tariffs, travel bans and sanctions to make countries play ball on deportations. But the other side of migration diplomacy can be incentives for countries willing to take on refugees.
• Rare portraits reveal the humanity of the slaves who revolted on the Amistad
  Portraits of enslaved people from the 19th century are unusual. But a Connecticut artist named William H. Townsend decided to draw the rebels as they stood trial, leaving behind an invaluable record.
• Fossil shark teeth are abundant and can date the past in a unique way
  Sharks have ruled the Earth’s oceans for 400 million years. Recent research on fossil shark teeth has discovered an innovative method for dating ancient sediments.
• Where does black fall on the color spectrum? A color scientist explains
  Black doesn’t appear in the visible spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. So why do we still see it?
• Your environment affects how well your medications work − identifying exactly how could make medicine better
  Your physical environment, social life and lifestyle have as much an influence on your biology − and hence, how you process drugs − as your genes.
• The Black librarian who rewrote the rules of power, gender and passing as white
  Belle da Costa Greene, who was JP Morgan’s librarian, became a lively fixture at Gilded Age mansions, country retreats, auction houses and art galleries. She was also a Black woman who passed as white.
• Bogus scientific papers are enriching fraudsters and slowing lifesaving medical research
  The world’s library of scientific papers is becoming contaminated as fraudsters use ‘paper mills’ to game scholarly publishing for profit.
• Can a charter school be religious? The Supreme Court decision about St. Isidore, a Catholic school in Oklahoma, could redraw lines around church and state in education
  For years, the Supreme Court has been expanding the boundaries of government aid to religious schools. St. Isidore’s case pushes the debate into new territory.
• Property and sovereignty in space − as countries and companies take to the stars, they could run into disputes
  Space isn’t lawless, but the agreements governing it don’t cover everything nations will have to grapple with as they develop their space programs.
• AI gives nonprogrammers a boost in writing computer code
  Writing computer code is helpful for people in many disciplines, but learning to program is hard. Large language models can help nonprogrammers skip the difficult details.
• Nonprofits that provide shelter for homeless people, disaster recovery help, and food for low-income Americans rely heavily on federal funding – they would be reeling if Trump froze that money
  Federal grants and contracts are a major source of funding for nonprofit services in the US.
• Teens on social media: Red, blue and purple states are all passing laws to restrict and protect adolescents
  New restrictions on how children and teens can spend time online remain concentrated at the state level.
• From breakbeats to the dance floor: How hip-hop and house revolutionized music and culture
  Both genres recently celebrated big birthdays. From their origins in the clubs and jams of the 1970s and 1980s, house and hip-hop have become global cultural forces.
• How nonprofits abroad can fill gaps when the US government cuts off foreign aid
  When foreign aid stops flowing, local leaders and diaspora communities can, under certain conditions, step in.
• How satellites and AI help fight wildfires today
  Fire spotters used to watch with binoculars from forest towers. Now, technology can help forecast fire behavior, but human experience is still essential.
• A federal policy expert weighs in on Trump’s efforts to stifle gender-affirming care for Americans under 19
  While it doesn’t constitute a national ban on gender-affirming care for minors, the executive order contains provisions that could have a chilling effect on health care providers around the country.
• Biden targeted the online right-wing terrorism threat − now it’s up to Trump
  Neither Trump nor Biden has marshaled the full force of the nation’s anti-terrorism efforts against right-wing extremist groups.
• Gen Z seeks safety above all else as the generation grows up amid constant crisis and existential threat
  Recent generations may have taken safety for granted, but today’s youth are growing up in an era of compounded crises – and being safe is their priority.
• ‘We painted our fear, hope and dreams’ − examining the art and artists of Guantánamo Bay
  Using tea bags, mop strands and other camp detritus, detainees used art as a way of escape at the detention center.
• Stricter abortion laws may cause increased infant deaths − 2 maternal and child health researchers explain the data
  The new study reinforces warnings from doctors about abortion laws with limited or no exceptions.
• Why Trump’s meme coin is a cash grab
  Roughly 80% of the coin supply will be distributed to its founders over the course of three years – and that could leave everyday investors holding the bag.
• Philly Whole Foods store becomes first to unionize – a labor expert explains what’s next and how Trump could stall workers’ efforts
  A pro-business National Labor Relations Board under President Trump could embolden Whole Foods and other companies to delay negotiations with unionized workers.
• Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded
  New findings reveal that a NASA mission traveled to an asteroid that may have once been covered in salty lakes containing organic molecules.
• Problematic Paper Screener: Trawling for fraud in the scientific literature
  Science sleuths are stepping up efforts to detect bogus science papers. This includes building tools that comb through millions of journal articles for signs of tortured phrases spawned by AI.
• Why building big AIs costs billions – and how Chinese startup DeepSeek dramatically changed the calculus
  A machine learning expert breaks down where the money goes in building big AIs, and how DeepSeek found ways to do it far more cheaply.
• Fake papers are contaminating the world’s scientific literature, fueling a corrupt industry and slowing legitimate lifesaving medical research
  ‘Paper mills’ are contaminating the world’s scholarly output with fake papers that hinder research. Lifesaving biomedical fields are especially hard hit.
• Skin phantoms help researchers improve wearable devices without people wearing them
  Just 2 layers of materials commonly used in biomedical labs can mimic the electrical properties of human skin.
• President Carter had to balance employers’ demands for foreign workers with pressure to restrict immigration – and so does Trump
  Carter struck a balance between satisfying the needs of employers and protecting American workers from foreign labor competition. That tension has never let up.
• Rest, reorientation and hope – the pillars of 2025’s Catholic Jubilee year
  The Catholic Church’s Holy Years have biblical roots, but have been evolving for nearly 1,000 years.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination signals a new era of anti-intellectualism in American politics
  Attacks on scientific expertise have been increasing, especially in politics. Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is among the more prominent people who have done that.
• ‘Aliens’ and ‘animals’ – language of hate used by Trump and others can be part of a violent design
  Hateful language used to demonize particular groups of people had been used long before the era of Donald Trump, including by the Nazis.
• Almost half of evicted women and families in metro Detroit say they were illegally pushed out of their homes
  A first-of-its-kind study documents the scope and impact of evictions on Black women and families in metro Detroit.
• What’s behind Trump’s flurry of executive action: 4 essential reads on autocrats and authoritarianism
  What’s happening now in Washington, DC, is different from most presidential transitions − in volume, pace, content and breadth of the changes ordered.
• Commerce oversees everything from weather and salmon to trade and census − here are 3 challenges awaiting new secretary
  The commerce secretary manages a sprawling organization including trade, fisheries, weather forecasting and cutting-edge AI research.
• ¿Trump va en serio con cambiar el nombre del Golfo de México al ‘Golfo de América’? Esto explica una geógrafa
  ¿Cómo se deciden los nombres de los lugares, y cómo se cambian? Existe un proceso. Pero incumbe a varias personas y burocracia, así que no es simple y rápido, como el Presidente Trump está a punto de descubrir.
• Medical research depends on government money – even a day’s delay in the intricate funding process throws science off-kilter
  A member of a grant review panel explains the ins and outs of applying for research funding – and the consequences of when the process suddenly stops.