The Conversation

• Iran war and other tough topics give K-12 teachers chance to teach students how, not what, to think
  A Penn State training program helps K-12 teachers learn how to give students the confidence to ask questions and understand various perspectives about complex topics.
• How the Emerald Isle shaped the Steel City – Pittsburgh’s rich Irish history
  Long before Pittsburgh’s modern Irish celebrations existed, Irish immigrants helped shape the city in the 19th century via the railroads, canals and steel industry.
• Jesse Jackson’s misdiagnosis of Parkinson’s is common – new genetic discovery could lead to treatment for this deadly disease
  People typically die from progressive supranuclear palsy within 7 to 10 years. There is currently no specialized treatment or effective screening for this neurodegenerative disease.
• I was teaching virtue and knowledge while lying on the side
  While rationalizing deception is easy to do, developing the virtue of truthfulness is not.
• As the Oscars approach, Hollywood grapples with AI’s growing influence on filmmaking
  AI tools can now generate movie scenes, resurrect lost footage and replace entry-level jobs – forcing Hollywood to rethink creativity, labor and authorship.
• When US fights in the Middle East, American Muslim students often face discrimination
  The war on terror is among the Middle East conflicts that sparked a rise of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discriminatory incidents in the US.
• While the US government is investigating unidentified anomalous phenomena, academic researchers studying them face stigma
  Surveys have found that researchers studying UAPs can face pushback from mentors and colleagues, even from people who think it’s an important line of research.
• How sewage treatment plants could handle food waste, sparing landfills and the climate
  Rather than generating climate-warming emissions and wasting nutrients and energy, food waste can become a resource if processed in sewage treatment plants.
• In its hunt for critical minerals, the US is misconstruing what is and is not America’s
  There’s a growing interest in mining the ocean seabed for minerals essential to technology. But whose minerals are they? A Law of the Sea scholar explains.
• Nearly 1 in 3 missing children in the US are Black, driving Pennsylvania and other states to propose ‘Ebony Alerts’ to ensure equal protection and public safety
  Black children who go missing are often labeled as runaways, which excludes them from the Amber Alert system.
• Young Latinos – and their commitment to social justice – are shaping the future of the Catholic Church
  Young Latinos’ activism for immigrant rights ove the past few months has put a spotlight on their importance for the future of the Catholic Church.
• When GPS lies at sea: How electronic warfare is threatening ships and their crews
  In addition to watching out for missile and drone attacks, mariners in conflict zones need to be on guard for GPS spoofing and other cyberattacks. The stakes are high and mariners are ill-prepared.
• Iran’s ruling structure explained
  Although the supreme leader assumes the majority of power, Iran’s regime consists of a network of governing bodies.
• ‘Hamnet’ is making audiences break down in tears – and upending beliefs about male grief
  The Oscar-nominated film about Shakespeare’s son explores how men and women mourn differently – and how ‘Hamlet’ may have transformed a father’s private sorrow into enduring art.
• A successful USDA program that has supported more than 533,000 affordable rental homes in rural America is getting phased out
  Hundreds of thousands of rural families could lose their affordable homes as mortgages the program supported expire by 2050.
• Federal benefits cuts are looming – here’s how Colorado is trying to protect families with children
  A combination of Colorado state tax credits for low-income families is predicted to lift more than 50,000 children out of poverty.
• Kurdish gains in Syria could disappear without international support − just as they did in Iraq decades ago
  Despite risks, Kurds in Syria have the best chance in a generation to protect their national rights. Their success may hinge on the international community.
• Constant technology changes throw seniors a curve – and add to caregivers’ load
  As devices get smarter, families and communities bear a heavier burden of technology caregiving for older adults.
• Not just Patriot interceptors: A defense expert explains the various weapons US and allies use to defend against missiles and drones
  Concerns about shortages of interceptor missiles in the conflict between the US and Iran highlight the challenges of defending against missiles and drones.
• Legal refugees now face long detention after DHS reinterprets law on applying for a green card after a year
  A new DHS policy could result in the detention of thousands of people who have lawful immigration status.
• ICE buys $87M warehouse in Pennsylvania − can local officials block a detention facility?
  After the government acquired a warehouse in PA to expand ICE operations, questions are mounting about transparency, cost and government real estate transactions.
• ‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead’ is actually not just about death
  Rooted in the Buddhist teaching of the bardo − states of ‘in-between’ − the text offers a way to understand death, life and transformation as deeply intertwined.
• As Iran war expands, some conservative Christians interpret the conflict through biblical prophecies
  For some Americans, biblical prophecies about the end-times serve as a guide to conflicts in the Middle East today.
• We study pandemics, and the resurgence of measles is a grim sign of what’s coming
  Controlling the spread of many infections, including measles, depends on trust in public health, which is eroding.
• Congress still has ways to throttle back Trump’s war with Iran – and to ask questions
  As critics question President Trump’s motivations for war on Iran, it’s not just about politics. It’s about the Constitution and whether Congress has any hope of checking the president’s warmaking.
• Patriots and loyalists both rallied around St. Patrick’s Day during the Revolutionary War
  By the Revolutionary War in the late 1770s, those marking the anniversary of St. Patrick’s death on March 17 included Irish immigrants in the Continental Army and those serving the British Redcoats.
• Indie coffee shops are meant to counter corporate behemoths like Starbucks – so why do they all look the same?
  The purportedly unique and local feel of coffee shops has instead been homogenized into a singular, palatable aesthetic.
• Fat cells burn energy to make heat – making them the next frontier of weight loss therapies
  GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy aid in weight loss by suppressing appetite. Researchers are looking next at how the body expends energy – including through fat.
• AI doesn’t ‘see’ the way that you do, and that could be a problem when it categorizes objects and scenes
  People and computers perceive the world differently, which can lead AI to make mistakes no human would. Researchers are working on how to bring human and AI vision into alignment.
• Oil isn’t just fuel: Iran conflict could disrupt markets for everything from plastics to fertilizers
  Petrochemicals derived from oil and fossil fuels underlie the production of many consumer goods − and many you wouldn’t know from looking at the final product.
• US military leans into AI for attack on Iran, but the tech doesn’t lessen the need for human judgment in war
  Anthropic’s Claude is helping the US military choose targets to strike in Iran, but responsibility for the accuracy, strategy and ethics of the decisions rests with humans.
• Notions of ‘Christendom’ often miss the mark – medieval Europe’s ideas about faith and power were not so simple
  There has never been a singular Christian perspective on how religion, power and politics ought to relate to each other – not even in medieval ‘Christendom.’
• Universities survived Trump’s 2025 funding freeze, but the money still isn’t flowing to researchers
  The Trump administration is leaning away from dramatic funding cuts and settlements with universities, and more toward standard tactics to try to limit funding.
• Generative AI can play a role uplifting family and community in early childhood education
  Researchers use text and image generators to design culturally relevant educational content for young children.
• Bird losses are accelerating across North America, particularly in farming regions where agriculture is most intensive
  Farming areas that use lots of fertilizers and pesticides stood out for the swift and accelerating decline of their bird populations.
• Why shadow tankers are the only ships still moving through the Strait of Hormuz
  Despite Iranian threats to destroy any ships that pass through a key maritime route, some ships are still doing so.
• Trump’s war against Iran is uniquely unpopular among US military actions of the past century
  Trump’s Iran war is historically unique in one critically important way: Early on, the war is not popular with the American public.
• Astrophysicists trace the origin of valuable metals in space, from colliding stars to merging galaxies
  Gold and platinum are found in space, created when two stars collide. Astrophysicists can even trace this process further back, to the merger of galaxies.
• Gifts from top 50 US philanthropists jumped to $22.4B in 2025 − Mike Bloomberg, Bill Gates and the estate of Paul Allen lead a list of the biggest givers
  Three philanthropy scholars size up the latest data on gifts from the country’s biggest philanthropists.
• Women of the Rosenstrasse protest challenged the Nazi regime for their detained Jewish husbands’ freedom – and won
  Couples in interfaith marriages came under intense pressure in Nazi Germany. But women’s protests in February 1943 may have helped save their husbands.
• Making good choices when life gets messy – practical wisdom relies on human judgment, not rules
  The ancient Greek word phronesis means practical wisdom. It’s about choosing the right action at the right time for the right reasons, helping you apply the other virtues correctly.
• Why cloud service outages ripple across the internet – and the economy
  It makes sense for companies and organizations to outsource key internet services, but with those services in the hands of a few corporations, failures have a wide impact.
• Higher buprenorphine doses help patients stay in opioid use disorder treatment, new study finds
  Black patients were less likely to receive higher doses. This may reflect inequities in health care or misconceptions among patients that higher doses are unsafe.
• Just thinking about tequila, whiskey or wine shifts your mindset – new research
  Different types of alcoholic beverages elicit symbolic cues that can influence the choices a person makes about consumption.
• This Sunshine Week, Florida reflects an alarming national trend of blocking the public’s access to information
  A lack of transparency at both the federal and state level is making it increasingly difficult for journalists and citizens to hold government to account.
• Iran war: 4 big questions that help clarify the future of the Middle East
  The Iran war is affecting the whole Middle East. An expert on the region looks at four key issues that shed light on the war’s likely end and political consequences.
• 47 years of deep mistrust and misperception paved the way to war between Iran and the US − and complicate any negotiations
  The war that began Feb. 28 hews to a familiar, dangerous pattern, writes an Iran expert, from deep, historical mistrust and incompatible strategic interests to miscommunication and misperception.
• From bodice rippers to romantasy, romance novels are dominating the book market – and rewriting women’s sexual power
  Today’s romance novels spotlight women in control in the bedroom and in their relationships.
• Mining the ocean floor: 5 deep-sea sources of critical minerals essential to technology, and the fragile marine life at risk
  Critical minerals are found in several forms in the ocean, from potato-size nodules to brine pools. They are also in some of the least understood parts of our planet.
• Iraq war’s aftermath was a disaster for the US – the Iran war is headed in the same direction
  More than 20 years after the US military success in Iraq, the outcome of the US effort at regime change wasn’t as expected, and authoritarians with close ties to Iran now rule the country.