The Conversation

• Coral reefs face an uncertain recovery from the 4th global mass bleaching event – can climate refuges help?
  As baby corals float in the currents, they can expand their species’ range. But can they get to climate refuges fast enough to survive? A new study has good news and bad.
• Was the Boulder attack terrorism or a hate crime? 2 experts unpack the complexities
  What is the difference between a hate crime and an act of terrorism?
• Debates over presidential power to suspend habeas corpus resurface in Trump administration
  Does Donald Trump have the power to suspend a foundational legal right to challenge a person’s arrest and detention? Americans have long debated whether the president or Congress can do this.
• US health care is rife with high costs and deep inequities, and that’s no accident – a public health historian explains how the system was shaped to serve profit and politicians
  Research shows that decades of policy choices shaped today’s fragmented health care system – which is precisely why reform is so difficult.
• ‘The Eternal Queen of Asian Pop’ sings one last encore from beyond the grave
  Discovered in a Tokyo warehouse, a long-lost ballad by Taiwanese pop star Teresa Teng rekindles memories of an icon whose voice transcended Asia’s political fault lines.
• Beyond de-extinction and dire wolves, gene editing can help today’s endangered species
  A legal scholar with a Ph.D. in wildlife genetics explains the promise biotechnology techniques hold for some animals that are currently endangered.
• Golden Dome dangers: An arms control expert explains how Trump’s missile defense threatens to make the US less safe
  Missile defense systems are nothing new. History shows that even if they work as advertised – a big if – they’re a bad idea if your aim is to make your country safer from nuclear attack.
• Early visions of Mars: Meet the 19th-century astronomer who used science fiction to imagine the red planet
  In the 19th century, astronomers could see Mars through telescopes, but not clearly. Some used their imaginations to fill in what the blurry images couldn’t convey.
• 4 creative ways to engage children in STEM over the summer: Tips to foster curiosity and problem-solving at home
  A researcher offers families advice on playful paths to summer STEM learning for children.
• AmeriCorps is on the chopping block – despite research showing that the national service agency is making a difference in local communities
  The independent federal agency had been facilitating the work of approximately 200,000 volunteers a year, deploying them across the country through partnerships with thousands of nonprofits.
• Why Kissinger would have been a Fortnite champ − and other foreign policy lessons from the gaming world
  A political scientist – with a penchant for gaming – explains how Minecraft, League of Legends and Civilization VII can help teach key international relations concepts.
• Trump’s justifications for the latest travel ban aren’t supported by the data on immigration and terrorism
  Foreign terrorism accounts for a miniscule portion of violence in the United States.
• How Trump’s ‘gold standard’ politicizes federal science
  The first Trump administration also used words like ‘transparency,’ ‘reproducibility’ and ‘uncertainty’ − to try to block regulators from using important health studies when writing pollution rules.
• Game theory explains why reasonable parents make vaccine choices that fuel outbreaks
  Vaccine hesitancy isn’t a moral failure – it’s a property of a system in which people must balance personal and collective interests.
• Detroit voters have an opportunity to pick a mayor who will ease zoning, improve transit and protect long-term residents
  Candidates to be the next mayor of Detroit want to help build back neighborhoods. A real estate policy expert has some ideas.
• Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web destroyed more than aircraft – it tore apart the old idea that bases far behind the front lines are safe
  The audacious drone assault of June 1 may have destroyed one-third of Russia’s long-range strike fleet. But the implications are potentially much bigger.
• 100 years ago, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling on parents’ rights in education – today, another case raises new questions
  Mahmoud v. Taylor stems from some families’ efforts to excuse their children from lessons that use storybooks with LGBTQ+ characters.
• Reproducibility may be the key idea students need to balance trust in evidence with healthy skepticism
  How do you ensure scientific research can be trusted? The concept of reproducibility can help.
• Cuts to school lunch and food bank funding mean less fresh produce for children and families
  The more than $1 billion cut hits already strapped schools and food banks.
• How illicit markets fueled by data breaches sell your personal information to criminals
  Every piece of personal data about you has inherent value. As long as there are customers clamoring for that data, breaches are likely to continue.
• Stop the ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ snap judgments and watch your world become more interesting
  Instant evaluations narrow your perspective and limit your mind’s potential to connect and engage with other aspects of your experiences.
• In pardoning reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, Trump taps into a sense of persecution felt by his conservative Christian base
  The pardons strike home for his right-wing religious supporters, many of whom think that Democrats will do anything to quash their faith.
• How your electric bill may be paying for big data centers’ energy use
  If state regulators allow utilities to follow the standard approach of splitting the costs of new infrastructure among all consumers, the public will end up paying for data centers’ power.
• What a sunny van Gogh painting of ‘The Sower’ tells us about Pope Leo’s message of hope
  Van Gogh’s painting was inspired by French artist Jean-Francois Millet’s 1860 painting. But he transformed Millet’s composition into an image of hope.
• ‘Loyal to the oil’ – how religion and striking it rich shape Canada’s hockey fandom
  The Edmonton Oilers are once again vying for hockey’s biggest prize. In some ways, religion scholars argue, the team’s fandom represents devotion to a way of life − and the oil industry.
• Memories of the good parts of using drugs can keep people hooked − altering the neurons that store them could help treat addiction
  Your brain processes the pleasure of everyday behaviors like eating and drinking similarly to the pleasure of using drugs. Disentangling them requires understanding how memories are formed.
• Your left and right brain hear language differently − a neuroscientist explains how
  Left and right brains hear speech differently, yet how this divide forms was unclear − until mouse studies showed each hemisphere runs on its own developmental clock.
• What is vibe coding? A computer scientist explains what it means to have AI write computer code − and what risks that can entail
  Vibe coding is a buzzy phrase that describes using AI language tools to write software. You enter a natural language phrase for what you want – to a point – and get back code.
• 1 in 4 children suffers from chronic pain − school nurses could be key to helping them manage it
  Chronic pain in children is common. Effective solutions exist − and training community providers is one way to get treatment to kids who need it.
• Storm damage costs are often a mystery – that’s a problem for understanding extreme weather risk
  Forecasters already patch together very rough estimates, and ending NOAA’s ‘billion-dollar disasters’ list means less access to insurance data. Texas’ state climatologists explain why that matters.
• Supreme Court changes the game on federal environmental reviews
  For lawyers, industry, advocates and the courts, environmental review after the Eagle County decision is not just a new ballgame. It is a new sport.
• Uncertainty at NASA − Trump withdraws his nominee for administrator while the agency faces a steep proposed budget cut
  Under the proposed budget, several major projects, such as the Mars Sample Return and the Space Launch System, would face cancellation.
• It’s miller moth season in Colorado – an entomologist explains why they’re important and where they’re headed
  Miller moths migrate through the state every summer and are sometimes considered to be a pest.
• A bottlenose dolphin? Or Tursiops truncatus? Why biologists give organisms those strange, unpronounceable names
  Some say Latin names are elitist and incomprehensible, but they started out as a way to be inclusive.
• Peace has long been elusive in rural Colombia – Black women’s community groups try to bring it closer each day
  The country’s long-running conflict continues to impact life in many rural areas, which also face threats from illegal mining and other extractive industries.
• We asked over 8,700 people in 6 countries to think about future generations in decision-making, and this is what we found
  When people reflect on how their actions shape the future, they are more likely to support solutions to present-day issues like poverty and inequality.
• Autocrats don’t act like Hitler or Stalin anymore − instead of governing with violence, they use manipulation
  Autocrats today are polished, appear mainstream and use the media, not overt repression or violence, to gain public support and consolidate power. They govern through a ‘spin dictatorship.’
• Is methylene blue really a brain booster? A pharmacologist explains the science
  Health influencers – perhaps including Health Secretary RFK Jr. – are promoting the chemical as an elixir that improves memory and focus. But evidence for these claims is thin.
• The Michelin Guide is Eurocentric and elitist − yet it will soon be an arbiter of culinary excellence in Philly
  The famed Michelin Red Guide is coming to Philadelphia, and inspectors are scouting local restaurants to find some worthy of Michelin awards.
• Reducing American antisemitism requires more than condemning opposition to Israel and targeting elite universities
  The Trump administration’s crusade against antisemitism looks to be mainly about crippling elite universities and blurring the lines between pro-Palestinian activism and antisemitism.
• Even if Putin and Zelenskyy do go face-to-face, don’t expect wonders − their one meeting in 2019 ended in failure
  A second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine took place on June 2. Again both leaders were not present.
• Is AI sparking a cognitive revolution that will lead to mediocrity and conformity?
  During the Industrial Revolution, craftsmanship retreated to the margins. As AI becomes widely adopted, will the same happen to original thinking?
• Robots run out of energy long before they run out of work to do − feeding them could change that
  Even the best batteries fall far short of animal metabolism for energy storage. Fueling robots with ‘food’ could narrow the gap.
• Debunking 5 myths about when your devices get wet
  When it comes to drying out your drenched device, problematic myths about liquid protection and repair make it hard to separate fact from fiction.
• New model helps to figure out which distant planets may host life
  As NASA rolls out more powerful telescopes in the future, scientists will need a way to determine where to point them. A new approach could help.
• California plan to ban most plants within 5 feet of homes for wildfire safety overlooks some important truths about flammability
  Hedges and trees may actually reduce home exposure to radiant heat and flying embers, but they must be well maintained. Two scientists who study how plants burn explain.
• 3 ways the government can silence opinions it disagrees with, without using censorship
  The Trump administration isn’t resorting to official censorship. Instead, it’s using less blatant – and more effective – ways to suppress dissent.
• Our trans health study was terminated by the government – the effects of abrupt NIH grant cuts ripple across science and society
  The losses include millions of dollars the NIH has already spent on research that will no longer generate results, and the next generation of scientists whose work has been cut short.
• Veterans’ protests planned for D-Day latest in nearly 250 years of fighting for their benefits
  An upcoming protest in Washington on June 6 isn’t the first time veterans have protested their treatment by the US government. Veterans have been mobilizing and agitating at home since the Civil War.
• Prime numbers, the building blocks of mathematics, have fascinated for centuries − now technology is revolutionizing the search for them
  Today, people use complex computing networks to search for prime numbers with millions of digits. But early mathematicians were running these calculations by hand.