The Conversation

• Memes and conflict: Study shows surge of imagery and fakes can precede international and political violence
  Visual content, including manipulated images, is a staple of propaganda and political messaging. AI analysis shows that a surge of these memes can precede the outbreak of wide-scale violence.
• Pope Francis’ death right after Easter sounds miraculous – but patients and caregivers often work together to delay dying
  Some patients with a terminal illness seem to be able to ‘hold on’ until after an anticipated holiday or event. This might be less about staying positive and more about being supported in your goals.
• Gratitude comes with benefits − a social psychologist explains how to practice it when times are stressful
  Some people are more inclined toward gratitude than others, but there are specific ways that everyone can cultivate more of it.
• US colleges and universities have billions stashed away in endowments − a higher ed finance expert explains what they are
  Donor-imposed restrictions keep colleges and universities from freely determining how and when to spend a large share of their endowment funds.
• How do children learn to read? This literacy expert says ‘there are as many ways as there are students’
  US schools are going all in on phonics, but research shows that approach won’t work for every child. A blended literacy strategy can get more students reading.
• Alaska, rich in petroleum, faces an energy shortage
  Alaska produces a lot of crude oil, but many of the state’s utilities, businesses and homes run on natural gas, which is in dwindling supply near population centers.
• The hidden history of Philadelphia’s window-box gardens and their role in urban reform
  A landscape historian explains how a Victorian tradition became a tool for social change in 19th- and 20th-century Philadelphia.
• Is China the new cool? How Beijing is using pop culture to win the soft power war
  Is China winning over Western youth through its cinema, video games and TikTok.
• From Doing Business to B-READY: World Bank’s new rankings represent a rebrand, not a revamp
  The World Bank has long sought to replace it’s annual index that fell to scandal in 2021. But a new replacement repeats some of the flaws.
• Justice Department lawyers work for justice and the Constitution – not the White House
  Some Department of Justice attorneys have recently been fired or have resigned, refusing to follow directives from the Trump administration that they felt violated the law, legal ethics or both.
• From help to harm: How the government is quietly repurposing everyone’s data for surveillance
  Under the guise of efficiency and fraud prevention, the federal government is breaking down data silos to collect and aggregate information on virtually everyone in the US.
• US universities lose millions of dollars chasing patents, research shows
  The problem is that costs – especially the costs to faculty – often go ignored.
• Trump is stripping protections from marine protected areas – why that’s a problem for fishing’s future, and for whales, corals and other ocean life
  America’s marine protected areas help fish populations thrive. Trump’s plan to open them to industrial fishing may ultimately harm the fishing industry itself.
• Controlled burns reduce wildfire risk, but they require trained staff and funding − this could be a rough year
  Uncertainty from Washington along with staff and budget cuts have created turmoil for the US Forest Service’s fire management efforts.
• Trump administration pauses new mine safety regulation − here’s how those rules benefit companies as well as workers
  The democratic process of scientific study, public debate and comment helps regulators arrive at a rule that balances the needs and interests of workers, companies and the public.
• Stripping federal protection for clean water harms just about everyone, especially already vulnerable communities
  These aren’t abstract problems. They’re happening right now, in real communities, to real people.
• Habeas corpus: A thousand-year-old legal principle for defending rights that’s getting a workout under the Trump administration
  Habeas corpus – a Latin phrase meaning ‘you shall have the body’ – protects any person, whether citizen or not, from being illegally confined. It’s a crucial element of US law.
• A warning for Democrats from the Gilded Age and the 1896 election
  Effective Republican organizing and intraparty divisions among Democrats solidified GOP political dominance until the 1930s.
• I study local government and Hurricane Helene forced me from my home − here’s how rural towns and counties in North Carolina and beyond cooperate to rebuild
  The Trump administration wants to abolish FEMA and hand disaster recovery over to states. But local officials are best positioned to help local people in a crisis.
• Some politicians who share harmful information are rewarded with more clicks, study finds
  A study of US state legislators found that posting misinformation online was a winning strategy for boosting a politician’s visibility – but not for Democrats.
• Perfect brownies baked at high altitude are possible thanks to Colorado’s home economics pioneer Inga Allison
  A new exhibition at Colorado State University highlights 100 years of women’s work.
• Reducing diversity, equity and inclusion to a catchphrase undermines its true purpose
  When used as an abbreviation, DEI’s role in tackling racism and bias becomes susceptible to political manipulation and dismantling.
• Make Russia Medieval Again! How Putin is seeking to remold society, with a little help from Ivan the Terrible
  A new textbook soon to be taught in Russian schools leans on the works of a 16th-century monk. It fits a pattern of ‘political neomedievalism’ by the Kremlin.
• Francis, a pope of many firsts: 5 essential reads
  Pope Francis was not one to shy away from controversial issues, whether inside or outside the church.
• Lawful permanent residents like Mahmoud Khalil have a right to freedom of speech – but does that protect them from deportation?
  The Trump administration says it can deport noncitizen students that create foreign security threats. The Supreme Court might ultimately decide the limits of these residents’ free speech.
• Federal laws don’t ban rollbacks of environmental protection, but they don’t make it easy
  Some restrictions prevent loosening of existing environmental standards for clean air and water. Other rules can be changed – though only through a challenging and multistep democratic process.
• Why don’t humans have hair all over their bodies? A biologist explains our lack of fur
  Human beings don’t have a thick coat of fur like many other mammals do. Scientists think it has to do with something else that comes out of skin: sweat.
• Endowments aren’t blank checks – but universities can rely on them more heavily in turbulent times
  Most institutions of higher education have more freedom to spend from their endowments than they may realize.
• Exposure to perceptible temperature rise increases concern about climate change, higher education adds to understanding
  An analysis of surveys about people’s level of climate concern suggests it isn’t just education alone that shapes views – it’s experiencing rising temperatures that makes the difference.
• How the next pope will be elected – what goes on at the conclave
  Holding a conclave to elect a pope is a tradition that goes back centuries.
• What will happen at the funeral of Pope Francis
  Pope Francis had expressed the desire to be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, a fifth-century church in Rome dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
• Scientists found a potential sign of life on a distant planet – an astronomer explains why many are still skeptical
  The exoplanet K2-18b could harbor a massive ocean, but scientists will need to study the planet more to see if it’s really likely to host life.
• ‘I never issued a criminal contempt citation in 19 ½ years on the bench’ – a former federal judge looks at the ‘relentless bad behavior’ of the Trump administration in court
  ‘It’s one big show of contempt for the court,’ says a former federal judge about the Trump administration’s handling of two cases related to its deportation of noncitizens to an El Salvador prison.
• With federal funding in question, artists can navigate a perilous future by looking to the past
  Because the US government has rarely offered full-throated support for the arts, there’s a long tradition of innovation, adaptation and collective action among American artists.
• Crime is nonpartisan and the blame game on crime in cities is wrong – on both sides
  Mayors from the Democratic Party aren’t making cities any more – or less – dangerous than mayors from the Republican Party.
• As views on spanking shift worldwide, most US adults support it, and 19 states allow physical punishment in schools
  Although millions of US parents approve, decades of research shows that spanking is harmful.
• All models are wrong − a computational modeling expert explains how engineers make them useful
  If an engineer makes an improper assumption while designing something, sometimes the consequences are fatal. An engineering professor explains how to reduce risk.
• Lawsuits seeking to address climate change have promise but face uncertain future
  In the battle to slow climate change, local and state governments, as well as citizens, have taken to the courts. Their results have varied, but the cases keep coming.
• Claims of ‘anti-Christian bias’ sound to some voters like a message about race, not just religion
  Some Americans hear claims of anti-Christian bias as a signal of white solidarity, according to a 2024 study.
• Trump’s attacks on central bank threaten its independence − and that isn’t good news for sound economic stewardship (or battling inflation)
  Monetary policy can be wielded as a tool to boost an economy around election time, which explains why politicians want to have a say on it.
• How does your brain create new memories? Neuroscientists discover ‘rules’ for how neurons encode new information
  As you experience or encounter new things, your brain must encode this information via the right neural networks at the right time.
• Patriots’ Day: How far-right groups hijack history and patriotic symbols to advance their cause, according to an expert on extremism
  On Patriots’ Day, far-right groups may use historical events and patriotic symbols to claim they are engaging in a ‘modern-day fight for freedom.’
• International students infuse tens of millions of dollars into local economies across the US. What happens if they stay home?
  International students are part of communities nationwide. Declines in their enrollment could mean economic trouble for cities and towns across the country.
• Why people with autism struggle to get hired − and how businesses can help by changing how they look at job interviews
  People on the autism spectrum are often overlooked in hiring because of how they come across in interviews. But with the right understanding and fixes to the process, employers can make smarter choices.
• Popular AIs head-to-head: OpenAI beats DeepSeek on sentence-level reasoning
  Large language model AIs can ingest long documents and answer questions about them, but a key question is how well they ‘understand’ individual sentences in the documents.
• Why deregulating online platforms is actually bad for free speech
  At first glance it might seem contradictory that restricting some speech can preserve free speech, but research shows that online content moderation protects the marketplace of ideas.
• Appliance efficiency standards save consumers billions, reduce pollution and fight climate change
  About 40% of total US energy consumption is used by household and industrial appliances, such as heating and cooling systems, refrigerators and lighting.
• Is a ‘friend-apist’ what we really want from therapy?
  Not too long ago, therapists created a wall between themselves and their patients. Have we gone too far in the other direction?
• Ethical leadership can boost well-being and performance in remote work environments
  Researchers found that when salespeople perceived their leaders as ethical, they felt more committed to the organization.
• Federal judge finds ‘probable cause’ to hold Trump administration in contempt – a legal scholar explains what this means
  Judge James Boasberg’s order stops short of holding any government officials in contempt, but leaves open the possibility for these sanctions.