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Black and white photo of ripped up land and an excavation crew in front of a large white monument.

Trump’s slapdash Reflecting Pool renovations stand in stark contrast to years of deliberation and engineering ingenuity that went into its creation

Jennifer Tucker, Wesleyan University

An illustration of a balance scale with a single person on one side and a crowd on the other.

The moral paradox of extreme wealth: Why people oppose it yet are reluctant to take steps to reduce it

Jen Cole Wright, College of Charleston

Democrats have a working-class voter problem that progressives like Abdul El-Sayed are still struggling to solve

Nicholas Jacobs, Colby College; Institute for Humane Studies

Three happy people, arms raised, in front of a crowd.

Parents putting screens in front of their kids is more about their own stress than other factors

Enid A. Moreira, Florida International University; Daniel M. Bagner, Florida International University, and Shayl Griffith, Florida International University

One young girl sits in a chair and puts her feet up on a desk in a dimly lit room as she looks at a screen illuminated in her hands. Another young girl stands behind her and also looks at the screen.

White House plan for a ‘golden age’ of science ignores the structures that made the US a scientific superpower

H. Christopher Frey, North Carolina State University

White House lit up with golden light with dark purple sky around

The typical gig worker is changing – and struggling more than ever to make ends meet

Jacob Lederman, University of Michigan Flint

A Doordash worker with a face mask rides his bicycle along a path on the West Side Highway in New York City during the COVID pandemic.

DIY peptide injections are risky, and people may make serious mistakes when administering them

C. Michael White, University of Connecticut

Illustration of strongman in bodysuit holding a giant syringe over his head like it's a barbell

Employers everywhere are using AI – but business schools aren’t preparing students for the shift

Murugan Anandarajan, Drexel University and Stacy Kline, Drexel University

Peach-colored letters spelling AI rest next to a backpack and a pile of books with a graduation hat on top, against a light pink background.

A lot of casual friends, or only a few you’re really close with? New research questions that trade-off

Jessica D. Ayers, Boise State University and Diego Guevara Beltran, University of Arizona

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A woman looking at a list of names pasted on a multicoloured wall

Running for parliament in Malawi costs a fortune: economic crisis undermines democracy

Michael Wahman, The University of Texas at Austin and Nicholas Kerr, University of Florida

Young Americans protest U.S. policies toward Cuba in an old black and white photo.

Trump administration revives conspiracy theories about Cuba’s alleged manipulation of activism in the US

Aaron Coy Moulton, Stephen F. Austin State University

A middle-aged woman with messy hair clasps her hands and rests her chin pensively on them.

Why Christopher Nolan turned Circe into a vindictive witch

Bailey Sincox, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Why Gen Z turns everything – even murder – into a joke

Evan Clarkson, Utah Valley University

A person wearing a black t-shirt that features a heart graphic with an Italian flag and a portrait of Luigi Mangione

Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer’s – how complex mental maps and spatial reasoning protect your brain

Hatim Sharif, The University of Texas at San Antonio

Vector image of brain hovering above a city, lines connecting it to various points marked with red circles

How new SNAP restrictions could hit Greater Pittsburgh’s food access and economy

Amelia B. Finaret, Allegheny College

A blue sign above boxes of fruit reads "EBT accepted here."

What is emotional regulation? A child psychologist explains

Jessica Griffin, UMass Chan Medical School

Scattered yellow dice with painted emojis on each face

Trump administration’s Freedom 250 organization allegedly misdirected donors away from bipartisan America250 charity

Sarah Webber, University of Dayton

Fireworks go off against a dark sky with the word 'freedom' projected onto a monolith in the foreground.

White parents who tell their kids that race doesn’t matter are ignoring the long shadow of racism

James M. Thomas, University of Mississippi

Four members of a family sitting next to each other, looking grief-stricken.

Wounaan Indigenous people have opposed illegal rosewood logging and centuries of exploitation with wisdom and beauty

Julie (Julia) Velásquez Runk, Wake Forest University; Smithsonian Institution; University of Michigan; Chenier Carpio Opua, Indigenous Knowledge, and Doris Cheucarama Membache, Indigenous Knowledge

How hackers attack municipal water systems – and why the utilities are so vulnerable

William Akoto, American University School of International Service

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U.S.-Iran war

Men in army fatigues stand with large guns.

A new Houthi front and expanded Iranian attacks risk sinking Gulf nations’ choke-point workaround and widening shipping risks

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University

Amid grinding war, protesting Ukrainians still want their voices and values heard at home

Sarah Wilson Sokhey, University of Colorado Boulder; Gerard Toal, Virginia Tech, and John O’Loughlin, University of Colorado Boulder

A protester holds up a sign saying 'We support Fedorov.'

The danger of US-Iran ceasefire agreement is what it leaves out

Monica Duffy Toft, Tufts University

Several ships appear with a motorboat on a stretch of ocean.

Trump’s US-Iran ceasefire deal is a costly return to prewar conditions – and resolving nuclear questions will run into the ‘indivisibility problem’

Farah N. Jan, University of Pennsylvania

How are Saudis viewing the US-Iran war? Our polling suggests Gulf kingdom is split on key issues

Robert Kubinec, University of South Carolina and Alexis Montambault-Trudelle, Université Laval

A group of people in traditional Saudi dress walk up stairs.

250th anniversary of American revolution

An American flag, with only 13 stars, arrayed in a circle.

After 1776, the founders designed a government that accounts for ‘a degree of depravity in mankind’

Donovan Fifield, University of South Carolina

How did it feel to be an American colonist in 1776? Probably itchy, achy and slightly nauseated

Katherine Ott, Smithsonian Institution

illustration of people in colonial garb with muskets

As the US turns 250, a forgotten founding influence helps explain its current unease

Robert A. Ballingall, University of Maine

Delegates at the signing of the U.S. Constitution

How a tiny Caribbean island made American independence possible

R. Grant Gilmore III, College of Charleston

painting of a ship approaching St. Eustatius

Muslims were part of America’s story long before the republic began

Iqbal Akhtar, Florida International University

Men and women stand in separate rows, bowing their heads in prayer.

Extreme weather and natural disasters

A police car with a long line of vehicles.

Just weeks before devastating wildfires hit, Spokane practiced a mass evacuation – the drill paid off

Ashley Bosa, Boise State University

Climate change may be making us lonelier: How heat waves and extreme weather disrupt social connections everyone relies on

Fiona Doherty, University of Tennessee

A person lies on a bed drinking water from a bottle with a box fan in front of them.

Why the Spokane wildfires became so catastrophic

Mojtaba Sadegh, Boise State University; United Nations University and John Abatzoglou, University of California, Merced

A man watches a fire burn in his neighborhood in the distance.

Rain on wildfire burn scars can trigger dangerous flooding and mudflows – a geologist explains how

Jen Pierce, Boise State University

Large burned trees have been carried by debris flows after wildfire, leaving a tangle of debris, mud and ash.

Wildfires can generate tornadoes, lightning and other extreme weather, sometimes miles from the flames

Yunyao Li, University of Texas at Arlington

A fire truck near flames and a fire whirl looking like a small tornado.

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International

A fence featuring 20000 stuffed teddy bears that spell out 'Putin abducted 20,000 Ukrainian children.'

Russia is trying to force Ukrainian children to become Russian, with reeducation, forcible transfers and camps

Thom Reilly, Arizona State University

Gaza’s ‘road map’ is driven by Trump, but reluctant passengers and serious potholes could derail pathway to peace

Mkhaimar Abusada, Northwestern University

After Ceuta, Europe is once again mired in migration chaos of its own making

Kelsey Norman, Rice University and Nicholas R. Micinski, American University School of International Service

How trains can transform Persian Gulf politics and global security

Stacy D. VanDeveer, UMass Boston and Firmesk Rahim, UMass Boston

A man in traditional Emirati dress waves a flag at a train.

Oil shortages escalate from wars in Iran and Ukraine, with few signs of relief

Amy Myers Jaffe, New York University; Tufts University

People stand on a street next to many metal cylinders.

New research in health and science

a humanoid robot's face with its hands held up by its eyes

When expressive humanoid robots are awkward, people become wary – new brain study

Hasan Ayaz, Drexel University; Ewart J. de Visser, United States Air Force Academy; Frank Krueger, George Mason University, and Yigit Topoglu, United States Air Force Academy

Philadelphia’s failing air quality hits hardest in neighborhoods near industry and highways, where asthma rates soar

Qian He, Rowan University; Mahbubur Meenar, Rowan University, and Sean Olcese, Rowan University

Flawed studies linking hormone therapy to breast cancer made doctors reluctant to prescribe it for menopause relief – especially for breast cancer survivors

Versha Pleasant, University of Michigan

Foldable synthetic molecules could infiltrate and bust apart the toxic protein clumps causing Parkinson’s

Sunil Kumar, University of Denver

Illustration of spindly brain cells extending across a black background

New genetic approaches raise hopes for restoring the American chestnut to its former glory

Steve Strauss, Oregon State University

Artificial intelligence

A hand holds two coins in front of a laptop keyboard.

Got money questions? How to get chatbots to give you accurate answers

Pawan Jain, University of Michigan Flint

What video review controversies in sports reveal about AI and human decision-making

Pooya Tabesh, California State University, Los Angeles

Two men stand face to face with one pointing and speaking as a third man holds his arm out between the first two.

As AI reshapes newsrooms, leading media outlets are charting different paths for its use

Erik P. Bucy, Texas Tech University and Milad Jalalian Ebrahimi, Texas Tech University

A journalist speaks to a camera while standing in front of the BBC's headquarters.

AI in healthcare is an evolving landscape of new technologies, productivity benefits and legal uncertainties

Jodyn Platt, University of Michigan and David Kao, University of Colorado Anschutz

Woman radiologist preparing senior male patient for CT scan.

What is open-source AI? A software engineering researcher explains

Jeffrey Young, Georgia Institute of Technology

two books on a surface, one open and the other closed, seen end on

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