The Conversation U.S. - News written by researchers and scientists to help you understand

A glitchy-looking golden Oscar statuette set up against a black backdrop.

As the Oscars approach, Hollywood grapples with AI’s growing influence on filmmaking

Holly Willis, University of Southern California

A large crowd of people stand in a street with red, white and green flags and a large billboard that shows a man wearing a robe, waving to people holding their arms up to him.

Iran war and other tough topics give K-12 teachers chance to teach students how, not what, to think

Boaz Dvir, Penn State

Iran’s ruling structure explained

Eric Lob, Florida International University

Hundreds of people gathered, holding green, white and red flags and carrying a large portrait.

How well have you been following the news?

Fritz Holznagel, The Conversation's Quizmaster

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jumble of disparate images like question marks, supreme court building, two silhouettes kissing and smiley faces

In its hunt for critical minerals, the US is misconstruing what is and is not America’s

Coalter G Lathrop, Duke University

A photo of a mechanical claw from a submersible and surrounding seafloor that appears almost paved in nodules.

When GPS lies at sea: How electronic warfare is threatening ships and their crews

Anna Raymaker, Georgia Institute of Technology

view along the deck of a oil super tanker at sea with sunset in the background

While the US government is investigating unidentified anomalous phenomena, academic researchers studying them face stigma

Darrell Evans, Purdue University

A black and white photo showing a blurry object flying above clouds.

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

Itay Ravid, Villanova University

Back of girl with long ponytail as she sits looking out of a window

How sewage treatment plants could handle food waste, sparing landfills and the climate

Ahmed Ibrahim Yunus, Georgia Institute of Technology and Joe Frank Bozeman III, Georgia Institute of Technology

An aerial view of large round basins of water.

Young Latinos – and their commitment to social justice – are shaping the future of the Catholic Church

Hosffman Ospino, Boston College and Timothy Matovina, University of Notre Dame

Someone holds up a candle that seems illuminated from within against the dark night sky.

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A small group of men and women in winter coats escort children down a paved road, with lots of cars in the background.

Violent acts in houses of worship are rare but deadly – here’s what the data shows

James Densley, Metropolitan State University and Jillian Peterson, Hamline University

A huge plume of smoke rises above a city, with a dark orange sky overhead.

As Iran war expands, some conservative Christians interpret the conflict through biblical prophecies

Shalom Goldman, Middlebury College

Jesse Jackson’s misdiagnosis of Parkinson’s is common – new genetic discovery could lead to treatment for this deadly disease

Jose Abisambra, University of Florida

Portrait of Jesse Jackson's face at his memorial service, attendees blurred in the foreground

When US fights in the Middle East, American Muslim students often face discrimination

Amaarah DeCuir, American University

A group of people hold American flags and signs and stand near a collection of items spread on the ground.

I was teaching virtue and knowledge while lying on the side

Katherine Moses, University of Mississippi

A woman drives a car at night with her eyes visible through the rearview mirror.

Why global methane levels spiked during COVID lockdowns

Gemma Ware, The Conversation

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Empty street in Melbourne during a Covid lockdown.

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A doctor in gloves and a mask checks a rash on a child's neck and chest.

We study pandemics, and the resurgence of measles is a grim sign of what’s coming

Jennifer B. Nuzzo, Brown University and Andrea Uhlig, Brown University

‘The Tibetan Book of the Dead’ is actually not just about death

Jue Liang, Case Western Reserve University

A Tibetan painting depicts a wrathful, multi-armed deity rendered in blue and gold, surrounded by a circle of smaller attendant figures.

Not just Patriot interceptors: A defense expert explains the various weapons US and allies use to defend against missiles and drones

Iain Boyd, University of Colorado Boulder

bright lines of light curve up into the night sky above a city

Congress still has ways to throttle back Trump’s war with Iran – and to ask questions

SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor, University of Virginia and Charlie Hunt, Boise State University

A photo of the US Capitol dome and an Iranian flag superimposed on it.

ICE buys $87M warehouse in Pennsylvania − can local officials block a detention facility?

Aaron Walayat, University of Dayton

Black woman wearing a medical mask holds sign that reads, "ICE Out Of Pennsylvania."

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U.S.-Iran war

Trump’s war against Iran is uniquely unpopular among US military actions of the past century

Charles Walldorf, Wake Forest University

US is less prone to oil price shocks than in past decades

Amy Myers Jaffe, New York University; Tufts University

People fill their cars with fuel at a gas station.

War in Middle East brings uncertainty and higher energy costs to already weakening US economy

Michael Klein, Tufts University

an obscured skyline can be seen as smoke rises

Iran war: 4 big questions that help clarify the future of the Middle East

David Mednicoff, UMass Amherst

A black plume of smoke rises from a building in the midst of an industrial area.

Arming a Kurdish insurgency would be a risky endeavor – for both the US and Iran’s minority Kurds

John Calabrese, American University

A man with a beard holds a green white and red flag.

Iran’s missile mayhem show the limits of Middle East defences

Michael J. Armstrong, Brock University

A large black plume of smoke spewing from a warehouse in an industrial area.

Iran will respond to US-Israeli strikes as existential threats to the regime – because they are

Javed Ali, University of Michigan

The US is using repurposed Iranian drone technology to attack Iran – a military expert explains why

Arun Dawson, King's College London

The Iranian Shahed-136 attack drone in flight.

The Gulf’s delicate balancing act between the US and Iran is now in flames

Gemma Ware, The Conversation

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Flames at an oil facility in the UAE after Iranian drone attack.

Philosophy and ethics

A young Asian woman looks up into a beam of light as she holds a smartphone.

Today’s obsession with authenticity isn’t new – being true to yourself has troubled philosophers for centuries

Kenneth Andrew Andres Leonardo, Hamilton College

‘Learning to be humble meant taming my need to stand out from the group’ – a humility scholar explains how he became more grounded

Barret Michalec, Arizona State University

Graphic of a fish confronting a fish-shaped school of much smaller fishes

I’m a philosopher who tries to see the best in others – but I know there are limits

Mark Schroeder, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Two cartoon faces with hollow heads, and a spool of thread or yarn running between them.

Meekness isn’t weakness – once considered positive, it’s one of the ‘undersung virtues’ that deserve defense today

Timothy J. Pawl, University of St. Thomas

A bearded man seems to speak gently as he holds an upset, angry-looking toddler.

How business students learn to make ethical decisions by studying a soup kitchen in one of America’s toughest neighborhoods

Tim Swift, St. Joseph's University

Large group of people gather outside a building with a religious mural

Extreme weather and natural disasters

Lakes the color of turquoise gem stones stand out against the white glaciers that send meltwater into them.

Alaska’s glacial lakes are expanding, increasing the risk of destructive outburst floods

Dan McGrath, Colorado State University

Making sense of a chaotic planet: How understanding weather and climate risks depends on supercomputers like NCAR’s

Antonios Mamalakis, University of Virginia

Warming winters are disrupting the hidden world of fungi – the result can shift mountain grasslands to scrub

Stephanie Kivlin, University of Tennessee; Aimee Classen, University of Michigan, and Lara A. Souza, University of Oklahoma

An outdoor view of a lake, snow on trees and mountains in the background

Sixth year of drought in Texas and Oklahoma leaves ranchers facing wildfires and bracing for another tough year

Joel Lisonbee, University of Colorado Boulder and William Baule, Texas A&M University

A farmer walks toward cattle in a very dry landscape under a blue sky.

Tahoe avalanche: What causes snow slopes to collapse? A physicist and skier explains, with tips for surviving

Nathalie Vriend, University of Colorado Boulder

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ICE and immigration

Why ICE’s body camera policies make the videos unlikely to improve accountability and transparency

Stephanie Lessing, UMass Boston

When ICE sweeps a community, public health pays a price – and recovery will likely take years

Nicole L. Novak, University of Iowa and William D. Lopez, University of Michigan

People in winter hats hold signs protesting against ICE in Minneapolis.

How the 9/11 terrorist attacks shaped ICE’s immigration strategy

Pawan Dhingra, Amherst College

A man dressed in military gear and holding a rifle is surrounded by tear gas.

A terrorism label that comes before the facts can turn ‘domestic terrorism’ into a useless designation

Brian O'Neill, Georgia Institute of Technology

A woman speaks in front of a podium as an image of a gun appears on a video screen behind her.

Why the ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ have echoed with public support – unlike the campus of Kent State in 1970

Gregory P. Magarian, Washington University in St. Louis

A line of men in military uniforms, wearing gas masks and holding guns.

Trump administration

A young Venezuelan miner works in an open pit gold mine in Bolivar State, Venezuela, in 2023.

Venezuela’s fragile environment faces rising risks as US pushes for oil and critical minerals and illegal gold mining spreads

Antonio Machado Allison, Wesleyan University

Trump offered a restrictive deal to universities that almost all rejected – but the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education may not be entirely dead

Fred L. Pincus, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

A cartoon image shows a person looking inside a bird cage that has books in it

Congress once fought to limit a president’s war powers − more than 50 years later, its successors are less willing to assert their authority

Sarah Burns, Rochester Institute of Technology; Institute for Humane Studies

The rubble of a building destroyed in airstrikes.

Kansas revoked transgender people’s IDs overnight – researchers anticipate cascading health and social consequences

Jae A. Puckett, Michigan State University; L. Zachary DuBois, University of Oregon, and Noelle Martin, Michigan State University

Silhouette of person dressed as Statue of Liberty holding a transgender flag up against a blue sky, the Supreme Court looming in distance

Supreme Court rules against Trump’s emergency tariffs – but leaves key questions unanswered

Kent Jones, Babson College

A group of people carry umbrellas as they walk past a big white building.

International

Two people gesture toward an approaching military vehicle.

Kurdish gains in Syria could disappear without international support − just as they did in Iraq decades ago

Lily Hindy, University of California, Los Angeles

China’s muted response over war in Iran reflects Beijing’s delicate calculus as a concerned onlooker

John Calabrese, American University

Hezbollah − degraded, weakened but not yet disarmed − destabilizes Lebanon once again

Mireille Rebeiz, Dickinson College

Far from random, China’s global port network is clustering near the world’s riskiest trade routes

Dylan Spencer, Georgia Southern University; Gohar Petrossian, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Stephen Pires, Florida International University

The silhouettes of container cranes against a sunset

La Jefa: the wife of slain drug kingpin El Mencho and the women at the heart of the cartels

Adriana Marin, Coventry University

A stock image of a Latino woman putting a wad of US dollars in her pocket.

New research in health and science

An illustration of a bright flash of light in space.

Astrophysicists trace the origin of valuable metals in space, from colliding stars to merging galaxies

Simone Dichiara, Penn State and Eleonora Troja, University of Rome Tor Vergata

What does the appendix do? Biologists explain the complicated evolution of this inconvenient organ

Phil Starks, Tufts University and Lilia Goncharova, Tufts University

Illustration of a person's transparent abdomen with organs outlined, a short curl highlighted in red

Mobile clinics offer a practical way to improve health care access in maternity care deserts

Adetola F. Louis-Jacques, University of Florida; Arielle Ayotte, University of Florida, and Michelle Nall, University of Florida

Trauma patients recover faster when medical teams know each other well, new study finds

Linda Argote, Carnegie Mellon University and Jeremy M. Kahn, University of Pittsburgh

Two female trauma team members and one male assess a patient in a hospital room.

Free 10-minute online programs aimed at overcoming depression led to real improvements – new research

Benjamin Kaveladze, Dartmouth College

Cartoon of a middle-aged woman walking out of a cage that has rain clouds and lightning balloons into a blue, cloudy sky.

Artificial intelligence

An isometric illustration of the interior of a cafe with a brick wall, people sitting at tables, and baristas taking orders.

Indie coffee shops are meant to counter corporate behemoths like Starbucks – so why do they all look the same?

Conrad Kickert, University at Buffalo; Jeffrey Parker, University of New Orleans, and Kelly Gregg, University at Buffalo

US military leans into AI for attack on Iran, but the tech doesn’t lessen the need for human judgment in war

Jon R. Lindsay, Georgia Institute of Technology

black and white aerial view of an airfield

Generative AI can play a role uplifting family and community in early childhood education

Andres Bustamante, University of California, Irvine and Aria Gastón-Panthaki, University of California, Irvine

An education professor sits at a table with young children and parents.

AI doesn’t ‘see’ the way that you do, and that could be a problem when it categorizes objects and scenes

Arryn Robbins, University of Richmond; Eben W. Daggett, New Mexico State University, and Michael Hout, New Mexico State University

Gray hairless cat seated, against plain dark background, leaning head toward back foot

Researchers are combining drones and AI to make removing land mines faster and safer

Sagar Lekhak, Rochester Institute of Technology

in the foreground a red sign with skull and crossbones, in the background a person wearing protective gear coineeling in a field

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