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

From left, Priscilla Chan, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk attend President Donald Trump's inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025.

US inequality is getting worse in ways you might not expect

Markus Schneider, University of Denver

How governments worldwide are shaping what AI can say about politics

Jordi Calvet-Bademunt, Vanderbilt University

An illustration of a government building with digital code behind it.

Are partisan politics even changing up our accents? They just might be, y’all

Valerie M. Fridland, University of Nevada, Reno

An acoustic guitar, antique american flag, cowboy hat and boots.

view of a movie theater audience looking toward the screen

Horror films exploit how human vision works to deliver movies’ best scares

Arryn Robbins, University of Richmond

A yellow school bus with a red stop sign attached says 'Houston Independent School District' in black writing on it.

State takeovers of struggling Texas school districts come at a high cost, with little evidence of success

Daniel H. Robinson, University of Texas at Arlington

Seen from behind, track athletes sit in chairs in a stadium at night, one with a trans pride flag tucked in her hair.

Are transgender sports bans really about protecting women? Survey data tells a different story

Tatishe Nteta, UMass Amherst; Jesse Rhodes, UMass Amherst, and Lane Cuthbert, UMass Amherst

What does a Starshield slowdown really mean for Ukraine’s war with Russia?

Steve Uhlig, Queen Mary University of London

Hornet drone on frontline in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine.

Who should have a say in which species are saved? The California condor offers lessons for a global biodiversity treaty

Shannon Gibson, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and David Ginsburg

A condor with wings spread, surrounded by a large area protected by netting.

I’m a Philly forensic psychologist who has conducted dozens of psychopathic evaluations – here’s why an evaluation of R.C. Horsch in the ‘80s didn’t identify him as a possible psychopath

David DeMatteo, Drexel University

Palestinian citizens face a painful choice in Israel’s election: To vote or not

Tamir Sorek, Penn State

A group of people are seen with police in uniform at the front.

A view of the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, with people at the desks and on the dais.

Federal spending on climate change before 2024 election boosted incumbents of both parties

Kayla Morton, University of Delaware

An imperfect yellow button is sewn onto a blue sweater.

A scuff on your bag, a dent in your mug – and suddenly it feels like time for a new one

Rebecca Walker Reczek, The Ohio State University; Aprajita Gautam, Texas A&M University, and Rajagopal Raghunathan, The University of Texas at Austin

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An array of processed foods including french fries, hot dogs, popcorn and sweets, laid out on a counter

The science and politics behind the panic over ultraprocessed foods

Garrett M. Broad, Rowan University

A boy's hands delicately holding a black and white bird feather.

A pregnant mom let her 5-year-old stay outside to collect goose feathers – and was placed on the child abuse and neglect registry

Jennifer L. Brinkley, University of Dayton

Shelves of colorful electronic cigarette devices for sale

Many vapes and e-cigarettes are now banned in Pennsylvania – here’s what Philly consumers and businesses need to know

Ana Santos Rutschman, Villanova University

Why and how US and Canadian energy markets are so deeply intertwined

Stefano Tijerina, University of Maine

Two puzzle pieces, one with a U.S. flag and the other with a Canadian flag, stand next to each other, close but not quite connected.

Students take up to 88 standardized tests before high school, but more testing doesn’t improve learning

Liza Bondurant, Mississippi State University

A page of a standardized test with numbers and bubbles next to it, with letters inside the circles

Why haven’t farm animals evolved against humans? A biologist explains why there won’t be a chicken uprising anytime soon

Alida de Flamingh, University of Tennessee

Rooster staring directly into a camera, other chickens milling in the bacground

How a US political venture capital firm is trying to influence Brazil’s election

Filipe Mendonça, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU)

Maine Sen. Collins’ success bringing home federal funds is a perfect example of the thin line between political favoritism and effective representation

Nicholas Jacobs, Colby College; Institute for Humane Studies

A man in a red and black checked shirt holds a sign aloft that says 'Thank You Susan.'

40 days to arrive, 40 days to leave: How Armenian culture honors life’s most important moments

Shushan Karapetian, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

A baby holds an adult's finger with their entire hand in a close-up photograph against a white background.

NASA’s Mars orbiter fleet is getting old – here’s how that could affect future exploration

Margaret Landis, Arizona State University

For centuries, bird migration was a mystery – a tech revolution is changing that, and could help save these amazing creatures

Peter P. Marra, Georgetown University and Amy L. Scarpignato, Georgetown University

An illustration shows five birds with red and white winds on stalks in a field.

Latest videos

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Why your brain can still read wramcbled wrods

Global health

A small child on a woman's lap gets a polio vaccine dose in her mouth from a dropper held by someone wearing blue gloves

Millions of children aren’t getting vaccinated: how mapping tools can help find them

Ann Muthoni Njogu, Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp; Carlo Federici, Bocconi University, and Peter M Macharia, Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp

The science and politics behind the panic over ultraprocessed foods

Garrett M. Broad, Rowan University

Can social media bans protect young people’s mental health? Early research suggests that bans aren’t the answer

Ari Lightman, Carnegie Mellon University

Fridge-free vaccines could reach more people, but there are still practical challenges in African settings

Charles Shey Wiysonge, Stellenbosch University; South African Medical Research Council and Chinwe Juliana Iwu-Jaja, Stellenbosch University

A woman holds a young child on her lap while another woman aims a dropper at the child's open mouth

Blood pressure rising: over 50% of Nigerians we tested had hypertension and over 65% didn’t know it

Amam Mbawkem, University of Lagos

Person's arm with blood pressure cuff and monitor

Public health news and analysis, direct from experts around the world

Midterms 2026

A candidate speaks to a crowd of supporters with red signs.

How candidates are (quietly) talking about climate change – 3 election strategies you’ll see across the US

Geoffrey Henderson, University of Michigan and Nathaniel Geiger, University of Michigan

Why the 26 secretary of state races this November matter more than they did before Trump’s drive to assert federal authority over elections

Thom Reilly, Arizona State University

How candidates are (quietly) talking about climate change – 3 election strategies you’ll see across the US

Geoffrey Henderson, University of Michigan and Nathaniel Geiger, University of Michigan

Young voters fear mass shootings like the one in Oregon, but that fear divides them on gun control

Jillian Turanovic, University of Colorado Boulder and Kristin Lloyd, Clemson University

A man carries a child as he and others walk past law enforcement officers and police vehicles in a crowded parking lot

Why the GOP’s voter fraud messaging may backfire

Christopher Miller, University of Richmond

A bumper sticker in a post reads 'Stop Voter Fraud.'

U.S.-Iran war

Yemen’s Houthis are bringing their war to Saudi Arabia – and reframing the narrative of being an Iranian proxy

Laurent Bonnefoy, Sciences Po

Iran war pushes diesel – the economy’s lifeblood – to record high prices, with no relief on the horizon

Morgan Bazilian, Colorado School of Mines and Jamie Webster, Colorado School of Mines

A lighted sign shows diesel fuel costs $6.39 a gallon.

Houthi advance boosts Iran’s leverage over the US and Saudi Arabia – but may cost rebel group its legitimacy back in Yemen

Mahad D. Darar, Colorado State University

Armed men patrol in an open-top vehicle.

Rapid Houthi advances in Yemen pose massive strategic risks for Saudi Arabia in the Gulf

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University

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

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University

Men in army fatigues stand with large guns.

Extreme weather and natural disasters

An engineer examines a rolled mobile home, with a building containing large fans in the background.

We blasted mobile homes with hurricane-force winds to test how they fail – and found clues for making affordable housing safer

Elaina Sutley, University of Kansas and Arindam Chowdhury, Florida International University

California is taking a beating from an unusually destructive 2026 Pacific hurricane season

Nicholas Grondin, University of Tampa

Three homes collapsing as they're battered by high waves.

How Hurricane Isaias broke through to become the first Atlantic hurricane in an extremely quiet 2026 season

Christopher Davis, UMass Amherst

Antarctica’s ice loss is locked in, and extra snowfall won’t save it – that’s bad news for low-lying coastal areas elsewhere

Yucheng Lin, City University of Hong Kong and Robert Kopp, Rutgers University

As cities prepare for 2026’s super El Niño, some crucial blind spots can’t be ignored

Bethany Tietjen, Tufts University

A man carrying several items walks through cement passage with water in it under a bridge

Are you an academic expert who wants to share your knowledge?

Pitch an article

New research in health and science

Can social media bans protect young people’s mental health? Early research suggests that bans aren’t the answer

Ari Lightman, Carnegie Mellon University

Treating depression during pregnancy may benefit baby’s brain development – new research

Elysia Poggi Davis, University of Denver; Benjamin L. Hankin, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Catherine Demers, University of Colorado Anschutz

Pregnant woman wiping her nose while speaking with a therapist

Using light to control brain cells – neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth explains how he made his Nobel-winning discovery

Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University

Illustration of brain scan with red threads reaching from the side towards it

A molecule’s ‘handedness’ can determine whether it’s an effective drug – 4 examples of pharmaceuticals where chirality matters

Cedric Schaack, Wake Forest University and Mallory Green, Wake Forest University

Three committee members sit at a table under a screen displaying the names and headshots of the two Nobel-winning scientists

IceCube is built on decades of research into tiny ‘ghost particles’ – but it was the first to find neutrinos coming from deep space

Doug Cowen, Penn State

The IceCube research station, a rectangular building with three pillars attached, sitting on snowy ground.

Artificial intelligence

a person's thumb pressing a large red button

Why calling for a ‘kill switch’ is the wrong way to think about reining in AI

Trent Wintermeier, The University of Texas at Austin

Companies may be held liable when AI harms their clients and customers

Sarah Webber, University of Dayton and Kaitlin Newkirk, Xavier University

As AI takes on more tasks, what happens when people have to jump in to clean up after it?

Murugan Anandarajan, Drexel University

a man sitting at a desk looks at eight computer monitors, with three more visible on the wall behind them

Across the US, people don’t want data centers coming to their communities

Neha Gour, George Mason University; John Kotcher, George Mason University, and Teresa Myers, George Mason University

‘Make this face look gay’: AI models alter faces to give people stereotypical ‘gay,’ ‘straight’ or ‘criminal’ features

Ashique KhudaBukhsh, Rochester Institute of Technology

thrree wooden blocks with letters and line drawings on a surface

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

Top stories

US inequality is getting worse in ways you might not expect

How governments worldwide are shaping what AI can say about politics

Are partisan politics even changing up our accents? They just might be, y’all

Horror films exploit how human vision works to deliver movies’ best scares

State takeovers of struggling Texas school districts come at a high cost, with little evidence of success

Are transgender sports bans really about protecting women? Survey data tells a different story

What does a Starshield slowdown really mean for Ukraine’s war with Russia?

Who should have a say in which species are saved? The California condor offers lessons for a global biodiversity treaty

I’m a Philly forensic psychologist who has conducted dozens of psychopathic evaluations – here’s why an evaluation of R.C. Horsch in the ‘80s didn’t identify him as a possible psychopath

Palestinian citizens face a painful choice in Israel’s election: To vote or not

Federal spending on climate change before 2024 election boosted incumbents of both parties

A scuff on your bag, a dent in your mug – and suddenly it feels like time for a new one

Get context to understand the news, in your inbox daily or weekly

The science and politics behind the panic over ultraprocessed foods

A pregnant mom let her 5-year-old stay outside to collect goose feathers – and was placed on the child abuse and neglect registry

Many vapes and e-cigarettes are now banned in Pennsylvania – here’s what Philly consumers and businesses need to know

Why and how US and Canadian energy markets are so deeply intertwined

Students take up to 88 standardized tests before high school, but more testing doesn’t improve learning

Why haven’t farm animals evolved against humans? A biologist explains why there won’t be a chicken uprising anytime soon

How a US political venture capital firm is trying to influence Brazil’s election

Maine Sen. Collins’ success bringing home federal funds is a perfect example of the thin line between political favoritism and effective representation

40 days to arrive, 40 days to leave: How Armenian culture honors life’s most important moments

NASA’s Mars orbiter fleet is getting old – here’s how that could affect future exploration

For centuries, bird migration was a mystery – a tech revolution is changing that, and could help save these amazing creatures

Latest videos

Why your brain can still read wramcbled wrods

Leap seconds: Their time is up

Inside a tick testing lab

Your smartwatch gets calorie counts wrong

Would you go in a room with 100 hungry mosquitoes?

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Global health

Millions of children aren’t getting vaccinated: how mapping tools can help find them

The science and politics behind the panic over ultraprocessed foods

Can social media bans protect young people’s mental health? Early research suggests that bans aren’t the answer

Fridge-free vaccines could reach more people, but there are still practical challenges in African settings

Blood pressure rising: over 50% of Nigerians we tested had hypertension and over 65% didn’t know it

Public health news and analysis, direct from experts around the world

Midterms 2026

How candidates are (quietly) talking about climate change – 3 election strategies you’ll see across the US

Why the 26 secretary of state races this November matter more than they did before Trump’s drive to assert federal authority over elections

How candidates are (quietly) talking about climate change – 3 election strategies you’ll see across the US

Young voters fear mass shootings like the one in Oregon, but that fear divides them on gun control

Why the GOP’s voter fraud messaging may backfire

U.S.-Iran war

Yemen’s Houthis are bringing their war to Saudi Arabia – and reframing the narrative of being an Iranian proxy

Iran war pushes diesel – the economy’s lifeblood – to record high prices, with no relief on the horizon

Houthi advance boosts Iran’s leverage over the US and Saudi Arabia – but may cost rebel group its legitimacy back in Yemen

Rapid Houthi advances in Yemen pose massive strategic risks for Saudi Arabia in the Gulf

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

Extreme weather and natural disasters

We blasted mobile homes with hurricane-force winds to test how they fail – and found clues for making affordable housing safer

California is taking a beating from an unusually destructive 2026 Pacific hurricane season

How Hurricane Isaias broke through to become the first Atlantic hurricane in an extremely quiet 2026 season

Antarctica’s ice loss is locked in, and extra snowfall won’t save it – that’s bad news for low-lying coastal areas elsewhere

As cities prepare for 2026’s super El Niño, some crucial blind spots can’t be ignored

Are you an academic expert who wants to share your knowledge?

New research in health and science

Can social media bans protect young people’s mental health? Early research suggests that bans aren’t the answer

Treating depression during pregnancy may benefit baby’s brain development – new research

Using light to control brain cells – neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth explains how he made his Nobel-winning discovery

A molecule’s ‘handedness’ can determine whether it’s an effective drug – 4 examples of pharmaceuticals where chirality matters

IceCube is built on decades of research into tiny ‘ghost particles’ – but it was the first to find neutrinos coming from deep space

Artificial intelligence

Why calling for a ‘kill switch’ is the wrong way to think about reining in AI

Companies may be held liable when AI harms their clients and customers

As AI takes on more tasks, what happens when people have to jump in to clean up after it?

Across the US, people don’t want data centers coming to their communities

‘Make this face look gay’: AI models alter faces to give people stereotypical ‘gay,’ ‘straight’ or ‘criminal’ features

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