The Conversation

Public health needs steady budgets – and federal funding uncertainty causes real harms, even if the money is later restored

Written by Max Crowley, Professor of Human Development, Family Studies and Public Policy, Penn State

Communities rely on vaccination clinics, restaurant inspections and disease surveillance systems run by local and state public health departments. Sean Rayford/Stringer via Getty Images

Since early 2025, several large federal health grants to states have been suspended and then restored after legal challenges. On Feb. 13, 2026, for example, the...

Family-friendly workplaces are great − but ‘families of 1’ get ignored

Written by Peter McGraw, Professor of Marketing and Psychology, University of Colorado Boulder

Single people without kids are a growing share of the workforce.Luis Alvarez/DigitalVision via Getty Images

In 1960, 72% of adults were married, and over 90% would go on to marry. HR policies and management practices back then catered to nuclear families with a lone, male breadwinner.

Today, dual-career couples and working mothers are common,...

Measuring poverty on a spectrum instead of an arbitrary line conveys a more accurate picture of inequality

Written by Olivier Sterck, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Oxford

Does drawing a line make sense at any step of the way to wealth?fatido/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Michael W. Green, a Wall Street investor, created a buzz in late 2025 by arguing that the U.S. poverty line should be jacked up to US$140,000 for a family of four. Currently, a family of that size has to be eking by on $33,000 a year to qualify as...

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

Written by Fred L. Pincus, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Only three universities agreed to the higher education compact, which offered benefits in federal funding in exchange for major policy and administrative changes at schools. Alina Naumova/iStock/Getty Images Plus

In October 2025, the Trump administration made a controversial proposal to nine major colleges and universities, including Dartmouth...

How does Iran go about selecting a new supreme leader? And who is in the running?

Written by Eric Lob, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations, Florida International University

The killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28, 2026, set off the process of selecting a new supreme leader. It is only the second such transition in the Islamic Republic’s 47-year history and the first since the ailing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini transferred power to Khamenei in June 1989.

As stipulated in Article 111 of the Iranian...

Persian Gulf desalination plants could become military targets in regional war

Written by Michael Christopher Low, Associate Professor of History; Director, Middle East Center, University of Utah

The Ras al-Khair water desalination plant in eastern Saudi Arabia is just one of many along the Persian Gulf coast.Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and neighboring countries in the Persian Gulf region use the fossil fuels under their desert lands not only to make money, but also to make drinking water. The...

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

Written by Sagar Lekhak, Ph.D. Student in Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology

Ukraine is just one of many conflict zones contaminated by land mines.Maksym Kishka/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

At least 57 nations have live antipersonnel land mines in their territories. In 2024 alone, 1,945 people were killed by mines and 4,325 were injured, 90% of whom were civilians. Nearly half of those were children. Demining...

Why are some stars always visible while others come and go with the seasons?

Written by Vahe Peroomian, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Stars near the north celestial pole circle the North Star, Polaris. Photographed in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, Calif. Vahé Peroomian

As a space scientist, every time I go outside with my family, I tell my children to look up at the sky. The front door of our home looks southeast, and on winter nights the constellation Orion hangs...

How Denver’s Northeast Park Hill community reduced youth violence by 75%

Written by Beverly Kingston, Director and Senior Research Associate, Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, University of Colorado Boulder

The neighborhood had nearly double the youth arrest rate of the other 76 Denver neighborhoods combined.Royalty-free/Getty Images

Northeast Park Hill, a Denver neighborhood, has a long history of violence. During Denver’s summer of violence in the early 1990s, it was considered ground zero for gang conflict.

From the late 1990s through 2014,...

Operational secrecy kept the US from making evacuation plans – and that means Americans in the Mideast could wait days

Written by Donald Heflin, Executive Director of the Edward R. Murrow Center and Senior Fellow of Diplomatic Practice, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Canceled flights due to the Iran war have made it difficult for Americans to leave countries in the Middle East.Marcin Golba/NurPhoto via Getty Images

As the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, American citizens living in or visiting the Middle East found themselves stranded in countries facing bombing attacks by Iran. The State Department on...