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

A blank pad of paper and a pen rest on a table in an empty classroom.

Nearly 1 in 4 students are chronically absent from school – kids who feel happy and safe are less likely to miss class

Jerome A. Graham, Michigan State University; Su Yon Choi, Florida Atlantic University, and Yi-Chih Chiang, Idaho State University

Paving paradise: Dismantling the Roadless Rule threatens to disrupt wildlife, water and peace in the last quiet places in America

Mariah Meek, Michigan State University and Travis Belote, Montana State University

Personal bankruptcy filings are soaring in 2026, signaling growing economic distress

Jay L. Zagorsky, Boston University

An outstretched arm pokes through a pile of paper, holding a white flag signaling surrender.

The CDC has a new director – now comes the hard part

Syra S. Madad, Harvard Kennedy School and Nahid Bhadelia, Boston University

After Supreme Court setback, Trump again targets immigration by expanding definition of birthright citizenship

Austin Sarat, Amherst College

A man seated at a desk speaks as another many standing in the background looks at him.

Traumatic memories are often fragmented – a psychologist explains how and why that happens

Michele Patterson Ford, Dickinson College

Young Asian woman sits on a sofa looking sad and worried.

What Luigi Mangione’s celebrity says about Gen Z

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

Birmingham church bombing wasn’t an isolated act of terrorism – there were dozens of attacks on Black houses of worship during the Civil Rights Movement

Jason Wollschleger, Whitworth University

A black and white image of several young people holding hands with their heads bowed outside.

Just because the bill is low doesn’t mean energy is affordable

Destenie Nock, Carnegie Mellon University

A person wrapped in a blanket sits next to a radiator, with her hand on the heating element.

Severe flooding raises deadly overdose risk in rural Appalachia, study finds – and the harm lasts for years

Kristina P. Brant, Penn State

An office building and two houses partially filled with flood water with a mountain in the background.

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Illustration of different-colored arms reaching out from a smartphone screen, trying to touch a man who's trying to keep the phone at arm's length.

They’re content creators with thousands of adoring fans – so why do they feel so terrible?

Julianna Pillemer, New York University

Hospital building with red emergency sign

What happens when your hospital is also your insurance company? We’re starting to see the effects

Geronimo Bejarano Cardenas, Brown University and Grace Mackleby, University of Southern California

A group of young football players with blue jerseys and their coach stand in a circle and place their hands on top of one another in the middle.

Many youth athletes quietly struggle with eating disorders – Colorado mandates new training that could turn things around

Erin Harrop, University of Denver

Florida lost 450,000 ACA enrollees in 2026 as premiums rose an average of 37% nationally, new data shows

Robert Applebaum, Miami University

woman standing at a microphone in front of a sign that reads, Affordable Care Act premiums will rise more than 75%

Biological sex is neither binary nor a spectrum – a biologist explains how it’s multidimensional

Ari Berkowitz, University of Oklahoma

Illustration of simplified silhouettes of people in shades of pink, purple and blue

US government is pushing to gain unprecedented access to your medical records – as data protections are weakening

Jennifer D. Oliva, Indiana University

Two women looking at a chest x-ray one of them is a doctor wearing a white coat and stethoscope.

Elite sports are laboratories of health and performance innovation, but not every experiment belongs in your routine

Adam Annaccone, University of Texas at Arlington

A middle-aged woman drinks a protein shake after her hard workout in the gym

US teens are smoking and vaping less than their peers abroad

Holly Jarman, University of Michigan; Claire L. Ma, University of Michigan, and Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, UMass Amherst

Smoke-free campus sign posted on a school fence

If you think someone has an eating disorder, should you say something? A dietitian explains how to express concern without body shaming

Miranda Roberts, University of Wisconsin-Stout Polytechnic

Close-up of a person's hand wrapped around another person's hand

Plans to improve Michigan’s K-12 schools depend on how the state funds public education

Jason Burns, Michigan State University and Madeline Mavrogordato, Michigan State University

One of the most common brain disorders is one of the most misunderstood – how functional neurological disorder is both ‘all in your head’ and beyond it

Mackenzi Moore, University of Colorado Anschutz

Illustration of white silhouettes of three overlapping side profiles, one missing a puzzle piece in its head and one split into four puzzle pieces

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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 independence

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 woman standing knee-deep in flood water puts a hand to her forehead while trying to make a call.

Dealing with disasters increasingly requires a smartphone – losing access can be a nightmare, but there are ways to prepare

Lee Ann Rawlins Williams, University of North Dakota

Ancient forests took 100,000 years to recover from past global warming – Wyoming fossils reveal what happened

Regan E. Dunn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Wildfire-damaged historic buildings may not be as ruined as they appear, but saving them means acting fast

Rebecca Napolitano, Penn State; Giorgia Giardina, Delft University of Technology, and Tiago Miguel Ferreira, Universidade de Lisboa

A stone chapel on a hillside with wildfire smoke around it.

Green roofs can help cool cities in the summer heat, but building them is only the first step – many don’t survive

Taylor Wishart, University of Tennessee

Vegetables and plants grow on a rooftop under a blue sky with tall buildings in the background.

Wildfires can contaminate nearby homes and water systems – here’s what Spokane’s returning residents need to know

Andrew J. Whelton, Purdue University

A row of homes stands behind the debris remaining of blocks of houses that burned.

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International

An Indian child holds a placard listing Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam and Christianity, with the word "Indian" running through the names.

A Hindu soldier and a Muslim poet show how religious identities overlapped in 19th-century India

Aishwarya Lakshmi, Rice University

How Imperial Japan turned to the sardine to help build a war machine

Pei-Hsu Lin, Washington University in St. Louis

Emerging anti-immigration sentiment in Japan obscures a surprising history of strategic engagement with Islam

Mimi Hanaoka, University of Richmond

Two women wearing headscarves smile as they look at something together.

Criminal gangs have diversified across Latin America, making them more resilient – but not untouchable

Robert Muggah, Instituto Igarapé; Princeton University

Two people on a motorbike ride past a man in army uniform carrying a large gun.

Lightning strikes kill thousands globally each year, but for those who survive, the storm is far from over

Daile Zhang, University of North Dakota

Person with an umbrella walking as lightning strikes in the background.

New research in health and science

Quitting alcohol changes the brain and can increase the risk of compulsive drinking – new research in mice

Danny G. Winder, UMass Chan Medical School and Marie Doyle, UMass Chan Medical School

Exploring the Moon will require rovers that can think for themselves – an upcoming NASA mission will test whether they can

Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba, University of Florida

An illustration of three small robotic rovers, which have a flat body, solar panel wings and four wheels.

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

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

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

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

Artificial intelligence

A large cylinder covered in marine debris is hosed off while sitting on a barge.

AI companies look to the ocean as a place to put more data centers

Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina – Greensboro

Teens are turning to AI chatbots for emotional support – here’s how to keep kids safe

Phoebe S. Moore, UMass Chan Medical School; Megan Kelly, UMass Chan Medical School, and Yael Dvir, UMass Chan Medical School

Teen holding smartphone with chat conversation late at night at home.

An AI agent spent your money – can anyone prove you authorized it?

Aashis Luitel, University of the Cumberlands

Layoffs tied to AI hurt worker productivity – and the reason may surprise managers

Mark Ma, University of Pittsburgh

An advertisement in San Francisco, Calif., for the AI company Artisan depicts a smiling woman against a purple background and reads: "Artisans won't complain about work-life balance."

China is shaping the future of open-source technology – including AI

Christopher K. Tong, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

people behind and in front of a booth at a trade show

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