Columbia University President Nemat Shafik testifies before the House Committee on Education & the Workforce during an April 17, 2024, hearing on antisemitism on campus. Alex Wong for Getty Images Lawmakers grilled Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and three colleagues on April 17, 2024, over antisemitism on college campuses, just four months after three of her presidential peers were summoned to Capitol Hill over how their institutions were handling antisemitism on campus following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Two of them resigned shortly thereafter. Here, Lynn Gre ..read more

The likelihood of graduating from college is linked to the type of college a student attends. Ariel Skelley via Getty Images The Conversation, CC BY-ND A recent federal study on graduation rates for American colleges and universities shows that 40% of all students did not earn a degree or credential within eight years of leaving high school. The graduation rate is even lower for low-income students. Among students from families with income levels of US$115,000 or more, 66% who enrolled in higher education earned a bachelor’s degree or higher from 2009 through 2021. However, among students from ..read more

Roomsharing can be done following safe infant sleep guidelines. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Unsafe sleep practices underlie most sudden unexpected infant deaths in the U.S., with three-quarters of infants affected by multiple unsafe practices at the time of death, and almost 60% sharing a sleep surface with another person. These are the key findings from our recent study published in Pediatrics. Sudden unexpected infant death, or SUID, occurs in infants less than 1 year old who die suddenly and unexpectedly without an obvious cause before investigation, accounting ..read more

Cicadas climb up a tree at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., during the Brood X emergence in 2021. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images In the wake of North America’s recent solar eclipse, another historic natural event is on the horizon. From late April through June 2024, the largest brood of 13-year cicadas, known as Brood XIX, will co-emerge with a midwestern brood of 17-year cicadas, Brood XIII. This event will affect 17 states, from Maryland west to Iowa and south into Arkansas, Alabama and northern Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland. A co-emergence like this of tw ..read more

A mathematical approach known as 'true score theory' can assess the contribution of luck to a team’s overall success. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images The NHL playoffs are almost like a second season – two months of bruising, relentless play, as the top teams compete for the chance to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup. The 16 hockey teams that have made it into the postseason owe a great deal of their success to the abilities of their players and the tactics of their coaching staffs. They should also thank their lucky stars. In my new book “The Random Factor,” I explain why of the five major U.S. team sports ..read more

Al-Ghazali's book 'Alchemy of Happiness,' held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Al-Ghazali - Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons From childhood, we are told that patience is a virtue and that good things will come to those who wait. And, so, many of us work on cultivating patience. This often starts by learning to wait for a turn with a coveted toy. As adults, it becomes trying to remain patient with long lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles, misbehaving kids or the slow pace of political change. This hard work can have mental health benefits. It is even correla ..read more

AI chatbots restrict their output according to vague and broad policies. taviox/iStock via Getty Images Google recently made headlines globally because its chatbot Gemini generated images of people of color instead of white people in historical settings that featured white people. Adobe Firefly’s image creation tool saw similar issues. This led some commentators to complain that AI had gone “woke.” Others suggested these issues resulted from faulty efforts to fight AI bias and better serve a global audience. The discussions over AI’s political leanings and efforts to fight bias are important ..read more

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on July 24, 2019. Alex Wong/Getty Images In the long list of Donald Trump’s legal woes, the Mueller report – which was released in redacted form on April 18, 2019 – appears all but forgotten. But the nearly two-year investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election dominated headlines – and revealed what has become Trump’s trademark denial of any wrongdoing. For Trump, the Russia investigation was the first “ridiculous hoax” and “witch hunt.” Mueller didn’t help matters ..read more

Black Lives Matter protests often pitted demonstrators against police − but not in every city. Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images Black Lives Matter protests in cities with Black women police chiefs experienced significantly lower levels of violence – from both police and protesters – than cities with police chiefs of other racial backgrounds and gender, according to our newly published paper. After George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement surged. Advocating for social justice, the movement galvanized over 11,000 protest events acr ..read more

PFAS are showing up in water systems across the U.S. Jacek Dylag/Unsplash, CC BY Chemists invented PFAS in the 1930s to make life easier: Nonstick pans, waterproof clothing, grease-resistant food packaging and stain-resistant carpet were all made possible by PFAS. But in recent years, the growing number of health risks found to be connected to these chemicals has become increasingly alarming. PFAS – perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are now either suspected or known to contribute to thyroid disease, elevated cholesterol, liver damage and cancer, among other health issues. They ca ..read more