By Tiziano Piccardi, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University
Reducing the visibility of polarizing content in social media feeds can measurably lower partisan animosity. To come up with this finding, my colleagues and I developed a method that let us alter the ranking of people’s feeds, previously something only the social media companies could do.
Reranking social media feeds to reduce exposure to posts expressing anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity affected people’s emotions and their views of people with opposing political views.
I’m a
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By Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona
Most of the universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy. The majority of everything else is dispersed throughout space as tiny particles.
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By Eric Gilbertson, Associate Teaching Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Seattle University
In the middle of a chilly October night in 2025, my two friends and I suited up at the Cottonwood Creek trailhead and started a trek into the Sangre de Cristo mountains of Colorado. It was a little below freezing as we got moving at 1:30 a.m., and the Moon illuminated the snowy mountaintops above us.
Our packs were a bit heavier than normal because we were hauling highly accurate surveying equipment to the summits of two peaks, each over 14,000 feet (4,267.2 meters). The peaks, Crestone and
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By Florian Walch, Assistant Professor of Music Theory, West Virginia University
With Mariah Carey and Wham! saturating airwaves with their holiday tunes, it’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas.
But if all you want for Christmas is a reprieve from stereotypical Christmas music, you’re not alone.
Despite the fact that they often rebel against conformity and commercialism, many countercultural musicians have been inspired to produce holiday tracks of their…
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By Jeremy David Engels, Liberal Arts Endowed Professor of Communication, Penn State
The late Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh often emphasized the interconnectedness of everything in this world. He explained how meditation can change our perceptions about the things we encounter in our daily lives by revealing this interdependence.
Take the example of an apple: Before meditation, an apple is just a piece of fruit. During meditation, the meditator sees how deeply the apple is interconnected with the world…
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By Amnesty International
The “Intellexa Leaks”, a new joint investigation by Inside Story, Haaretz and WAV Research Collective with technical analysis provided by Amnesty International, exposes the internal operations of Intellexa, – a company notorious for selling highly invasive spyware Predator linked to human rights abuses in multiple countries. Responding to the investigation published today, Jurre van Bergen, Technologist at Amnesty International’s Security Lab said: “This investigation provides one of the clearest and most damning views yet into Intellexa’s internal operations and technology. Jurre van Bergen, Technologist…
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By Marlize Lombard, Professor with Research Focus in Stone Age Archaeology, Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg
New genetic research is shedding light on some of the earliest chapters of our human history. In one of the largest studies of its kind, scientists analysed DNA from 28 individuals who lived in southern Africa between 10,200 and a few hundred years ago. The study provides more evidence that hunter-gatherers from southern Africa were some of the earliest modern human groups, with a genetic ancestry tracing back to about 300,000 years…
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By Dian Fiantis, Professor of Soil Science, Universitas Andalas
Budiman Minasny, Professor in Soil-Landscape Modelling, University of Sydney
Frisa Irawan Ginting, Dosen Ilmu Tanah dan Sumber Daya Lahan, Universitas Andalas
Extreme rain wasn’t the only cause of Sumatra’s deadly floods. Years of forest loss, eroded soils, and weakened watersheds turned a storm into a tragedy — one that could repeat.
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By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
It’s near-universally agreed that opposition policy development under Peter Dutton was too thin and too late. Are Liberals now being rushed prematurely?
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By Ignacio López-Goñi, Catedrático de Microbiología. Miembro de la Sociedad Española de Microbiología (SEM), Universidad de Navarra
Every winter, respiratory viruses, especially influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and RSV, put huge pressure on healthcare systems throughout Europe. In a typical season, flu causes up to 50 million symptomatic cases, and anywhere from 15,000 to 70,000 deaths per year on the continent.
All age groups are affected, although children have the highest infection rates and are often the first to catch the disease and spread it in their homes. It is estimated that
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