The Conversation - Stress ages your immune system faster

5 things to know about the Fed’s interest rate increase and how it will affect you

D. Brian Blank, Mississippi State University

The Fed is pondering the largest increase in interest rates in nearly three decades to fight stubborn inflation. A finance expert explains what’s happening, the risks and what it means for consumers.

Woodward and Bernstein didn’t bring down a president in Watergate – but the myth that they did lives on

W. Joseph Campbell, American University School of Communication

Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward broke stories about the Watergate scandal that helped unravel Richard Nixon’s presidency. But they were not the sole force to bring him down.

Trump-endorsed candidates would generally win even without his support – and that’s usually the case with all political endorsements

Ian Anson, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Bottom line: Political endorsements are overrated.

International courts prosecuting leaders like Putin for war crimes have a mixed record – but offer clues on how to get a conviction

Victor Peskin, Arizona State University

Prosecuting a leader like Vladimir Putin accused of war crimes is difficult. But the trial of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the early 2000s offers a potential playbook.

Privacy isn’t in the Constitution – but it’s everywhere in constitutional law

Scott Skinner-Thompson, University of Colorado Boulder

The Supreme Court has found protections for people’s privacy in several constitutional amendments – and used it as a basis for some pretty fundamental protections.

The James Webb Space Telescope is finally ready to do science – and it’s seeing the universe more clearly than even its own engineers hoped for

Marcia Rieke, University of Arizona

It has taken eight months to test and calibrate all of the instruments and modes of the James Webb Space Telescope. A scientist on the team explains what it took to get Webb up and running.

How we describe the metaverse makes a difference – today’s words could shape tomorrow’s reality and who benefits from it

Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine

Who makes money from the metaverse, and how, comes down to what it becomes. And shaping the metaverse is, to a large degree, a matter of definitions.

Trouble paying bills can take a heavy toll on fathers’ mental health, leading to family conflict

Joyce Y. Lee, The Ohio State University

In families that are facing economic insecurity, fathers are more likely to experience depressive symptoms that can lead to conflict.

Legal fights persist over policies that require teachers to refer to trans students by their chosen pronouns

Genny Beemyn, UMass Amherst

For trans students, the right to be recognized by the pronouns they use for themselves is under constant legal attack. A researcher who specializes in the trans student experience takes a closer look.

Newly discovered fast radio burst challenges what astronomers know about these powerful astronomical phenomena

Why can’t you remember being born, learning to walk or saying your first words? What scientists know about ‘infantile amnesia’

Why Muslim countries are quick at condemning defamation – but often ignore rights violations against Muslim minorities