Climate change plans – courtesy of Big Oil

What is a fatwa?

Myriam Renaud, DePaul University

The attack on Salman Rushdie promptly led to speculation if the attacker had been influenced by the 1989 fatwa against the author. A scholar explains that a fatwa rarely calls for death.

Wyoming GOP voters oust Liz Cheney for her outspoken criticism of Donald Trump

Robert B. Talisse, Vanderbilt University

Liz Cheney has been a conservative GOP congressional policymaker since 2016. But when she turned against Donald Trump, GOP voters in Wyoming turned against her.

PACT Act providing health care to burn pit victims caps decades of denied benefits for veterans

Jason A. Higgins, Virginia Tech

President Joe Biden signed into law the most expansive health care package for military veterans in recent history – despite initial GOP opposition.

How easy access to guns at home contributes to America’s youth suicide problem

Matthew Miller, Northeastern University; Deborah Azrael, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Youth suicides in the US have increased by around 50% over the past decade – gun availability is a big part of that trend.

When COVID-19 or flu viruses kill, they often have an accomplice – bacterial infections

Hayley Muendlein, Tufts University

Coinfections with bacteria can make viral infections even deadlier. Researchers have identified a protein in immune cells that may play a role in fighting both types of pathogens.

Flies evade your swatting thanks to sophisticated vision and neural shortcuts

Jamie Theobald, Florida International University; Ravindra Palavalli-Nettimi, Florida International University

Why is it so difficult to swat a fly? A team of insect experts explains how a fly’s sophisticated vision allows it to quickly react to visual cues.

Electric school buses are taking students back to school – bringing cleaner air and lower maintenance costs to school districts across the country

Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, The New School

They look like conventional school buses, but electric versions are cleaner, quieter and cheaper to maintain. States, utilities and federal agencies are helping school districts make the switch.

What are muscle knots? An exercise physiologist explains what those tight little lumps are and how to get rid of them

You don’t have to be a spy to violate the Espionage Act – and other crucial facts about the law Trump may have broken

Which microbes live in your gut? A microbiologist tries at-home test kits to see what they reveal about the microbiome