The Conversation - Fire danger in the high mountains

Emergency contraception is often confused with abortion pills – here’s how Plan B and other generic versions work to prevent pregnancy

Amie Ashcraft, West Virginia University

The increase in abortion restrictions may also lead to a decline in access to emergency contraceptives.

The US is about to blow up a fake warship in the South China Sea – but naval rivalry with Beijing is very real and growing

Krista Wiegand, University of Tennessee

The South China Sea is of strategic and economic importance to Beijing and the US, setting up a potential power struggle that could spark conflict.

US giving to Israeli nonprofits – how much Jews and Christians donate and where the money goes

Jamie Levine Daniel, Indiana University

Political situations in both Israel and the US could be changing prior patterns with these donations, which fund hospitals, museums and a wide array of organizations.

To understand American politics, you need to move beyond left and right

Graham Wright, Brandeis University; Sasha Volodarsky, Northeastern University

We often talk about the American political landscape as if it were a line – Democrats on the left, Republicans on the right. Two political scientists say that view doesn’t reflect reality.

Speaker McCarthy lays out initial cards in debt ceiling debate: 5 essential reads on why it’s a high-stakes game

Bryan Keogh, The Conversation; Matt Williams, The Conversation

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to raise the debt ceiling – and avoid an unprecedented US default – but only if Democrats agree to freeze spending and agree to several other demands.

Moderna’s experimental cancer vaccine treats but doesn’t prevent melanoma – a biochemist explains how it works

Mark R. O'Brian, University at Buffalo

Preventive and therapeutic vaccines both train the immune system to fight disease, but they are used in different ways.

Generative AI: 5 essential reads about the new era of creativity, job anxiety, misinformation, bias and plagiarism

Eric Smalley, The Conversation

Generative AI can seem like magic, which makes it both enticing and frightening. Scholars are helping society come to grips with the potential benefits and harms.

Erasing or replacing errors in a patient’s genetic code can treat and cure some genetic diseases

David Liu, Harvard University

Chemist David Liu explains how gene editing is paving the way to treating and even curing certain genetic diseases.

AI has social consequences, but who pays the price? Tech companies’ problem with ‘ethical debt’

Casey Fiesler, University of Colorado Boulder

Generative AI is designed to produce the unforeseen, but that doesn’t mean developers can’t predict the types of social consequences it may cause.

Why is Tax Day on April 18 this year? And how did early spring become tax season, anyhow?

Epic snow from all those atmospheric rivers in the West is starting to melt, and the flood danger is rising

What is ‘algospeak’? Inside the newest version of linguistic subterfuge