The Conversation - Gaza is not the only famine risk

US long-term care costs are sky-high, but Washington state’s new way to help pay for them could be nixed

Marc Cohen, UMass Boston

What happens in November 2024 could influence other states weighing their own options.

Sourdough under the microscope reveals microbes cultivated over generations

Daniel Veghte, The Ohio State University

You can thank yeast and bacteria for the distinctive taste and smell of the oldest leavened bread in history.

Electric vehicles are usually safer for their occupants – but not necessarily for everyone else

Jingwen Hu, University of Michigan

EV fires make headlines, but they don’t tell the full story of EV safety. The real threat isn’t combustion, it’s weight.

‘What is a fact?’ A humanities class prepares STEM students to be better scientists

Timothy Morton, Rice University

A professor shows science students how humanities classes are the real stem that other disciplines sprout from. They learn that critical thinking and skepticism don’t stop when they leave the lab.

Third parties will affect the 2024 campaigns, but election laws written by Democrats and Republicans will prevent them from winning

Barry C. Burden, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Democrats and Republicans try to keep them off the ballot. But third-party campaigns can inject new ideas and force major parties to incorporate a wider array of interests.

‘It’s a deep emotional ride’ – 12 young people in Philly’s toughest neighborhoods explain how violence disrupts their physical and mental health

Kalen Flynn, University of Pennsylvania

A social science researcher followed a dozen teens from different neighborhoods in North, West and Northeast Philadelphia, tracking their family histories and heart rates as they navigated daily life.

International prosecution of Israeli or Hamas leaders wouldn’t bring quick justice − and even bringing them to court will be difficult

Victor Peskin, Arizona State University

Prosecuting leaders indicted for war crimes is difficult. But the trial of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in the early 2000s offers a potential playbook.

Gen Zers and millennials are still big fans of books – even if they don’t call themselves ‘readers’

Kathi Inman Berens, Portland State University; Rachel Noorda, Portland State University

It turns out that identifying as a reader can be more about community, wealth and gender than how much someone actually reads.

Cannabis legalization has led to a boom in potent forms of the drug that present new hazards for adolescents

College administrators are falling into a tried and true trap laid by the right

What you eat could alter your unborn children and grandchildren’s genes and health outcomes