America's still got milk, but 95% fewer dairy farms

Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot system has a problem − but it’s not what Trump is making unfounded claims about

Daniel J. Mallinson, Penn State

Pennsylvania’s delays in counting mail-in votes have not been fixed − creating an opportunity for Trump and his allies to cast doubt on the results again in 2024.

Women are still underrepresented in local government, despite a woman running for president

Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, Harvard Kennedy School

Until now, researchers and the public knew very little about how well women were represented outside the federal government.

Empowering engineering students through storytelling

Anne Hamby, Boise State University; Eric Jankowski, Boise State University; Krishna Pakala, Boise State University; Patrick R. Lowenthal, Boise State University

Researchers asked engineering students to tell stories about challenges they had faced. Telling the stories, students said, made them more likely to stay in their major.

Class and race can create divides between donors and a cause they support − putting stress on those nonprofits

Abbie Cohen, University of California, Los Angeles

To satisfy donors, a nonprofit felt forced to use language from the corporate world. In doing so, it was hard to spell out what its mentoring program was actually accomplishing.

Intoxication nation: a double shot of US history

Kyle G. Volk, University of Montana

Alcohol is a window into American history, from 17th-century rum production to young people’s declining interest in drinking today.

What are halal mortgages?

Shariq Siddiqui, Indiana University

The access to halal mortgages, which provide interest-free housing loans, has been growing in the US.

Will your phone one day let you smell as well as see and hear what’s on the other end of a call?

Jian Liu, University of Tennessee

Phones that transmit odors sound like science fiction, but researchers are working on making them real.

Plants get a GMO glow-up: Genetically modified varieties are coming out of the lab and into homes and gardens

James W. Satterlee, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Lose the prickles. Add bioluminescence. Up the nutrients without the bitter flavor. CRISPR gene editing is opening a new world of genetically modified plants for home growers.

How researchers measure wildfire smoke exposure doesn’t capture long-term health effects − and hides racial disparities

Joan Casey, University of Washington; Rachel Morello-Frosch, University of California, Berkeley

Which is riskier for your health: a few days of very bad PM₂.₅ exposure or many more days of slightly bad exposure? Researchers developed new metrics to provide better answers.

To save its tigers, India has relocated thousands of people – it could enlist their help instead

Dhanapal Govindarajulu, University of Manchester; Divya Gupta, Binghamton University, State University of New York; Ghazala Shahabuddin, Ashoka University

Tigers have bounced back, but some relocations may have done more harm than good.

East is East, West is West − and Turkey is looking to forge its own BRICS path between the two

Biobots arise from the cells of dead organisms − pushing the boundaries of life, death and medicine

Kamala Harris effectively baited Donald Trump during the debate, drawing out his insecure white masculinity