Spotted lanternflies are harming Pennsylvania's $7 billion wine industry. Researchers found these invasive insects decrease sugar content in grapes and reduce phenolics in red wine, affecting flavor and aroma.
The Conversation
Spotted lanternflies love grapevines, and that’s bad for Pennsylvania’s wine industry
An entomologist describes how the sap-sucking insects can weaken grapevines and reduce fruit yield and quality.
A new satellite constellation called SWIFT aims to predict dangerous space weather events up to 60 minutes before they hit Earth, giving more time to protect vulnerable technologies. A heliophysicist and space weather expert explains:
The Conversation
Spacecraft equipped with a solar sail could deliver earlier warnings of space weather threats to Earth’s technologies
As more satellites are launched into orbit, space agencies are looking at how to predict space weather events that could harm them.
The Supreme Court left open one legal option for a nationwide challenge to Trump’s order banning birthright citizenship, and lawyers for newborns who would be affected by the order have used that option.
The Conversation
How citizenship chaos was averted, for now, by a class action injunction against Trump’s birthright citizenship order
The Supreme Court can still invalidate the newest national injunction and allow the order to go into effect anywhere it is not currently barred fro...
#AI in healthcare could eventually save up to $360 billion annually, but adoption remains slow. A 2024 survey found 66% of US physicians used AI tools, mostly for administrative tasks rather than medical decisions. A professor who studies studies AI and health care analytics explains the roadblocks:
The Conversation
AI in health care could save lives and money − but change won’t happen overnight
Privacy and bias concerns and integration challenges are brakes on the pace of health care systems adopting the technology.
17 states and D.C. now have laws restricting smartphone use in schools. Perhaps surprisingly, many students are on board: About 40% of Gen Z support phone-free schools and say they wish social media had never been invented.
The Conversation
School smartphone bans reflect growing concern over youth mental health and academic performance
Across the US, parents are leading the charge to limit cellphone use in schools.
Cancer-related muscle weakness, known as cachexia, may be caused by damaged blood vessels—not just the tumor itself The discovery could pave the way for new treatments for a condition that affects up to 80% of people with advanced #cancer.
The Conversation
Muscle weakness in cancer survivors may be caused by treatable weakness in blood vessels – new research
Many cancer survivors struggle with muscle weakness, which can be so profound that they may have difficulties walking up a couple of flights of sta...
IRS says churches can now endorse political candidates without losing tax-exempt status, despite the 70-year-old law known as the Johnson Amendment, specifically barring political activity. A legal expert explains the implications:
The Conversation
IRS says churches may endorse political candidates despite a decades-old federal statute barring them from doing that
There’s only one known instance of a church losing its tax-exempt status because it violated the Johnson Amendment, but Republicans have tried to...
More than 88% of full-time, private sector workers in the U.S. receive paid time off – yet nearly half of American workers don’t take all the days they’ve been allotted. A professor explores why many US workers hesitate to use their allotted paid time off.
The Conversation
Why do so many American workers feel guilty about taking the vacation they’ve earned?
As vacations approach, anxiety often mounts: What if you’re seen as a slacker – or, worse, replaceable?
Class-based inequalities exacerbated by Trump’s spending bill are part of a 50-year trend linked to social divisions, political corruption and a declining belief in the common good, according to a sociologist who studies economic inequality.
The Conversation
Inequality has risen from 1970 to Trump − that has 3 hidden costs that undermine democracy
The Republican tax bill is set to worsen inequality, government data shows. It’s part of a 50-year trend that’s affecting the social fabric as ...
The Trump administration wants to strip naturalized Americans of their citizenship – even decades after they earn it, even for minor paperwork issues, and without full due process. Legal scholars say this violates the Constitution and undermines democracy:
The Conversation
Justice Department efforts to strip citizenship from naturalized Americans likely violate constitutional rights
In 1967, the Supreme Court said the government usually cannot take away citizenship without a person’s consent.