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A white man wearing a blue jacket embraces another man with white hair and a woman with blond hair.

A brief history of tragic presidential relatives, from Alice Roosevelt to Hunter Biden

Shannon Bow O'Brien, The University of Texas at Austin

A farmer walks in a field at sunrise.

Food has a climate problem: Nitrous oxide emissions are accelerating with growing demand for fertilizer and meat – but there are solutions

Hanqin Tian, Boston College; Eric Davidson, University of Maryland, Baltimore; Pep Canadell, CSIRO, and Rona Louise Thompson, Norwegian Institute for Air Research

Summertime can be germy: A microbiologist explains how to avoid getting sick at the barbecue, in the pool or on the trail

Bill Sullivan, Indiana University

Person wrapped in blanket by poolside blowing nose into tissue
How often do you lie? Deception researchers investigate how the recipient and the medium affect telling the truth

Christian B. Miller, Wake Forest University

man in suit walking with blurry law enforcement officer in foreground
African elephants address one another with name-like calls − similar to humans

Mickey Pardo, Colorado State University

An adult and juvenile elephant walking next to each other through the savanna.
Biden and Trump may forget names or personal details, but here is what really matters in assessing whether they’re cognitively up for the job

Leo Gugerty, Clemson University

With a U.S. map in the background, images of Trump and Biden appear on a cellphone.

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A person stands with arms outstretched in front of a vast sky.

Independent voters are few in number, influential in close elections – and hard for campaigns to reach

Julio Borquez, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Thin ice near a lighthouse.

Losing winter ice is changing the Great Lakes food web – here’s how light is shaping life underwater

Steven Wilhelm, University of Tennessee; Brittany Zepernick, University of Tennessee, and Robert Michael McKay, University of Windsor

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Are older adults more vulnerable to scams? What psychologists have learned about who’s most susceptible, and when

Natalie C. Ebner, University of Florida and Didem Pehlivanoglu, University of Florida

A man with gray hair and glasses sits inside on a couch, talking on a cell phone, while he looks at a credit card he is holding.
Coral reef recovery could get a boost from an unlikely source: Sea cucumbers, the janitors of the seafloor

Mark Hay, Georgia Institute of Technology

a dark creature shaped like a cucumber crawls on a surface
Complaints are different when customers think a company cares

Vivek Astvansh, McGill University; Anshu Suri, University College Dublin, and Hoorsana Damavandi, University of Tennessee

A young man with an engaged expression speaks on a cellphone with a laptop open in front of him.
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Does magic really exist? The Conversation’s Curious Kids podcast

Eloise Stevens, The Conversation

Community broadband provides a local solution for a global problem

Michael Lithgow, Athabasca University; Esther Jang, University of Washington, and Katherine Gillieson, Emily Carr University

a network of tiny figures connected with black lines
The warming ocean is leaving coastal economies in hot water

Charles Colgan, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

A flooded street during a hurricane with water up to the handle bars on a motorcycle and over the doors on cars parked along a street in Pensacola in 2020.
NASA’s asteroid sample mission gave scientists around the world the rare opportunity to study an artificial meteor

Brian Elbing, Oklahoma State University and Elizabeth A. Silber, Sandia National Laboratories

Two people carrying the sample return capsule, which is a black box.
PFAS are toxic ‘forever chemicals’ that linger in our air, water, soil and bodies – here’s how to keep them out of your drinking water

Jessica Ray, University of Washington

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Father's Day

Fathers need to care for themselves as well as their kids – but often don’t

Fathers need to care for themselves as well as their kids – but often don’t

Derek M. Griffith, Georgetown University and Elizabeth C. Stewart, Vanderbilt University

What Greek epics taught me about the special relationship between fathers and sons

Joel Christensen, Brandeis University

A second century marble sarcophagus fragment, showing the Greek hero, Odysseus and his father, Laertes, King of the Cephallenians.
From ‘dada’ to Darth Vader – why the way we name fathers reminds us we spring from the same well

Valerie M. Fridland, University of Nevada, Reno

A person in a Darth Vader costume flashes a heavy metal salute as he is carried by others in the crowd.
Fatherhood changes men’s brains, according to before-and-after MRI scans

Darby Saxbe, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Magdalena Martínez García, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón IiSGM

silhouette of man lifting baby, adult's brain illuminated
Brain study identifies a cost of caregiving for new fathers

Darby Saxbe, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

man kisses baby in his arms
Read more on Father's Day

War in Gaza

A large crowd of people stand in the streets and hold Israeli flags and signs that say 'Help' and an image of. man's head with the words 'What do you see?'

Most Israelis dislike Netanyahu, but support the war in Gaza – an Israeli scholar explains what’s driving public opinion

Arie Perliger, UMass Lowell

How the Gaza humanitarian aid pier traces its origins to discarded cigar boxes before World War II

Frank A. Blazich Jr., Smithsonian Institution

An overhead image shows a floating platform connected by a floating roadway to a beach.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel are becoming increasingly isolated internationally – they need to listen to their friends

Julie M Norman, UCL

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu dressed in combat gear with aides.
Palestinian writers have long explored the horrors of amputation

Graham Liddell, Hope College

Young boy without a leg uses crutches as he leans against a wall. A faceless adult stands in the foreground.
A look inside the cyberwar between Israel and Hamas reveals the civilian toll

Ryan Shandler, Georgia Institute of Technology; Daphna Canetti, University of Haifa, and Tal Mimran, Zefat Academic College

Palestinian and Israeli flags overlaid by letters and numbers.
Read more stories about the Israel-Hamas war

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Pictures in 500 Words

A man towering over another who is kneeling on a pedestal which has the word 'Emancipation' engraved on it.

What the statue of a kneeling enslaved man in the Emancipation Memorial of 1876 tells us about its history − an art historian explains

Virginia Raguin, College of the Holy Cross

Oblong shape with animated yellow and green spirals against a black background

Engineering cells to broadcast their behavior can help scientists study their inner workings

Scott Coyle, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Read more from our Picture in 500 Words series

Elections around the world

a computer screen shows a man with white hair and beard in front of oragne, green and white flags with a series of bright dots outlining his mouth, nose and eyes

Indian election was awash in deepfakes – but AI was a net positive for democracy

Vandinika Shukla, Harvard Kennedy School and Bruce Schneier, Harvard Kennedy School

UK and US elections: 2 very different systems united by a common political language

Garret Martin, American University School of International Service

A man in a white shirt drinks a cup of tea surrounded by other people.
2020’s ‘fake elector’ schemes will be harder to try in 2024 – but not impossible

Derek T. Muller, University of Notre Dame

Several people in a public meeting room raising their right hands.
Mexico elects first female president − but will that improve the lot of country’s women?

Xavier Medina Vidal, University of Texas at Arlington and Christopher Chambers-Ju, University of Texas at Arlington

A woman in a purple dress holds her hands aloft in celebration.
Why is it so hard to know how many independent voters there are?

Thom Reilly, Arizona State University

People stand in a line next to a sign reading 'voter entrance.'
Read more global election coverage

New research in health and science

An elegant woman in a dark orange jacket makes air quotes with her fingers against a backdrop of the U.S. Capitol.

Menopause treatments can help with hot flashes and other symptoms – but many people aren’t aware of the latest advances

Naomi Cahn, University of Virginia; Bridget J. Crawford, Pace University , and Emily Gold Waldman, Pace University

Scientists and Indigenous leaders team up to conserve seals and an ancestral way of life at Yakutat, Alaska

Aron L. Crowell, Smithsonian Institution and Judith Dax̱ootsú Ramos, University of Alaska Southeast

painting of two hunting canoes with two people in each, floating in icy waters, harpoon aimed at a seal on the ice
New database features 250 AI tools that can enhance social science research

Megan Stubbs-Richardson, Mississippi State University; Devon Brenner, Mississippi State University; Lauren Etheredge, Mississippi State University, and MacKenzie Paul, Baylor University

Two women work on laptops at a library.
Records of Pompeii’s survivors have been found – and archaeologists are starting to understand how they rebuilt their lives

Steven L. Tuck, Miami University

Oil painting of volcano erupting at night.
Your favorite drink can cause breast cancer – but most women in the US aren’t aware of alcohol’s health risks

Monica Swahn, Kennesaw State University and Ritu Aneja, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Close-up of person holding glass of wine between two hands
Read more new science research

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How much do you need to know about how your spouse spends money? Maybe less than you think

Scott Rick, University of Michigan

AI search answers are the fast food of your information diet – convenient and tasty, but no substitute for good nutrition

Chirag Shah, University of Washington

a robot holds a tray of food in front of a girl who is about to take a bite of food she is holding
Laws meant to keep different races apart still influence dating patterns, decades after being invalidated

Solangel Maldonado, Seton Hall University

A cartoon with pastel colors shows a hand touching a heart on a phone with an image of a girl with brown skin. There are other circles and hearts also showing cartoon images of women with different colored hair and skin.
Beyond Seinfeld’s ‘Unfrosted’ – lessons from Michigan’s serial cereal entrepreneurs

Laurel Ofstein, Michigan State University

Beyond Seinfeld’s ‘Unfrosted’ – lessons from Michigan’s serial cereal entrepreneurs
Cities contain pockets of nature – our study shows which species are most tolerant of urbanization

Joseph Curti, University of California, Los Angeles and Morgan Tingley, University of California, Los Angeles

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Most read this week

1.
Records of Pompeii’s survivors have been found – and archaeologists are starting to understand how they rebuilt their lives

Steven L. Tuck, Miami University

Records of Pompeii’s survivors have been found – and archaeologists are starting to understand how they rebuilt their lives
2.
Eye exercises to improve sight – is there any science behind them? An ophthalmologist explains why you shouldn’t buy the hype

Benjamin Botsford, UMass Chan Medical School

Eye exercises to improve sight – is there any science behind them? An ophthalmologist explains why you shouldn’t buy the hype
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American slavery wasn’t just a white man’s business − new research shows how white women profited, too

Trevon Logan, The Ohio State University

American slavery wasn’t just a white man’s business − new research shows how white women profited, too
4.
How do you build tunnels and bridges underwater? A geotechnical engineer explains the construction tricks

Ari Perez, Quinnipiac University

How do you build tunnels and bridges underwater? A geotechnical engineer explains the construction tricks
5.
Is collapse of the Atlantic Ocean circulation really imminent? Icebergs’ history reveals some clues

Yuxin Zhou, University of California, Santa Barbara and Jerry McManus, Columbia University

Is collapse of the Atlantic Ocean circulation really imminent? Icebergs’ history reveals some clues
6.
Sargassum is choking the Caribbean’s white sand beaches, fueling an economic and public health crisis

Farah Nibbs, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Sargassum is choking the Caribbean’s white sand beaches, fueling an economic and public health crisis

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