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From the editors at The Conversation, an independent news organization based in Boston that publishes articles written by academic experts and edited by a team of journalists.

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Pope Leo XIV’s link to Haiti is part of a broader American story of race, citizenship and migration

Pope Leo XIV appears before thousands of journalists on May 12, 2025, in Vatican City.

Repelled by American racism, thousands of free people of color bounced between New Orleans and Haiti in the 19th century.

Could a human enter a black hole to study it?

If you are a sci-fi junkie you’ve probably wondered what would happen if you were unlucky enough to fall into a black hole. How well you’d fare all depends on the type of black hole.

Space law doesn’t protect historical sites, mining operations and bases on the Moon – a space lawyer describes a framework that could

More people will be going to the Moon in coming years, and the way current legal frameworks are written could lead to conflict.

‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’ − an astronomer explains how much evidence scientists need to claim discoveries like extraterrestrial life

An astronomer breaks down 3 key components that allow researchers to make groundbreaking discoveries – and decide when results aren’t significant.

How does your brain create new memories? Neuroscientists discover ‘rules’ for how neurons encode new information

As you experience or encounter new things, your brain must encode this information via the right neural networks at the right time.

FIFA's global soccer tournament to take America by storm this summer

(BPT) - Everyone's heard the FIFA World Cup 26™ is coming to Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026, but this summer, sports fans in 11 cities across the United States will be able to …

What state seals say about America and what they don't

Spokeo examined State Symbols USA and other resources to explore why state seals are significant and how they help us understand the U.S.

The flourishing Black business district in Detroit, Mich., photographed in 1942.

The story of the Great Migration often overlooks Black businesses that built Detroit

Detroit’s Black population grew sixfold from 1910 to 1920, and many businesses that sprouted to welcome the newcomers flourished.

The Sun's distance from Earth allows it to be habitable for life.

Evolving intelligent life took billions of years − but it may not have been as unlikely as many scientists predicted

Humans evolved late in Earth history. While this timing inspired the conclusion that humanlike life is a cosmic improbability, a new study pushes back.

School boycott picketers march across the Brooklyn Bridge to the Board of Education in 1964.

Fighting school segregation didn’t take place just in the South

In the 1950s, Harlem mother Mae Mallory fought a school system that she saw as ‘just as Jim Crow’ as the one she had attended in the South.

Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration on March 4, 1861.

A brief history of presidential inaugural speeches, from George Washington to today

Inaugural addresses that newly minted presidents have given over the past 250 years have aimed to do several key things, including unify the country and establish the speaker’s qualifications for the job.

President George Washington, left, and his Cabinet: Henry Knox, secretary of war; Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the Treasury; Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state; and Edmund Randolph, attorney general.

When presidents would send handwritten lists of their nominees to the Senate, things were a lot different

The US now faces the likelihood of a bruising and raucous set of confirmation hearings − a clear break from the cooperative system the founders established.

The Aochi family in the Rohwer, Arkansas, detention camp. Photo courtesy of June Aochi Berk

Righting a wrong, name by name − the Irei monument honors Japanese Americans imprisoned by the US government during World War II

The US government locked up nearly 126,000 Japanese Americans from 1942 to 1945, but never kept comprehensive records of all the people subjected to this unjustified incarceration.

An avid traveler, Pearl Young – waving at the top of the stairs – traveled to Hawaii on a UND alumni trip in 1960.

Pearl Young, the first woman to work in a technical role at NASA, overcame barriers and ‘raised hell’ − her legacy continues today

Many of her male colleagues believed Pearl Young had an attitude problem based on her efforts to advocate for herself and her team.

Excavating the new trackway site, with footprints from hominins, birds and other animals visible in foreground. Neil Roach

Fossilized footprints reveal 2 extinct hominin species living side by side 1.5 million years ago

Ancient fossil footprints are the first evidence of two different hominin species − Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei − living in the same place at the same time.

The election is over − but what is a ‘lame duck’ anyway?

The lame-duck period in the US is longer than in other Western democracies, which tend to make the transition over a period of just days.

How Native Americans guarded their societies against tyranny

Native American communities were elaborate consensus democracies, many of which had survived for generations because of careful attention to checking and balancing power.