Duke University’s mission is to provide a liberal education for our undergraduates. This means we empower our students to find their own academic paths by teaching them to reason and to empathize in unprecedented ways. As a research university, we have the resources to connect students to the processes of inquiry and discovery—and to give our students opportunities to learn from, and collaborate with, our faculty members.
The boom in oil and gas development has brought new revenues to many communities in the U.S., but rural areas in particular have struggled to handle the rapid downturn in prices.
Woman at wreckage of deadly car bomb in Baghdad.
REUTERS/Wissm Al-Okili
Obama’s military strategy in Iraq and Syria hasn’t defeated the Islamic State, but it isn’t a total failure either. A retired major general and law professor looks at the successes and shortcomings.
Universities expose students to difference, providing them with a unique opportunity to learn from others.
Shutterstock
Next-generation genomic research depends on study participants sharing their biological materials with scientists. But concerns over how that information is protected may hold some people back.
What makes gifted kids from advantaged families get ahead?
David Woo
America’s low-income but high-achieving kids fail to find the necessary resources, and consequently fall behind. This has huge implications for innovation as well as the GDP.
Honor Guard standing outside the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on December 10, 2015.
REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
Global warming is often seen as a problem for future generations, but focusing on the immediate – and substantial – health benefits of clean energy can change public perception of climate change.
Ice Bucket challenge: for you or the cause?
Henry Huey/flickr
Being too clean isn’t what’s making us sick. It’s the loss of biodiversity in the bacteria and organisms that live in our bodies and work with the immune system.
Legal or illegal, the US is awash in guns.
Reuters
Though the perpetrators of the mass shooting in California appear to have acquired their guns legally, the vast majority used in violent crimes are obtained illegally.
A memorial for 20-year-old UCSB student Christopher Michael-Martinez one of nine crime scenes in the Isla Vista neighborhood of Santa Barbara, California in 2014.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
America’s gun violence problem actually is producing policy reform. It’s just that most of this activity is happening on the state level and has received little attention in the national media.
Should professors engage with the lay public?
Illinois Springfield
Two scholars discuss the joys of writing for a lay audience. So why aren’t more academics writing for the public?
Four rat tapeworms harvested from a single laboratory rat are shown in a six-well plate. The worms don’t harm the rats. Each worm, between two and three feet long, can produce more than 1,000 eggs per day.
William Parker
The thought of intestinal worms sneaking around our bodies is pretty unpleasant, but some types of worms are beneficial and could help treat inflammatory diseases.
Chalk it up as a rare conservation win: humpback whales have bounced back so strongly since the whaling era that there is no longer a need to include them on Australia’s official threatened species list.
A first: limits on carbon emissions from power plants.
booleansplit/flickr
Despite looming legal challenges, states are devising plans to comply with limits on power plant carbon emissions – a crucial part of Obama’s climate policies.