The colonial era profoundly shaped natural history museums and collections. Herbaria, which are scientists’ main source of plant specimens from around the world, are no exception.
States and schools with more inclusive policies and protections help LGBTQ youth and their families feel safer.
AP Photo/Tommy Martino
The rainbow Pride flags flying this month obscure the ongoing legislative attacks threatening the health and well-being of transgender and nonbinary people and their families.
Abortion-rights demonstrators protest in front of the Supreme Court building on June 25, 2022, a day after the announcement of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.
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In the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, giving decisions about the legality of abortion back to states, voters and state legislatures have made their preferences on abortion clear.
Are we as different as we’d like to believe?
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We humans like to think that our language is original, but we absorb large amounts of it from others and liberally repeat and remix what we hear – just as language AIs do.
A glimpse of a post-apocalyptic world.
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Maybe it was a nuclear war, devastating climate change, or a killer virus. But if something caused people to disappear, imagine what would happen afterward.
Travel to Miami, and you might hear people say ‘get down from the car’ instead of ‘get out of the car.’
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It came about through sustained contact with native Spanish speakers who directly translated phrases from Spanish into English, a form of linguistic borrowing called ‘calques.’
Former President Donald Trump on his airplane on June 10, 2023, two days after his federal indictment.
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If you were Trump’s lawyer, what would you advise him to do now? Two national security specialists have some words for and about the former president after his federal indictment.
Special counsel Jack Smith prepares to talk to reporters on June 9, 2023, after the indictment of former President Donald Trump.
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There are 38 felony charges against former President Donald Trump, and while it’s unlikely, he could potentially be sentenced to serve 400 years if found guilty on all of them.
Former President Donald Trump was on the campaign trail in early June 2023, as an investigation continued that led to his indictment on federal charges.
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Spy cases are rare. More typically, as in the Trump indictment, the act applies to the unauthorized gathering, possessing or transmitting of certain sensitive government information.
A Juneteenth celebration in Prospect Park in New York City in 2022.
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At a time when state legislatures are enacting laws that restrict who, when and where people can vote, the US Supreme Court ruled to protect voting rights.
People for millennia have used what grows around them as medicine.
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An anthropology course explores how peoples and cultures around the world use nature-based medicines to heal.
Lewis Wickes Hine, ‘A little spinner in a Georgia Cotton Mill, 1909.’
Gelatin silver print, 5 x 7 in. The Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (P545)
Beth Saunders, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
While Lewis Hine’s early-20th century photographs of working children compelled Congress to limit or ban child labor, the US Department of Labor is now under fire for failing to enforce these laws.
Warm water along the equator off South America signals an El Niño, like this one in 2016.
NOAA
If a person – in this case, the former president of the United States – is charged by federal and state prosecutors, or prosecutors in different states, at the same time, which case goes first?
Pat Robertson speaks at the Christian Coalition’s annual meeting on Sept. 9, 1995, in Washington, D.C.
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Pat Robertson, founder of the global Christian Broadcasting Network, blended religion into American politics and played an important role in the Republican Party.
By the end of the 19th century, railways were being used by millions across India.
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Ritika Prasad, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
A deadly crash in India that claimed the lives of around 300 people has refocused international attention on the importance of railways in the country.
A drag show in Nashville, Tenn., during Day One of Nashville Pride 2022.
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The law passed by Tennessee legislators that banned many drag performances violated the First Amendment. A legal scholar explains the judge’s decision in the case.
By getting to know your neighbors and investing in your community, you can make your neighborhood safer.
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Crime is spiking and you’re scared. Here are strategies to get past the fear and diminish the threat of crime in your community.
In an aerial image taken on May 12, 2023, a border wall and concertina wire barriers stand along the Rio Grande river between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, left, and El Paso, Texas.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
When host communities unexpectedly receive large numbers of migrants, the influx can tax local services – and relations between migrants and residents.
A ‘greenhushing’ campaign is targeting insurers, who have the power to accelerate the transition to cleaner energy in how they write policies and invest.
NEPA requires federal agencies to analyze environmental impacts of projects like interstate highway construction.
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J.B. Ruhl, Vanderbilt University and James Salzman, University of California, Los Angeles
Do environmental reviews improve projects or delay them and drive up costs? Two legal scholars explain how the law works and how it could influence the ongoing transition to renewable energy.