Syria’s earthquake survivors struggle in a disaster made far worse by civil war, bombed-out hospitals and currency collapse

After a pair of devastating earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northwestern Syria, the number of confirmed deaths continues to rise, surpassing 50,000 as of Feb. 24....

Pi gets all the fanfare, but other numbers also deserve their own math holidays

March 14 is celebrated as Pi Day because the date, when written as 3/14, matches the start of the decimal expansion 3.14159… of the most famous...

Robots are performing Hindu rituals – some devotees fear they’ll replace worshippers

It isn’t just artists and teachers who are losing sleep over advances in automation and artificial intelligence. Robots are being brought into Hinduism’s holiest rituals –...

Havana syndrome fits the pattern of psychosomatic illness – but that doesn’t mean symptoms aren’t real

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the ailments collectively dubbed “Havana syndrome” suffered by U.S. diplomats and intelligence operatives were “highly unlikely” to have been caused...

Distant star TOI-700 has two potentially habitable planets orbiting it – making it an excellent candidate in the search for life

NASA recently announced the discovery of a new, Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of a nearby star called TOI-700. We are two of the astronomers...

Human genome editing offers tantalizing possibilities – but without clear guidelines, many ethical questions still remain

The Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing, a three-day conference organized by the Royal Society, the U.K. Academy of Medical Sciences, the U.S. National Academies...

The Battle of Bakhmut exposes Russia’s fault lines

Health care offered to women in prison should match community standards – and their rights

On this International Women’s Day, let’s not forget women in prison. There are 3,088 women imprisoned in Australia on any given day, representing 7.5% of the...

Is the poisoning of schoolgirls in Iran a new front in the war against girls’ education?

Recent media attention has drawn global focus on an escalating number of Iranian schoolgirls falling ill over the past few months because of suspected chemical attacks....

Women politicians pay too high a personal cost for their leadership

In the wake of her decision to resign, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s outgoing first minister, said that life for women politicians who “put their head above the...