Editor's note

Media are reporting that former FBI Director James Comey wrote a detailed memo that described a meeting in which President Donald Trump allegedly asked Comey to stop investigating former national security adviser Michael Flynn. FBI historian Douglas Charles at Penn State explains how this would not be the first time a questionable request from the executive branch has been documented in an FBI director’s memo.

Both the scientific community and the popular media have hailed the CRISPR gene-editing technique as a potential game changer for biological research. University of Washington’s Ian Haydon describes how this molecular tool is already living up to its promise with impending applications in the worlds of medicine, agriculture and biology.

Yesterday, the 70th Cannes Film Festival kicked off. Colorado State’s Scott Diffrient explains how Cannes originated as a “counter-festival” to the Venice Film Festival, which, during the 1930s, had celebrated the pro-fascist films of Germany and Italy.

Danielle Douez

Associate Editor, Politics + Society

Top story

President Donald Trump greets Director of the FBI James Comey in January. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Comey isn't the first FBI director to keep memos on a president

Douglas M. Charles, Pennsylvania State University

Past presidents have made strange requests of the FBI, some of which were documented by J. Edgar Hoover.

Politics + Society

  • Impeachment: It's political

    Jacob Neiheisel, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

    Could Trump be removed from office? Answering that question is less about understanding the law and more about counting votes.

Science + Technology

Arts + Culture

Ethics + Religion

Trending on Site

 
 

We produce knowledge-based, ethical journalism. Please donate and help us thrive. Tax deductible.