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Top headlines
Lead story
College campuses across the country have been steeped in anger and anguish, with countless protests and counterprotests over the Israel-Hamas war taking place.
Whether it’s at the family dinner table or in the halls of academe, figuring out how to talk respectfully, fairly and factually about such a charged issue is hard. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, leaders have stressed the educational role of their institution during a crisis that has ignited powerful feelings. I interviewed scholar David Mednicoff, chair of the university’s Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, about how he and his colleagues have handled the past few weeks.
“As someone who sees many people on campus in pain and many more not knowing what to think, bringing in expertise that can encourage people to engage with one another, potentially across divides, seems needed,” said Mednicoff. So his department sponsored public talks by experts on Israeli-Palestinian relations, followed by discussions among audience members. In one case, that turned into a “respectful argument.” Mission accomplished.
Likewise, Chancellor Javier Reyes’ statements to the community did not take a position on the conflict. Instead, Mednicoff explained how Reyes’ policy of “championing vigorous debate on a far-flung, divisive conflict affirms what our university stands for.”
[ Get our Understanding AI series – four emails delivered over the course of a week, with experts explaining this confusing topic. ]
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Naomi Schalit
Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy
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Students at UMass Amherst march across campus following a walkout and rally protesting the university’s “ties with war profiteers,” while also calling for “a ceasefire and end of the blockade on Gaza.”
Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
David Mednicoff, UMass Amherst
A scholar of the Mideast at a large public university says that caring and a commitment to free speech have been central to his campus’s response to students upset and angry over the Israel-Hamas war.
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Environment + Energy
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Jonathan Levy, Boston University
The natural gas industry has spent years trying to undermine scientific findings about gas stoves and health. If this sounds familiar, that’s no accident.
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Ronny Rotbarth, Wageningen University; David J. Cooper, Colorado State University; Logan Berner, Northern Arizona University; Roman Dial, Alaska Pacific University
How will Earth’s vast boreal forests look in a warmer world? Combining satellite-based research with fieldwork shows that the planet’s largest wilderness may be changing in unexpected ways.
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Education
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Angus Kittelman, University of Missouri-Columbia; David Markowitz, Michigan State University; Kent McIntosh, University of Oregon; Maria Reina Santiago-Rosario, University of Oregon
Teachers use tougher language when describing the misbehavior of Black children, new research shows.
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Politics + Society
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Christina Hymer, University of Tennessee
First used in the 1970s, the social theory known as intersectionality triggered widespread debate on racial identifications and the interplay among categories.
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Health + Medicine
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Yoni Ashar, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
An intriguing therapy that shifts what people perceive as the source of their pain could aid in pain management.
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Science + Technology
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Ivan Erill, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Researchers discovered a satellite virus latching onto the neck of another virus called MindFlayer. Studying the viral arms race between similar viruses could lead to new ways to fight infections.
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Margaret Hu, William & Mary
If safety is the heart of the Biden administration’s executive order on AI, then civil rights is its soul.
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The Conversation Quiz 🧠
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Here’s the first question of this week’s edition:
On October 30, the Biden Administration unveiled what in response to the growth of artificial intelligence?
- A. A temporary research ban
- B. A sweeping set of guidelines
- C. A new federal department
- D. A TikTok of "Kamala Harris" doing a robot dance
Test your knowledge
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