When we think about ‘misinformation,’ we usually think about phony or misleading news stories. But what about people who take real new stories and use those to spread phony or misleading narratives? Aaron welcomes Duke political scientist Jon Green to discuss a new study he co-wrote, which finds that that’s a pervasive issue as well – and one that’s not easy to combat. read more » about On Air: Duke’s Jon Green on Using Real News Stories to Push False Narratives
We think of friendship as offering people we meet in the course of our lives our support without strings – not stemming from family ties, sexual attraction, personal gain or duty. Friendship works on an emotional level to enhance our lives in ways that cannot always be quantified. read more » about Duke Study Explored the Social Lives of 37 Female Chimpanzees to See if Sisterhood Exists in the Animal World – with Amazing Results
Obesity is uncommon among Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, Tsimane forager-farmers in Bolivia, Tuvan herder-farmers in Siberia and other people in less-developed nations. But it’s widespread among those of us in wealthy, highly industrialized nations. Why? A major study published this week in PNAS brings surprising clarity to that question. Using objective data about metabolic rates and energy expenditure among more than 4,000 men and women living in dozens of nations across a broad spectrum of socioeconomic… read more » about What Causes Obesity? A Major New Study from Duke Researchers Is Upending Common Wisdom
A Los Alamos collaboration with Duke researchers has replicated an important but largely forgotten physics experiment: the first deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion observation. As described in Physical Review C, the reworking of the previously unheralded experiment confirmed the role of University of Michigan physicist Arthur Ruhlig, whose 1938 experiment and observation of deuterium-tritium fusion likely planted the seed for a physics process that informs national security work and nuclear energy research to… read more » about Duke Physicists Part of Team Recreating Forgotten Experiment Observing Fusion
“The Outsiders” and “John Proctor Is the Villain” showcased Danya Taymor’s adept staging of teen stories. Off Broadway, next: the teen satire “Trophy Boys.” read more » about Meet Broadway’s Teen Whisperer, Duke Alumna Dayna Taymor
Marrying into a wealthy family that also comes with a job opportunity sounds pretty great — until a dark secret comes to lightThat's the premise behind Amin Ahmad's mystery A Killer in the Family, PEOPLE can exclusively announce. The book is forthcoming next year from Henry Holt and Company, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.Muslim bachelor Ali Azeem thinks he’s made it big when he joins an arranged marriage with Maryam Khan, the daughter of one of New York’s wealthiest tycoons. Ali leaves his hometown of… read more » about A Man Uncovers His In-Laws’ Twisted Secrets in Amin Ahmad’s "A Killer in the Family"
For many people, the to-do list, the calendar, the overscheduled busy-ness of life can be overwhelming. There are some ways to tune out all that, and one musician found that improvising — playing with others without sheet music or a conductor — helped her be fully in the moment.Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks to Nina Moske, who is a flutist and recent graduate of Duke University, about how playing improvisational music has helped her escape the clock. She wrote about it in the Washington Post.This segment… read more » about Duke Music Alum Finds Focus Through Musical Improvisation
The first monologue Daniel Dae Kim ever performed was by David Henry Hwang.He had to do one for his college summer program at the National Theater Institute in Connecticut. Kim chose a scene from “FOB,” Hwang’s play about the assimilation struggles of a Chinese American. So, it’s fitting that 35 years later Hwang — the first Asian American to win the Tony Award for best play — would be the one to bring Kim into the Tony spotlight.For a long time, Hwang felt the only way to get a play with Asian characters made was to set it… read more » about Esther Kim Lee on Bringing Asian Americans Into the Theater
In the quest to unravel the mysteries of human cognition, a new study led by researchers from Duke University and Humboldt and Hamburg Universities in Germany has illuminated the neural underpinnings of those remarkable “aha!” or insight moments that often accompany sudden problem-solving breakthroughs. This collaborative research employed cutting-edge functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to capture the brain’s activity patterns as participants engaged in solving ambiguous visual puzzles. Beyond merely satisfying… read more » about Duke Research Uncovers the Moment Insight Lights Up the Mind
Nancy MacLean, a Duke professor of history and public policy, studies the past, but these days she should also get credit for predicting the future. MacLean’s 2017 book, “Democracy in Chains,” explored how Libertarian billionaire Charles Koch and others sought to free capitalism from regulation by creating systems that would enable a wealthy minority to rule. MacLean showed how that strategy evolved around right-wing ideas put forth by the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan, a figure The… read more » about Duke Professor’s 2017 Book Predicted Trump’s Extreme Policies. Now She Has Hope.
Every football season, you’ll see them on the sidelines, in the stands, and now, going viral on social media: Black mothers cheering, coaching, and carrying their sons through one of America’s most brutal sports. But behind the highlight reels and heartwarming Mother’s Day tributes, their everyday labor — physical, emotional, financial — remains largely invisible.Take Terricca Williams, the Florida mom who captured national attention last year for running football drills with her young son, Czar, in their front yard. Sure,… read more » about Tracie Canada: The Mothers Who Built The Game; Honoring Black Women’s Labor In Football
Minor league baseball draws an unusually broad array of spectators. A retired social scientist helped fans find their seats, took their photos, and chatted them up during one championship season. Harris Cooper is an emeritus professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. In 2022, he ushered at Durham Bulls Athletic Park and wrote a book about it, Finding America in a Minor League Ballpark: A Season Hosting for the Durham Bulls, which we are excerpting below. This is published with permission from… read more » about Harris Cooper: Finding America at Durham Bulls Athletic Park
In the short term, President Trump’s tariffs could mean more-expensive iPhones. The longer-term goal is to reshore high-tech manufacturing to the U.S., including Apple’s cash cow.“The army of millions and millions of human beings, screwing in little screws to make iPhones—that kind of thing is going to come to America,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CBS’s “Face the Nation” over the weekend. “It’s going to be automated,” he added.Except iPhones contain a patchwork of sophisticated parts, sourced from many countries… read more » about An American-Made iPhone: Just Expensive or Completely Impossible? Duke Emeritus Professor Explains.
On April 2, President Donald Trump held his long-promised “Liberation Day,” during which he took to the Rose Garden of the White House and announced a vast swath of tariffs that he will be implementing. Trump’s “Liberation Day” moves saw the introduction of a 10% tariff on all imported goods, and additional import taxes—of varying degrees—placed on 60 other countries.The U.S. and global markets have already started to feel the impact of Trump’s tariffs, with theU.S. stock market taking the worst hit thus far. At the… read more » about Is the U.S. Heading Into a Recession Amid Trump’s Tariffs? Duke Economist Discusses
Over the past decade, two very different ways of calculating the rate at which the universe is expanding have come to be at odds, a disagreement dubbed the Hubble tension, after 20th-century astronomer Edwin Hubble. Experts have speculated that this dispute might be temporary, stemming from subtle shortcomings in observations or analyses that will eventually be corrected rather than from some flawed understanding of the physics of the cosmos. Now, however, a new study that relies on an independent measure of the properties… read more » about The Hubble Tension Is Becoming a Hubble Crisis for Physicists
For years, studies have suggested that many white evangelical Christians reject the scientific consensus that human actions are driving climate change. A just-published study of clergy in America confirms it. According to the National Survey of Religious Leaders, 78% of white evangelical clergy reject the assertion that human actions are the cause of climate change. By contrast, only 27% of Black Protestant clergy and 21% of liberal or mainline Protestant clergy reject it. The study of 1,600 U.S. congregational leaders… read more » about Are Evangelical Clergy Outliers on Science? Duke Researcher Says Yes and No
Ingrid Daubechies, a mathematician at Duke University, is an expert on many matters, not least the baking of cookies in the shape of pi, the mathematical constant that equals the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, or roughly 3.14159. Dr. Daubechies plans to bake pi cookies to celebrate Pi Day, which is this Friday, March 14 — 3/14. That day is also the International Day of Mathematics; the theme in 2025 is mathematics, art and creativity.For the occasion, this year Dr. Daubechies is visiting the University… read more » about A Mathematical ‘Fever Dream’ Hits the Road with Duke Mathematician
My guest is Dr. Herman Pontzer, Ph.D., a professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health at Duke University, known for his research on human bioenergetics, particularly energy expenditure and the exercise paradox. We discuss his work comparing highly active hunter-gatherer groups to more sedentary cultures, exploring their total energy expenditure and the surprising similarities.We examine the impact of factors such as age, sex, exercise, and pregnancy on daily energy expenditure. We also break down whether diet or… read more » about Herman Pontzer: How We Really Burn Calories & Lose Weight
In the rapidly developing contest between human creativity and artificial intelligence algorithms, professional artists still have an edge in producing more creative AI-assisted artwork than the AI programs themselves or novice artists, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.The rapid advancement of AI raises some existential questions about the nature of creativity, said lead researcher Paul Seli, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. read more » about Duke Neuroscientist Finds Professional Artists Viewed as More Creative Than AI Programs
