In graduate school, my experimental archaeology professor told a student to create a door socket – the hole in a door frame that a bolt slides into – in a slab of sandstone by pecking at it with a rounded stone. After a couple of weeks, the student presented his results to the class. “I […] … learn more→

There’s a common assumption that if someone starts learning a language when they are very young, they will quickly become fluent. Many people also assume that it will become much harder to learn a language if they start later in life. Research into language learning shows that how old someone is when they learn a language does matter, […] … learn more→

Throughout the 20th century, college and university presidents spoke out on everything, from wars to civil rights struggles, with a sense of moral authority attempting to guide the course. Their language was typically direct and free of jargon. “Democracy is the best form of government. It is worth dying for,” Robert M. Hutchins, president of the University of […] … learn more→

To analyze the enormous volumes of data, particularly that generated by the numerous sensors that now populate our lives—from dishwashers to cars, not to mention our phones—we send it to the cloud. To enable faster and more secure calculations, edge computing is developing. Its AI counterpart is edge AI , a way of doing AI without relying on the […] … learn more→

Academic reading and writing are key skills at university. They allow us to access diverse content, develop more complex thinking, and actively participate in academic life. It’s not just about understanding texts or writing papers, but also about knowing how to argue, synthesize ideas, and communicate them clearly and effectively. However, university students struggle with these types […] … learn more→

What happens to a college education when a chatbot can draft an essay, summarize a reading and generate computer code in seconds? The arrival of artificial intelligence in college classrooms has been swift and, for many schools, disorienting. As professors of economics and business management and biology at liberal arts colleges, we are confronting a question that […] … learn more→

Visa restrictions for foreign researchers and students, political attacks targeting some of the world’s leading research universities, and sudden suspensions of public funding, particularly in the fields of climate and the environment: since Donald Trump’s re-election in November 2024, these decisions have generated considerable media surprise. They are often presented as a radical break with […] … learn more→

Australian students are returning to university campuses for the start of the academic year. They do so amid highly charged debates around racism and antisemitism. Australian universities have been accused both of failing to protect freedom of speech and academic freedom, and failing to protect the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students and staff. A new Australian Human Rights […] … learn more→

Last year, Norwegian-US tech company 1X announced a strange new product: “the world’s first consumer-ready humanoid robot designed to transform life at home”. Standing 168 centimetres tall and weighing in at 30 kilograms, the US$20,000 Neo bot promises to automate common household chores such as folding laundry and loading the dishwasher. Neo has a built-in artificial intelligence (AI) system, […] … learn more→

In blues, jazz, and music that traces its roots to those genres, the riff is a repeated chord progression or set of notes that ties a song together. A guitar riff returns again and again in a song as though to tell listeners where they are, even as the instruments take excursions elsewhere. The song […] … learn more→