Simchat Torah celebrations in Netanya, Israel, in 2013.

Simchat Torah: A Jewish holiday of reading, renewal andÌęresilience

Oct. 14, 2022

Simchat Torah is about more than beginning to read the Torah all over again. It’s about the need to reexamine what we think we know, over and over again.

abbey

Westminster Abbey has seen a millennium of British history, but many rituals, like those at royal funerals, aren’t so old

Sept. 20, 2022

Despite their emphasis upon tradition, royal ceremonies have always been somewhat fluid and reflective of the politics of their day.

NASA is going back to the Moon

NASA’s Artemis 1 mission to the Moon sets the stage for routine space exploration beyond Earth’s orbit—here’s what to expect and why it’s important

Aug. 31, 2022

When the Orion Crew Capsule orbits the Moon there will be no one on board. But the mission will mark a key step in bringing humans back to Earth’s dusty sidekick.

Ukrainian funeral

Ukraine: most people refuse to compromise on territory, but willingness to make peace depends on their war experiences—newÌęsurvey

June 30, 2022

Survey shows that Ukrainians’ attitudes about a peace settlement and any territorial concessions to the Russians differs depending on their experience of war.

Demonstrators stand outside the Supreme Court

There is no one ‘religious view’ on abortion: A scholar of religion, gender and sexuality explains

June 24, 2022

Views on abortion differ not only among major religious traditions, but within each one.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Patriarch of Russia Kirill and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (in background), at a monastery outside Moscow in 2017.

Russian church leader puts the blame of invasion on those who flout ‘God’s law,’ but taking biblical law out of its historical context doesn’t work

April 22, 2022

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, preached a sermon on March 6, 2022, in which he suggested the violation of “ God’s law ” provided divine license for the war against Ukraine. In particular, Kirill pointed to Ukrainian acceptance of gay rights and the promotion of gay...

The Moon.

A rocket is going to crash into the Moon–the accidental experiment will shed light on the physics of impacts in space

March 3, 2022

Scientists will have a rare opportunity to study how natural collisions pummel and scour planetary surfaces.

Female rabbi reading a text with two male colleagues standing on either side

Women lead religious groups in many ways—besides the growing number who have beenÌęordained

Jan. 19, 2022

A scholar of gender and US religious history explains how women are trying to make religious communities more inclusive. Women’s ordination is only one piece of this ongoing work.

People partying stock photo

Here’s where (and how) you are most likely to catch COVID

Jan. 13, 2022

Researchers have crafted a COVID-19 Aerosol Transmission Estimator for people to discover their risk of catching coronavirus for any given situation.

Still from the new 'West Side Story'

‘West Side Story’ may be timeless—but life in gangs today differs drastically from when the Jets and Sharks ruled theÌęstreets

Dec. 24, 2021

Gangs have changed in the decades since ‘West Side Story’ first came out—they are deadlier, and their demographics are different—as are the means law enforcement use to control them.

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