The Epstein-Barr virus infects most of us – but why do only some get very ill?

Epstein-Barr virus is a very common infection, but that doesn’t make it harmless Science History Images/Alamy About 1 in 10 people carry genetic variants that make them particularly vulnerable to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a ubiquitous pathogen that is increasingly being linked to conditions like multiple sclerosis and lupus. The finding, which comes from a…

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Are we living in a simulation?

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Is the whole universe just a simulation? —Moumita B., age 13, Dhaka, Bangladesh How do you know anything is real? Some things you can see directly, like your fingers. Other…

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Friction review: Engaging look at friction shows how it keeps our world rubbing along

Athletes wearing a friction-reducing swimsuit dominated the 2008 Beijing Olympics Adam Pretty/Getty Images Friction: A biographyJennifer R. Vail, Harvard University Press IN 2009, World Aquatics banned a specific type of swimsuit from all international competitions in water sports, ruling that it gave athletes an unfair advantage. The development of this swimsuit included using NASA’s testing…

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‘Need cues to watch a movie because they are on second screens’: Even film students can’t put their phones down

With ever-shrinking attention spans, film students today are struggling to make it to the end of a feature-length movie without getting distracted by their phones. That’s according to a recent article by The Atlantic’s Rose Horowitch. In a snippet that has since circulated on X, gaining nearly 2 million views since it was posted last…

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