The Curiosity Gap Content

How Does Presidential Order on AI Regulation Affect States?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — February 17, 2026 - 3:45pm

How Does Rage Bait Affect Us?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — February 13, 2026 - 4:15pm

We’ve all seen rage bait posts on social media. They might be political or personal. They might be rude or outright false. What they have in common is the ability to make our blood boil.

How Did the Milky Way Galaxy Form?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — February 13, 2026 - 2:53pm

If you’ve ever been to a place with minimal light pollution and looked skywards at nighttime, you’ve probably seen our Milky Way galaxy. It manifests as a thick, hazy band of stars streaking across the sky.

Are We Connected by Evolution?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — February 11, 2026 - 9:43am

Paul Eastwick was in high school when he first came across the idea that evolution might explain how and why humans love. It was in a 1994 Time Magazine article about the book The Moral Animal by Robert Wright.

How Do Teachers Prepare with Every Student in Mind?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — February 03, 2026 - 10:42am

Kindergarten teacher Paige Hendrix marked her students’ cubbies with personalized nametags for the first day of school. But as students arrived, she quickly realized that most of her class couldn’t yet read their names in print. Rather than rushing to teach letter recognition, Hendrix pivoted, taping photos of each child to their cubby.

What Does Empathy Have to Do with Politics?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — February 02, 2026 - 10:28am

When President Donald J. Trump took office for the second time lat year, he enlisted tech giant Elon Musk to help find and cut “waste” in the federal government. Over the first few months of his second-term, Trump, Musk and the Administration cut federal funding to international aid programs, food programs and safety net programs even within the U.S. They took on science and medical research, too, slashing funding to universities and even government research institutions.

How is the Poverty Rate Determined?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — January 09, 2026 - 3:09pm

The U.S. is the world’s wealthiest nation and yet, year after year, a significant share of the population lives in poverty.

How Do Personal Beliefs Influence Beliefs in Pseudoscience, Supernatural?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — December 02, 2025 - 10:15am

The human mind doesn’t always seem to work rationally. Why do beliefs in pseudoscience, supernatural entities and conspiracy theories thrive even when they seem implausible or lack evidence?

For years, this question has puzzled cognitive and evolutionary scientists. Often, such extraordinary beliefs are explained as byproducts of cognitive biases that make the belief compelling and/or by social dynamics, like the pressure to fit in with a group.

How Did Scholars and Teachers Build LGBTQ-Plus K-12 Curriculum?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — November 05, 2025 - 2:12pm

Geraldine Portica might have known the risks every day when she wore a dress. In a 1917 portrait, she wears a dress and a wide-brimmed hat. She stands with one hand on her hip as her other hand extends the loose fabric of her skirt as if to show its cut.

A handwritten note on the photo's bottom margin explains that she had lived her whole life as female since her birth in Mexico.

How Does Academic Freedom Help Society?

Karen Michele Nikos-Rose — October 09, 2025 - 1:01pm

Academic freedom is fundamental to higher education. Without it, everyone loses the value created by university educators, researchers and scholars.

“If we aren't free to pursue research and teaching based on wherever the knowledge leads us, we are not truly working in the service of the public,” said Rana Jaleel, an associate professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies and Asian American studies in the College of Letters and Science at �鶹��ý.