In the United States, the stigma surrounding cannabis, known by various names including weed, Mary Jane, or marijuana, has undergone a complex journey from being classified as a Schedule I substance with a high potential for abuse and no medical value (a decision now under review) to becoming commonplace in modern culture.

Throughout much of...Read more

Astronomers predict this year will be the best in the last decade to see the northern lights. We have the sun's current solar cycle to thank for the stronger aurora borealis in 2024. Scientists say the sun is hitting its "solar maximum," or the highest activity rate during its current solar cycle, meaning more frequent and brighter northern ...Read more

Young Americans are less optimistic these days, but none more so than Generation Z.

Less than half (47%) of Gen Zers said they were thriving, according to a survey conducted by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. The survey asked Americans to rate their current and future lives out of 10, with people classifying as "thriving" if they ...Read more

Health care prices are notoriously opaque in America. A 2022 InstaMed survey reported that 71% of consumers found their medical bills confusing, while 76% received an unexpected charge.

Congress introduced a number of reforms in recent years designed to help people figure out how much various medical services actually cost. As of Jan. 1, ...Read more

Reports of teachers leaving their jobs in search of more stability and higher pay are not uncommon, but is the grass greener on the other side?

HeyTutor analyzed data from the National Center for Education Statistics, published in December 2023, to show how teachers feel about leaving careers in education. Data includes results from the ...Read more

Gone are the days of the simple choice of smoking a joint or munching on a pot brownie to consume weed. The cannabis industry has made inroads just about everywhere you can imagine—think products like coffee pods, bath bombs, and toothpaste. As recreational and medicinal cannabis use becomes legal in more states across the U.S., companies are...Read more

Gold has been a desirable commodity for thousands of years, dating back to ancient civilization.

In Rome, Julius Caesar gifted 200 gold coins to each of his soldiers to celebrate their victory against Gaul. Gold production and consumption have grown continually through modern times. In fact, most gold worldwide—more than 90%—has been ...Read more

In 2024, nearly half (48%) of American adults made a New Year's resolution to improve their fitness, according to a Forbes Health/OnePoll survey.

It's a good goal—because Americans aren't doing it nearly enough.

Nearly 1 in 4 American adults are not getting the suggested two days of muscle training and 150 minutes of moderate exercise ...Read more

The U.S. has ambitious goals to curb climate change in the coming decades—and electric vehicles feature heavily in that plan.

EV vehicles represent an immense leap in automotive industry capabilities made possible by computer chips and battery technology advancements, further nudged by government incentives. But research and current ...Read more

From decade to decade, our personal spaces have reflected the times, impacted by the events of each era that influence not only the nation's temperament, but also the availability of materials and objects to furnish homes.

To relive the most memorable design movements over the last 100 years, Living Spaces traveled back in time via archival ...Read more

Americans are forking out more money than ever for their health care. For a significant number of the most vulnerable seniors and Americans with disabilities across the country, those high costs are causing them to postpone care.

QMedic analyzed data from the Commonwealth Fund's 2023 Health Care Affordability Survey to illustrate how many ...Read more

As Oregon scales back its efforts to decriminalize illicit drugs, the debate on how to curb the growing drug overdose epidemic in the United States rages on.

More than 51,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2022, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, nearly two-thirds (64.7%) had a ...Read more

Wondering why your packages are delayed, or perhaps why store inventory is low? The simple answer is these goods might be stuck in traffic. For example, the speed limit on Interstate 71 through Kentucky and Ohio is 70 mph, but the average speed for semitrucks is under 40 mph. Congestion around major metro areas can also create traffic backups ...Read more

Smartphones unlocking at a glance. Palm payments for in-store shopping. Eye scans to pass through airport security.

What were once sci-fi fantasies are now a reality. Biometrics such as fingerprints, eye scans, facial recognition, and voice matching don't exist just for use by the wealthy; they are incorporated into everyday technology and ...Read more

Artificial intelligence is seeing traction among the largest generational contingent in the U.S. workforce: millennials. And they may not be using it just to boost productivity at work.

Verbit analyzed Morning Consult survey data published in 2024 to illustrate how millennials interact most with emerging AI tools. Morning Consult polling ...Read more

Today, certain city structures across America have become synonymous with the skylines they dot, from Seattle's Space Needle to Chicago's Willis Tower and New York City's Empire State Building. While they may now be indelible markers in their metros, these buildings are relatively new. After all, it wasn't until the late 19th century that ...Read more

Since the first cellphone call was placed from a New York City sidewalk in 1973, the mobile phone has revolutionized everything from our ability to simply communicate on the go to having an entire computer fit in the palms of our hands.

Though cellphones existed by the early '70s—and car phones predated those by a decade or two—they ...Read more

Humans have been looking to the sky to make sense of the world around us for thousands of years. Ancient cave paintings seem to show humans began using the position of the stars to keep track of time as early as 40,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence also indicates astronomy was one of the first natural sciences developed by many ancient ...Read more

Half of all renters spend more than 30% of their incomes to cover the cost of housing, representing a record number of cost-burdened renters in the U.S.

The striking statistic comes from a new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, released in February 2024, that examined 2022 census data. Belong analyzed the...Read more

If you take melatonin when you are struggling to get to sleep, vitamin D to help maintain healthy bones, or fish oil to help prevent heart disease, you are among over half of U.S. adults over the age of 20 who reported using dietary supplements, according to 2017-2018 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Multivitamins, ...Read more