The museum preserves the tangible traces of John Paul II’s daily life and spiritual practices during his Roman sojourns Photo: Governo Italiano

Trump administration bans “gender reassignment” surgeries on minors

At the center of the initiative is a shift in how federal health programs will define acceptable standards of care. HHS intends to make participation in Medicare and Medicaid contingent on hospitals refraining from providing sex-change-related treatments to minors. In practical terms, this condition would affect the vast majority of U.S. hospitals, given their dependence on public funding streams

How do music and sound generate experiences of wonder? Stanford researchers launch investigation into sound and transcendence

At the heart of the project lies a provocative hypothesis. Many sacred sites, the researchers argue, produce acoustic effects that disrupt ordinary sensory expectations. Echoes blur spatial boundaries, sound sources become difficult to locate, distances seem to stretch or collapse. What the eyes perceive as finite and material, the ears experience as expansive and elusive