With less than 100 days until the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins, Iran’s participation in the tournament has been thrown into serious doubt following escalating conflict in the Middle East.
This installment of Dissertation Diaries highlights Kirsten Trinidad, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate at the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture. Before joining Tufts, Trinidad completed a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University.
We were all once fans, captivated by what we believed to be magic. The mark of childhood is devotion to the magician — the athlete’s transformation into an idol, a deity, a hero to be defended unceasingly against criticism. This was me. Kobe Bryant was my hero. I named our German Shepherd puppy after him. The moment I learned that Kobe couldn’t be my idol marked the end of my childhood.
We live in a world where conversations about politics, social issues and cultural debates seem unavoidable, and divisions on these topics seem ever-growing. Opinions travel quickly while disagreements travel even faster, and silence can sometimes feel like a statement in itself. So naturally, I wondered what people here thought about it. This week’s question was: Should you always speak up about what you believe, or is it OK to stay silent to maintain peace?
Welcome back, fellow soup enthusiasts — we missed you. What a whirlwind of emotions this week has been! From a balmy 50-degree Saturday to unexpected snow on Tuesday, it is amazing how quickly things can change. But whatever the temperature, one thing stays constant: the comfort produced by a good bowl of soup.
I, like at least 128 million others, spent Feb. 8 watching Bad Bunny perform in the Super Bowl halftime show. And like most of those 128 million, I loved the performance; it was rich with cultural references, amazing visuals and a message of love. What Bad Bunny did was celebrate Puerto Rico, with all of its beauty and struggles. He also showcased an important cultural legacy: the Indigenous Taíno peoples and their survival, which is part of the broader story of Puerto Rican culture.
F--k the high road. We’ve all been told it’s something we’re supposed to take (and if you weren’t … respectfully, we can tell). Unfortunately, now that you’re college-aged, morally it would look like you’re the asshole if you didn’t. But when did ‘being the bigger person’ stop meaning ‘don’t shove that girl on the playground for insulting your shoes,’ and start meaning ‘swallow those very real, very valid emotions like they’re character flaws’?
Sonder: the feeling one gets upon realizing that every other individual has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others have secondary or insignificant roles.
We’re back, and this time with a bookstore that is only a stone’s throw away from campus. Sharing a name with its neighborhood, our store for this week is Porter Square Books. No matter if you walk, bike, bus or MBTA, the store is less than 30 minutes away.
As a New Yorker, I was raised to believe that our city does everything better. We walk faster (seriously, move over if you’re walking slowly, I’m begging you), talk louder and eat like it’s a competitive sport. There’s food from every corner of the world within a 10-block radius, and somehow, it’s all good. There are corner delis that are still open at midnight and cheap, delicious pizza by the slice that tastes better than it should. From family-run spots to high-end Michelin-starred restaurants, we have it all.
With the World Cup set to take over North America this June, one of the biggest beneficiaries will be Major League Soccer. In this column, I will examine how the league’s rising player quality is helping MLS move beyond its ‘retirement league’ label.
In honor of midterms season, when Tisch Library is at its fullest and everyone suddenly becomes best friends with their Google Calendar, I wanted to ask about something related to our drive throughout all of this: our futures. Given that Tufts is a very academically rigorous institution, we’re all working hard to pass our classes. But why is there so much pressure? So this week’s question is: If productivity had no impact on your future, would you still try as hard as you do now?
In June 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott vetoed a $60 million measure that would have allowed his state to participate in a federal summer lunch program for low-income children. The Summer EBT program would have given families $120 per student to pay for lunches during the summer of 2027, which would have been able to feed an estimated 3.75 million children across Texas.
The 2025–26 season has been one of the most entertaining and competitive seasons of recent memory. It seems like every Saturday offers multiple marquee matchups. The one thing that hasn’t delivered is No. 1 recruit Darryn Peterson’s health. The Kansas first-year is facing lots of backlash for his unpredictable availability that has plagued the Jayhawks all season: It’s one of the biggest stories in sports right now.
Dear Reader,The other night, I landed in Boston from Milan, flying head first into two midterms I had not studied for, a completely booked Google Calendar of postponed meetings and a literal blizzard.But I had just witnessed my friend, Alysa Liu, compete and win the Olympic gold medal in figure skating, and my issues here at Tufts suddenly seemed less significant.
Donald Chapelle, founder and owner of Brilliant Ice Sculpture, made his first foray into the world of ice carving at 18 years old. He was living in a hotel and noticed a large block of ice in the freezer. A waiter told him it was used to make sculptures.
Rooting for the United States, whether it be in the Olympics, the World Cup or any other sporting event, almost always leads me to some degree of internal confusion. Sure, I’m as much of a red-blooded American as the next guy, but it’s often difficult to reconcile the instinct to root for the home team with the knowledge that its banner — so often touted as that of the ‘good guys’ — is emblematic of a nation flawed at its core.
Welcome back to “Serve & Survey.” This week’s question came from a movie night watching Disney’s “Inside Out 2.” In the movie, a group of animated emotions fight for control, but, in the end, they learn that they are all needed to make Riley who she is. That made me wonder: What would happen if we didn’t let all of them stay?
With 112 days until the World Cup, even the CVS in Davis Square is stocking tournament merchandise. I sat down with two Tufts students to hear what the tournament means to them.
The NBA Dunk Contest used to be a special showcase of the pinnacles of basketball athleticism: Michael Jordan’s free-throw line dunk in 1987 and Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine’s legendary duel in 2016 are the most famous examples.
