The Conversation

AI and machine learning are improving weather forecasts, but they won't replace human experts

Written by Russ Schumacher, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science and Colorado State Climatologist, Colorado State University

Meteorologist Todd Dankers monitors weather patterns in Boulder, Colorado, Oct. 24, 2018. Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images

A century ago, English mathematician Lewis Fry Richardson proposed a startling idea for that time: constructing a systematic process based on math for predicting the weather. In his 1922 book, “Weather...

How the NRA evolved from backing a 1934 ban on machine guns to blocking nearly all firearm restrictions today

Written by Robert Spitzer, Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the Political Science Department, State University of New York College at Cortland

NRA conventiongoers, like these at the gun group's 2018 big meeting, browse firearms exhibits.Loren Elliott/AFP via Getty Images

The mass shootings at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, just 10 days apart, are stirring the now-familiar national debate over guns seen after the tragic 2012 and 2018 school...

After mass shootings like Uvalde, national gun control fails – but states often loosen gun laws

Written by Christopher Poliquin, Assistant Professor of Strategy, University of California, Los Angeles

A girl cries outside the Willie de Leon Civic Center in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022.Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images

Calls for new gun legislation that previously failed to pass Congress are being raised again after the May 24, 2022, mass shooting at an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde, Texas.

An 18-year-old shooter killed at...

What the Voyager space probes can teach humanity about immortality and legacy as they sail through space for trillions of years

Written by James Edward Huchingson, Professor Emeritus and Lecturer in Religion and Science, Florida International University

Scientists expect the Voyager spacecraft to outlive Earth by at least a trillion years.NASA/JPL-CalTech

Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth. After sweeping by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, it is now almost 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth in interstellar space. Both Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2,...

Replacement theory isn't new – 3 things to know about how this once-fringe conspiracy has become more mainstream

Written by Paul J. Becker, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton

People pray at the scene of the mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 15, 2022.Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The recent grocery store mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, is placing a spotlight on white supremacy.

Eighteen-year-old Payton Gendron drove three hours from his home in Conklin, New York, to the Tops grocery store on...

Parents of deaf children often miss out on key support from the Deaf community

Written by Pamela Renee Conley, Associate Professor of Liberal Studies, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology

The Deaf community, which includes hearing people as well as those who are deaf and hard of hearing, can be a big help to deaf children and their parents.Lauren A. Little/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images

An increasing number of deaf and hard-of-hearing kids in the U.S. are receiving cochlear implants – electrical conductors...

Dangerous counterfeit drugs are putting millions of US consumers at risk, according to a new study

Written by C. Michael White, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut

Many counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs are sold online, and the bulk of them are being obtained without a prescription. Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

The Food and Drug Administration took 130 enforcement actions against counterfeit medication rings from...

Foreign companies exiting Russia echo the pressure campaign against South Africa's racist apartheid system

Written by Stephen Bagwell, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Missouri-St. Louis

McDonald's is leaving Russia after three decades of operating there.Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

McDonald’s provided many Russians with their first taste of capitalism three decades ago. Now, the global fast-food giant is exiting the country. Starbucks is also on its way out.

All told, about 1,000 companies have decided to...

What we know about mass school shootings in the US – and the gunmen who carry them out

Written by James Densley, Professor of Criminal Justice, Metropolitan State University

The archbishop of San Antonio, Gustavo Garcia-Siller, comforts families following a deadly school shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills

When the Columbine High School massacre took place in 1999 it was seen as a watershed moment in the United States – the worst mass shooting at a school in the...

At least 19 children killed in Texas elementary school - 3 essential reads on America's relentless gun violence

Written by Matt Williams, Breaking News Editor

Friends and families gather outside the civic center after the mass school shooting on May 24, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images)

At least 19 children and one teacher were killed when a teenage gunman shot them at a Texas elementary school on May 24, 2022 – the latest mass shooting in a country in which such incidents...