The Conversation

Curious Kids: How does a curveball curve?

Written by Jim Gregory, Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University

A pitcher tries to throw a ball past a batter. AP Images/Eric Gay

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

How does a curveball curve? – Marek Powell, age 12, Dorchester, Massachusetts

You may have seen a pitcher throw a curveball...

Kurds targeted in Turkish attack include thousands of female fighters who battled Islamic State

Written by Haidar Khezri, Assistant Professor, University of Central Florida

Kurdish fighters under attack by Turkey have described President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria as a “stab in the back.”

Since bombing began on Oct. 9, Turkish military operations against the Syrian Democratic Forces in northern Syria, Washington’s staunchest and most effective allies in...

Income-based repayment becoming a costly solution to student loan debt

Written by Robert Kelchen, Associate Professor of Higher Education, Seton Hall University

Student loan debt is approaching the $1.5 trillion mark.zimmytws/Shutterstock.com

When Congress established the income-driven repayment for federal student loans back in 2007, it was touted as a way to help student loan borrowers save money by capping monthly payments at a certain percentage of a borrower’s income.

Since then, student loan...

Blue light isn't the main source of eye fatigue and sleep loss – it's your computer

Written by Phillip Yuhas, Assistant Professor of Optometry, The Ohio State University

While blue light has been blamed for sleep loss, it's not the only bad light.Chaoss/Shuttterstock.com

Blue light has gotten a bad rap, getting blamed for loss of sleep and eye damage. Personal electronic devices emit more blue light than any other color. Blue light has a short wavelength, which means that it is high-energy and can damage the...

Voters often parrot the party line, even when polls suggest otherwise

Written by Justin Buchler, Associate Professor of Political Science, Case Western Reserve University

People line up to vote in the 2008 election in Arlington, Virginia.Rob Crandall/Shutterstock.com

As the 2020 election approaches, voters will see a variety of polls. Many of them will be misleading.

Over time, political science has learned which types of questions are informative and which are not, based on models of public opinion. But many of the...

Why Barack Obama was particularly unsuited to live up to the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize

Written by Nick Lehr, Arts + Culture Editor

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama board Air Force One en route to Oslo, Norway, to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2009.AP Photo/Susan Walsh

A decade ago, in October 2009, Barack Obama learned that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was uncomfortable with the prize, saying that he didn’t feel that he deserved...

Lithium ion Nobel Prize shows how individual brainstorms add up to world-transforming innovations

Written by Amy Prieto, Professor of Chemistry, Colorado State University

Lithium ion batteries store large amounts of power in small battery cells that can be recharged.Mile Atanasov

Nobel Prizes in Chemistry seem to rotate between novel compounds, revolutionary measurement techniques, and insights into how atoms can be combined to form new molecules and solids. This year, however, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was...

Why don't more women win science Nobels?

Written by Mary K. Feeney, Professor and Lincoln Professor of Ethics in Public Affairs and Associate Director of the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Studies, Arizona State University

All of the 2019 Nobel Prizes in science were awarded to men.

That’s a return to business as usual, after biochemical engineer Frances Arnold won in 2018, for chemistry, and Donna Strickland received the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics.

Strickland was only the third female physicist to get a Nobel, following Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria...

Turkish attack on Syria endangers a remarkable democratic experiment by the Kurds

Written by James L. Gelvin, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of California, Los Angeles

Kurdish fighters in Syria say the U.S. is abandoning its allies and potentially empowering the Islamic State by withdrawing from northeastern Syria and allowing a Turkish assault, Oct. 7, 2019.AP Photo

Turkey’s attack on Kurdish-run territory in northern Syria will likely snuff out a radical experiment in self-government that is unlike...

US will send migrants to El Salvador, a country that can't protect its own people

Written by Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emerson College

The Trump administration is continuing its efforts to keep Central American asylum seekers away from the United States’ border.

On Sept. 20 the U.S. signed an agreement with El Salvador to accept asylum seekers sent out of the United States. U.S. officials have avoided specifics in discussing the deal and implied that only Salvadoran...