The Conversation

Putting a spiritual spin on my love affair with vinyl

Written by Brock Ruggles, Assistant Teaching Professor of History, Arizona State University

Vinyl records are becoming the music industry's highest-grossing physical format.eclipse_images/Collection E+ via Getty images

I am a vinyl record aficionado. My father, also a musician, recently gave me his vinyl collection, and it made me reflect: Why, despite limited use of my arms due to disability, do I still go to the effort of playing vinyl...

The Boeing Starliner has returned to Earth without its crew – a former astronaut details what that means for NASA, Boeing and the astronauts still up in space

Written by Michael E. Fossum, Vice President, Texas A&M University

The Boeing Starliner, shown as it approached the International Space Station.NASA via AP

Boeing’s crew transport space capsule, the Starliner, returned to Earth without its two-person crew right after midnight Eastern time on Sept. 7, 2024. Its remotely piloted return marked the end of a fraught test flight to the International Space Station...

Tiny, compact galaxies are masters of disguise in the distant universe − searching for the secrets behind the Little Red Dots

Written by Fabio Pacucci, Astrophysicist, Smithsonian Institution

Supermassive black holes grow by pulling in matter around them.M. Kornmesser/ESO via AP

Astronomers exploring the faraway universe with the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s most powerful telescope, have found a class of galaxies that challenges even the most skillful creatures in mimicry – like the mimic octopus. This creature can...

Georgia high school shooting shows how hard it can be to take action even after police see warning signs

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

Students kneel in front of a makeshift memorial on Sept. 5, 2024, in front of Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., where two students and two teachers were shot and killed the day before.Jessica McGowan via Getty Images

Most school shootings don’t just happen out of nowhere – there are typically warning signs.

A year before a...

Space travel comes with risk − and SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission will push the envelope further than any private mission has before

Written by Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona

Spacewalks are among the more dangerous activities associated with human spaceflight. Ignatiev/E+ via Getty Images

Space is an unnatural environment for humans. We can’t survive unprotected in a pure vacuum for more than two minutes. Getting to space involves being strapped to a barely contained chemical explosion.

Since 1961, fewer than 700...

Crossing state lines to get an abortion is a new legal minefield, with courts to decide if there’s a right to travel

Written by Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of Virginia

An examination room at a Jacksonville abortion clinic in April 2024, shortly before Florida's six-week abortion ban went into effect.Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Almost half of the states in the country have made it harder to get an abortion since the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the federal right to get an abortion. Fourteen states ban abortions...

Trump campaign violated rules in Arlington National Cemetery visit, cemetery legal expert explains

Written by Tanya D. Marsh, Professor of Law, Wake Forest University

This photo, taken with permission from cemetery officials, shows Donald Trump during his visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 26, 2024.Kevin Carter/Getty Images

The public furor continues over Donald Trump’s behavior during a visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 26, 2024.

Since that visit to the U.S. military burial ground...

As eastern equine encephalitis spreads, a neurologist explains how to stay safe during this latest outbreak of the ‘triple E’ virus

Written by Daniel Pastula, Professor of Neurology, Medicine (Infectious Diseases), and Epidemiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The "black-legged” or "black-tailed” mosquito is known for infecting humans with the EEE virus.The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

The 2024 outbreak of eastern equine encephalitis – known as triple E or EEE – has caused six reported and confirmed human disease cases in five states, including one death, as of...

Black church leaders brought religion to politics in the ‘60s – but it was dramatically different from today’s white Christian nationalism

Written by Tobin Miller Shearer, Professor of History and African-American Studies, University of Montana

A group of teenagers marching during a civil rights rally. Bettman via Getty Images

Fifty-eight years ago in the summer of 1966, a group of Black church leaders took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times titled “Black Power.” Their densely worded statement called on national leaders, “white churchmen,” Black...

Kamala Harris’ purported Irish ancestry highlights complicated backstory of identity and enslavement

Written by Christine Kinealy, Director of Ireland's Great Hunger Institute, Quinnipiac University

If elected -- and her father's account of the family's history is correct -- Kamala Harris would become the 24th U.S. president of Irish heritageOlivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

When Barack Obama was elected president, the people of Moneygall in Ireland celebrated. Birthplace of Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather on his white...