The Conversation

What happens to the ocean if we take out all the fish? A marine ecologist explains the complex roles fish play in their ecosystem

Written by Kory Evans, Assistant Professor of BioSciences, Rice University

Fish swim in a reef at Pearl and Hermes Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.AP Photo/Jacob Asher

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.

What would happen to the ocean if we took out all the fish? – Reny, age 12

The...

From South Asia to Mexico, from slave to spiritual icon, this woman's life is a snapshot of Spain's colonization – and the Pacific slave trade history that books often leave out

Written by Diego Javier Luis, Assistant Professor of History, Tufts University

Catarina was revered in Puebla, Mexico – but devotion to her attracted Catholic authorities' disapproval after her death.Image from the collections of the Biblioteca Nacional de España

Jan. 5, 2024, marked 336 years since the passing of an extraordinary woman you have probably never heard of: Catarina de San Juan.

Her life reads like an...

South Korea's gender imbalance is bad news for men − outnumbering women, many face bleak marriage prospects

Written by Dudley L. Poston Jr., Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University

In South Korea, there are nor enough young Korean women for young Korean men to marry. RUNSTUDIO/Getty Images

South Korea’s bachelor time bomb is about to really go off. Following a historic 30-year-long imbalance in the male-to-female sex ratio at birth, young men far outnumber young women in the country. As a result, some 700,000 to...

An overlooked and undercounted group of Arab American and Muslim voters may have outsized impact on 2024 presidential election

Written by Youssef Chouhoud, Assistant Professor, Christopher Newport University

People demonstrate in support of Palestinians on Oct. 14, 2023, in Dearborn, Mich.Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

Though domestic issues tend to motivate most U.S. voters, the war in the Middle East may be the dominant issue in mind for an increasingly important voting block: Middle Eastern and Muslim Americans.

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas...

Emergency medicine residencies more likely to go unfilled at for-profit and newly accredited programs

Written by Cameron Gettel, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Yale University

The number of unfilled positions in emergency medicine residency programs surged in 2022 and 2023, with the trend most pronounced at programs that were recently accredited or under for-profit ownership. That’s the key finding of my team’s recent study of the past two match cycles.

A match cycle is when medical students choose a...

College applications rose in states that legalized recreational marijuana

Written by Christopher D. Blake, Assistant Professor of Economics, Emory University

Effects of legalization on college application rates are short term. wildpixel via iStock/Getty Images Plus

Colleges in states where recreational marijuana became legal over the past decade saw a significant but short-term boost in applications from top-notch students. They also got more applications overall. Those were the key findings of a new...

US Supreme Court decision on Trump-Colorado ballot case 'monumental' for democracy itself, not just 2024 presidential election

Written by Derek T. Muller, Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame

The U.S. Supreme Court.Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

Momentous questions for the U.S. Supreme Court and momentous consequences for the country are likely now that the court has announced it will decide whether former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump is eligible to appear on the Colorado ballot.

The court’s decision to...

Jan. 6 was an example of networked incitement − a media and disinformation expert explains the danger of political violence orchestrated over social media

Written by Joan Donovan, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media Studies, Boston University

Social media and cellphones connected President Trump to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

The shocking events of Jan. 6, 2021, signaled a major break from the nonviolent rallies that categorized most major protests over the past few decades.

What set Jan. 6 apart was the president of the United States using...

70 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, public schools still deeply segregated

Written by Erica Frankenberg, Professor of Education and Demography, Penn State

How school attendance zones are drawn can affect segregation.Ariel Skelley/DigitalVision Collection/Getty Images

Brown vs. Board of Education, the pivotal Supreme Court decision that made school segregation unconstitutional, turns 70 years old on May 17, 2024.

At the time of the 1954 ruling, 17 U.S. states had laws permitting or requiring racially...

The US invented shopping malls, but China is writing their next chapter

Written by John Rennie Short, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

People walk under a light projection at a shopping mall in Beijing. (Photo by Jade Gao / AFPJade Gao/AFP via Getty Images)

On a recent research trip to China, I wandered through the Oasis Mall in suburban Shanghai. Like many Chinese shopping centers, this complex was filled with empty stores that reflected the end of China’s 30-year-long...