The Conversation

Living with wildfire: How to protect more homes as fire risk rises in a warming climate

Written by Justin Angle, Professor of Marketing, University of Montana

Homeowners and local governments can take steps to help protect homes from fires.AP Photo/Keith D. Cullom

Humans have learned to fear wildfire. It can destroy communities, torch pristine forests and choke even faraway cities with toxic smoke.

Wildfire is scary for good reason, and over a century of fire suppression efforts has conditioned people to...

First Republican debate set to kick off without Trump – but with the potential to direct the GOP's foreign policy stance

Written by Jordan Tama, Provost Associate Professor of International Relations, American University School of International Service

GOP candidates will likely debate whether the US should continue to pour support into Ukraine's effort to defeat Russia.Scott Peterson/Getty Images

When Republican presidential hopefuls take the stage in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, 2023, for the first debate of the 2024 campaign season, attention will center on how the candidates position themselves vis-&...

Cameras in the court: Why most Trump trials won’t be televised

Written by David Cuillier, Director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida

Not inside: News cameras set up outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse, where former President Donald Trump was due in court on Aug. 2, 2023. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Americans will have few opportunities to binge-watch the Donald J. Trump trials.

It is unlikely the four court proceedings facing the former president will...

This university class uses color and emotion to explore the end of life

Written by Marcia Brennan, Professor of Religion and Art History, Rice University

An imaginative watercolor drawing by Madison Zhao inviting students to enter the 'Schools of Color.' Madison Zhao/Courtesy of Marcia Brennan, Author provided

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Title of course:

“The Colors of Life and the End of Life”

What...

Want to help Maui's animals after the wildfires? Send cash, not kibble

Written by Sarah DeYoung, Disaster Researcher and Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware

Thousands of Maui's cats, dogs and other companion animals went missing or were injured.Maui Humane Society, CC BY-ND

An estimated 3,000 pets were still missing more than a week after deadly wildfires ripped through Maui in August 2023 and left thousands of people – many of whom had companion animals – homeless. The Conversation asked...

Geoengineering sounds like a quick climate fix, but without more research and guardrails, it's a costly gamble − with potentially harmful results

Written by David Kitchen, Associate Professor of Geology, University of Richmond

Geoengineering includes techniques to reflect solar energy.Elvis Tam/500px via Getty Images

When soaring temperatures, extreme weather and catastrophic wildfires hit the headlines, people start asking for quick fixes to climate change. The U.S. government just announced the first awards from a US$3.5 billion fund for projects that promise to pull...

Social media algorithms warp how people learn from each other, research shows

Written by William Brady, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations, Northwestern University

Social media pushes evolutionary buttons.AP Photo/Manish Swarup

People’s daily interactions with online algorithms affect how they learn from others, with negative consequences including social misperceptions, conflict and the spread of misinformation, my colleagues and I have found.

People are increasingly interacting with others in social...

AI and new standards promise to make scientific data more useful by making it reusable and accessible

Written by Bradley Wade Bishop, Professor of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee

Data replication is an integral part of the scientific process, which proper research data management can improve. Tom Werner/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Every time a scientist runs an experiment, or a social scientist does a survey, or a humanities scholar analyzes a text, they generate data. Science runs on data – without it, we...

Caroline Herschel was England's first female professional astronomer, but still lacks name recognition two centuries later

Written by Kris Pardo, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

The Herschel Museum in Bath, England, has a new display of a handwritten draft of Caroline Herschel’s memoirs.Internet Archive Book Images via Wikimedia Commons

Caroline Herschel, the first English professional female astronomer, made contributions to astronomy that are still important to the field today. But even many astronomers may not...

Nagorno-Karabakh blockade crisis: Choking of disputed region is a consequence of war and geopolitics

Written by Ronald Suny, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan

A Russian peacekeeper guards the Lachin corridor.TOFIK BABAYEV/AFP via Getty Images

Wars have consequences – and they are drastically different for the winners and losers.

In the South Caucasus, a region far from most Americans’ attention, the democratic republic of Armenia lost a short but devastating war three years ago to Azerbaijan,...