The Conversation

Independence Hall, Gettysburg and – Epcot? How Reagan helped elevate Disney to America’s roster of honored patriotic sites

Written by Bethanee Bemis, Museum Specialist, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

First lady Nancy Reagan kisses Mickey Mouse as President Ronald Reagan and Minnie Mouse watch 20 bands marching in the unofficial inaugural parade at Disney's Epcot Center on Memorial Day, May 27, 1985.Bettmann/Getty Images

A presidential or political visit is one of the ways in which the United States marks places as uniquely important. A space...

Nonprofit news media leaders are struggling to stop leaning on the foundations that say they should branch out more

Written by Katherine Fink, Associate Professor of Media, Communications, and Visual Arts, Pace University

If the basket falls, at least there are some other eggs on hand that might not break.Iryna Veklich/Moment via Getty Images

You’ve probably heard the adage about not putting all your eggs in one basket.

It’s an especially meaningful one for newspapers. For decades, they relied heavily on advertising revenue. That arrangement stopped...

The one-size-fits-all diversity training model is broken – here’s a better alternative

Written by Radostina Purvanova, Professor of Management and Organizational Leadership, Drake University

Diversity training is more effective when it’s personalized, according to my new research in the peer-reviewed journal Applied Psychology.

As a professor of management, I partnered with Andrew Bryant, who studies social marketing, to develop an algorithm that identifies people’s “personas,” or psychological profiles, as they...

Do photons wear out? An astrophysicist explains light’s ability to travel vast cosmic distances without losing energy

Written by Jarred Roberts, Project Scientist, University of California, San Diego

Light, whether from a star or your flashlight, travels at 186,000 miles per second.Artur Debat/Moment via Getty Images

My telescope, set up for astrophotography in my light-polluted San Diego backyard, was pointed at a galaxy unfathomably far from Earth. My wife, Cristina, walked up just as the first space photo streamed to my tablet. It sparkled...

An 18th-century rebellion for liberty, equality and freedom − not in France or the United States, but Ireland

Written by Joseph Patrick Kelly, Professor of Literature and Director of Irish and Irish American Studies, College of Charleston

A sculpture in Wexford, Ireland, by Eamonn O'Doherty, called 'Fuascailt,' commemorates the 1798 rebellion.Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty Images

Shortly before midnight on May 23, 1798, highwaymen just north of Dublin intercepted and set on fire a mail coach headed to Belfast.

It was the signal meant to ignite revolution across all Ireland.

At the...

Teens of any age who drink alcohol with their parents’ permission drink more as young adults, new research shows

Written by Bernard Pereda, Doctoral Student in Psychoolgy, University at Buffalo

Parents play an important role in teaching their children about alcohol.StockPlanets/E+ via Getty Images

Children and teenagers of any age who sip or taste alcohol with their parents’ permission are more likely to engage in risky drinking in young adulthood. That was the finding of a new study my colleagues and I published in the journal...

How 3D printing is personalizing health care

Written by Anne Schmitz, Associate Professor of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Stout

A girl, wearing her prosthetic hands, walks to school in Uruguay.AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico

Three-dimensional printing is transforming medical care, letting the health care field shift from mass-produced solutions to customized treatments tailored to each patient’s needs. For instance, researchers are developing 3D-printed prosthetic hands s...

Ancient pollen reveals stories about Earth’s history, from the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs to the Mayan collapse

Written by Francisca Oboh Ikuenobe, Professor of Geology and Geophysics, Missouri University of Science and Technology

An electron microscope image, colorized, shows different structures of pollen grains, including sunflower, morning glory and primrose. Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility

If you are sneezing this spring, you are not alone. Every year, plants release billions of pollen grains into the air, specks of male reproductive material that many of us...

Governors are leading the fight against climate change and deforestation around the world, filling a void left by presidents

Written by Mary Nichols, Distinguished Counsel for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, University of California, Los Angeles

Forests like the Amazon play vital roles in balancing the environment, from storing carbon to releasing oxygen. Silvestre Garcia-IntuitivoFilms/Stone/Getty Images

When the annual U.N. climate conference descends on the small Brazilian rainforest city of Belém in November 2025, it will be tempting to focus on the drama and disunity among...

Cutting HIV aid means undercutting US foreign and economic interests − Nigeria shows the human costs

Written by Kathryn Rhine, Associate Professor of General Internal Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

A large number of children are born with HIV in Nigeria.Kristian Buus/Corbis News via Getty Images

A little over two decades ago, addressing Nigeria’s HIV crisis topped U.S. President George W. Bush’s priorities. Africa’s most populous nation had 3.5 million HIV cases, and the disease threatened to destabilize the region and ultima...