The Conversation

Leave 'em laughing instead of crying: Climate humor can break down barriers and find common ground

Written by Maxwell Boykoff, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Director, Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Colorado Boulder

Protest in Gauhati, India, on Sept. 20, 2019, part of worldwide demonstrations ahead of a U.N. summit in New York. AP Photo/Anupam Nath

Climate change is not inherently funny. Typically, the messengers are serious scientists describing how rising greenhouse gas emissions are harming the planet on land and at sea, or assessing what role it played in...

For male students, technical education in high school boosts earnings after graduation

Written by Shaun M. Dougherty, Associate Professor of Public Policy & Education, Vanderbilt University

Students in the electrical program at H.C. Wilcox Technical High School in Meriden, Connecticut practice their skills.Connecticut Technical Education and Career System

Job prospects for young men who only have a high school diploma are particularly bleak. They are even worse for those who have less education. When young men experience joblessness,...

Posting on Facebook is helping nonprofits of all sizes raise money

Written by Abhishek Bhati, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Bowling Green State University

More and more fundraising happens online.karen roach/Shutterstock.com

Online giving, donations for charities made through websites and apps, is growing quickly. It rose 17% between 2016 and 2018 to over US$34 billion. Some 8.5% of all U.S. charitable donations, including grants from foundations and gifts from people and companies, are made through...

Rural hospital closings reach crisis stage, leaving millions without nearby health care

Written by Jane Bolin, Professor of Health Policy + Management, Deputy Director of the Southwest Rural Health Research Center; Associate dean of research, College of Nursing, Texas A&M University

A welcome sign to Bristol, a small town that sits in Virginia and Tennessee, June 26, 2019. Bristol is trying to recruit doctors because the rural town is facing many of the same health care shortages of other rural towns.Sudhin Thanawala/AP Photo

Presidential candidates and other politicians have talked about the rural health crisis in the U.S.,...

Gut microbes can get you drunk and damage your liver

Written by Bill Sullivan, Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology, Indiana University

Drinking alcohol isn't the only cause of high blood alcohol levels.nikamo

Imagine that you’re a police officer. You spot a car ahead that is swerving all over the road. You pull the driver over and she’s clearly intoxicated. With slurred speech, she swears that she hasn’t had a drop of alcohol all day. Would you believe her?

In 2016...

Why I'm teaching kids science through the sport of rowing

Written by Elizabeth A. Barton, Associate Professor of Research, Wayne State University

The math behind the movement.Dmitrydesign/Shutterstock.com

I didn’t know what the world looked like at 5:00 a.m. until my son began rowing for the Detroit Boat Club Crew, the oldest continuous rowing program in North America.

The sight of young rowers slicing through the water in unison in narrow sculling boats, against the backdrop of dawn...

Local communities play outsized but overlooked role in global fisheries

Written by John Virdin, Director, Ocean Policy Program, Duke University

Fish for sale in a Dakar, Senegal.AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam

Flying along the coast in Senegal, it’s impossible not to notice thousands of dots below in the water. These are large, planked fishing canoes, the product of centuries of design and tradition, and a vital part of the local economy.

When the fishing crews come home, Senegalese beaches...

Curious Kids: Can people colonize Mars?

Written by Anita Sengupta, Adjunct Research Associate Professor of Astronautics, University of Southern California

In the future, people may be able to go to Mars.Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com

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.

Can we colonize Mars? – Clara, age 9, Newton, Massachusetts

In all likelihood, the first Martian will be a...

Intelligence whistleblowers often pay a severe price

Written by Jennifer M. Pacella, Assistant Professor of Business Law and Ethics, Indiana University

Blowing the whistle carries major risks.BlueSkyImage/Shutterstock.com

When President Donald Trump likened a whistleblower’s White House sources to spies and made a lightly veiled reference to execution, he highlighted a longstanding peril facing those who come forward to alert the public to governmental wrongdoing.

In many instances,...

Spies and the White House have a history of running wild without congressional oversight

Written by Charles Tiefer, Professor of Law, University of Baltimore

Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani in late November 2016, after Trump won the presidential election. AP/Carolyn Kaster

At the heart of the current crisis over President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is an intelligence whistleblower whose information has finally made it into public view.

The...