The Conversation

Can violent extremists be deradicalized? I spoke with 24 former terrorists in Indonesia to find out

Written by Bernard Loesi, PhD Candidate in International Studies, University of Washington

Alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah behind bars at the South Jakarta court detention house on April 7, 2009.Bay Ismoyo/AFP via Getty Images

Terrorism remains a persistent threat to nations around the world.

Indeed, the Global Terrorism Index, an annual chronicle of terrorism trends, found in its latest report that the number of countries that...

Mars rovers serve as scientists’ eyes and ears from millions of miles away – here are the tools Perseverance used to spot a potential sign of ancient life

Written by Ari Koeppel, Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Scientist and Adjunct Associate, Dartmouth College

Scientists absorb data on monitors in mission control for NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.NASA/Bill Ingalls, CC BY-NC-ND

NASA’s search for evidence of past life on Mars just produced an exciting update. On Sept. 10, 2025, a team of scientists published a paper detailing the Perseverance rover’s investigation of a distinctive rock...

Muslim men have often been portrayed as ‘terrorists’ or ‘fanatics’ on TV shows, but Muslim-led storytelling is trying to change that narrative

Written by Tazeen M. Ali, Assistant Professor of Religion and Politics, Washington University in St. Louis

Hulu’s comedy-drama series 'Ramy,' created by actor-comedian Ramy Youssef, follows a young Egyptian-American Muslim navigating life’s challenges. Youssef, center, appears at a press conference in 2019.Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

For over a century, Hollywood has tended to portray Muslim men through a remarkably narrow lens: as...

Would you eat a grasshopper? In Oaxaca, it’s been a tasty tradition for thousands of years

Written by Jeffrey H. Cohen, Professor of Anthropology, The Ohio State University

Billions of people regularly eat insects. In the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, chapulines – toasted grasshoppers – stand out as a beloved seasonal treat that follows the start of the rainy season, a period that runs from late May through September.

My new book, “Eating Grasshoppers: Chapulines and the Women who Sell Them,&rdqu...

Federal judge overturns part of Florida’s book ban law, drawing on nearly 100 years of precedent protecting First Amendment access to ideas

Written by James B. Blasingame, Professor of English, Arizona State University

Some school librarians in Florida have found themselves in the midst of controversy over complaints of "obscene" titles in their libraries.Trish233/iStock via Getty Images

When a junior at an Orange County public high school in Florida visited the school library to check out a copy of “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, it wasn’t in...

Why do big oil companies invest in green energy?

Written by Michael Oxman, Professor of the Practice of Sustainable Business, Georgia Institute of Technology

A flare burns natural gas at an oil well on Aug. 26, 2021, in Watford City, N.D.AP Photo/Matthew Brown

Some major oil companies such as Shell and BP that once were touted as leading the way in clean energy investments are now pulling back from those projects to refocus on oil and gas production. Others, such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron, have...

Harvard, like all Americans, can’t be punished by the government for speaking freely – and a federal court decision upholds decades of precedents saying so

Written by Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin, Frank and Bethine Church Endowed Chair of Public Affairs, Boise State University

The Trump administration's actions against Harvard threaten a foundational American value – free speech.zpagistock/Getty Images

When the federal government threatened to cancel billions in research funds from Harvard University – as it has also done to other research universities – the message was clear: Institutions that speak or...

Your immune system attacks drugs like it does viruses – paradoxically offering a way to improve cancer treatment

Written by Tom Anchordoquy, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Researchers are studying the potential of gold nanoparticles (yellow dots) to deliver drugs into the body.Veronika Sapozhnikova, Konstantin Sokolov, Rebecca Richards-Kortum/M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Rice University via NIH/Flickr

When the first cells appeared on Earth approximately 3.8 billion years ago, viruses were already here to greet them...

Calling deaths ‘preventable’ can obscure barriers to health care access and shift blame to individuals

Written by Zachary W. Schulz, Senior Lecturer of History, Auburn University

Deaths from so-called preventable causes often follow familiar policy lines.Tonpor Kasa/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Each year in the U.S., tens of thousands of deaths are categorized as “preventable” — meaning, in theory, they did not need to happen. A missed cancer screening, a fatal asthma attack or a death from untreated...

US women narrowed the pay gap with men by having fewer kids

Written by Alexandra Killewald, Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan

Women typically earn less than men per hour that they work.MoMo Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Women in the U.S. typically earned 85% as much as men for every hour they spent working in 2024. However, working women are faring much better than their moms and grandmothers did 40 years ago. In the mid-1980s, women were making only 65% as...