The Conversation

Following Alfred Russel Wallace's footsteps to Borneo, where he penned his seminal evolution paper

Written by Giacomo Bernardi, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Some of the 'remarkable beetles' Wallace collected in Borneo.A. R. Wallace, CC BY

The chirping of cicadas is deafening, my clothes are sticky and heavy with heat and sweat, my right hand is swollen from ant bites, I am panting, almost passing out from exhaustion – and I have a big grin on my face. At last I’ve reached my goal, Rajah...

Finding nostalgia in the pixelated video games of decades past

Written by Nicholas Bowman, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, West Virginia University

Instruments of nostalgia and psychological well-being?Brian Kenney/Shutterstock.com

Every day, it seems, new ultra-high-resolution video games are released, syncing with players’ social media accounts and ready for virtual reality headsets. Yet old games from the 1970s and 1980s are still in high demand. The Nintendo Corporation has moved...

Cuatro cosas que puedes hacer para protegerte de la gripe

Written by Arnold Monto, Professor, Epidemiology, University of Michigan

Donnie Cárdenas, en la cama, espera con su compañero de cuarto Torrey Jewett en el Palomar Medical Center en Escondido, California, el 10 de enero de 2018. Cárdenas tuvo gripe.AP Photo/Greg Bull

Esta temporada de gripe o influenza ha sido particularmente seria, habiendo provocado varios muertes en México, Brasil y otros...

¿Por qué los abogados representan a los immigrantes de manera gratuita?

Written by Eduardo Capulong, Associate Dean for Clinical and Experiential Education; Professor of Law, The University of Montana

Una madre hondureña y su hijo con un agente de la Patrulla Fronteriza. AP/David J. Phillip

Muchos abogados, asistentes legales y estudiantes de derecho se ofrecen como voluntarios para ayudar a familias inmigrantes que se encuentran en el punto de mira de la propuesta de la administración Trump de reducir drásticamente el...

Short-term health plans: A junk solution to a real problem

Written by Simon F. Haeder, Assistant Professor of Political Science, West Virginia University

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pictured Sept. 26, 2017 before the vote on Graham's bill to gut Obamacare. Like others before it, the bill failed.Andrew Harnik/AP

After failing to overturn most of the Affordable Care Act in a very public fight, President Donald Trump has been steadily working behind...

A Texas city discovered a mass grave of prison laborers. What should it do with the bodies?

Written by Andrea Roberts, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University

After the Civil War, Texas's sugar cane plantations were still farmed by unpaid black laborers – prisoners forced to work for free in a system called 'convict leasing.' Author provided

When archaeologists discovered the intact skeletons of 15,000 free and enslaved Africans at a construction site in lower Manhattan in 1991, the federal...

Keeping the electricity grid running – 4 essential reads

Written by Jeff Inglis, Science + Technology Editor, The Conversation US

A man reads the newspaper by flashlight during the Northeast Blackout in August 2003.AP Photo/Joe Kohen

On Aug. 14, 2003, a software bug contributed to a blackout that left 50 million people across nine U.S. northeastern states and a Canadian province without power. The outage lasted for as long as four days, with rolling blackouts in some areas...

What Harvard can learn from Texas: A solution to the controversy over affirmative action

Written by David Orentlicher, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Health Law Program, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Top 10 percent policies could help universities such as Harvard achieve diversity.f11photo/www.shutterstock.com

When it comes to the use of race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions, no one seems to be happy with the way it’s playing out.

Opponents charge that taking into account an applicant’s race or ethnicity amounts to...

From slag to swag: The story of Earl Tupper's fantastic plastics

Written by Marsha Bryant, Professor of English & Distinguished Teaching Scholar, University of Florida

A postcard from the 1950s advertises a variety Tupperware products.Thomas Hawk, CC BY-NC

When “American Horror Story,” the Museum of Modern Art and “Napoleon Dynamite” pay homage to an invention, you know it’s made a cultural impact in a big way.

Tupperware has a staying power that most plastic products don’t. So...

Why Native Americans struggle to protect their sacred places

Written by Rosalyn R. LaPier, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, The University of Montana

People protest the shrinking of Bears Ears National Monument.AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

Forty years ago the U.S. Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act so that Native Americans could practice their faith freely and that access to their sacred sites would be protected. This came after a 500-year-long history of conquest and coercive...