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The Conversation

Freaks, geeks, norms and mores: why people use the status quo as a moral compass

  • Written by Christina Tworek, Ph.D. Student in Developmental Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
imageDoes what's most usual seem inherently good to you?Fish image via www.shutterstock.com.

The Binewskis are no ordinary family. Arty has flippers instead of limbs; Iphy and Elly are Siamese twins; Chick has telekinetic powers. These traveling circus performers see their differences as talents, but others consider them freaks with “no values or...

Read more: Freaks, geeks, norms and mores: why people use the status quo as a moral compass

Should parents ask their children to apologize?

  • Written by Craig Smith, Research Investigator, University of Michigan
imageApologies can help improve the feelings of someone hurt.Andrew Yee, CC BY

Have you ever felt deserving of an apology and been upset when you didn’t get one? Have you ever found it hard to deliver the words, I’m sorry?

Such experiences show how much apologies matter. The importance placed on apologies is shared by many cultures. Diverse...

Read more: Should parents ask their children to apologize?

Public health research reduced smoking deaths -- it could do the same for gun violence

  • Written by Sandro Galea, Dean, School of Public Health, Boston University

After the most recent mass shooting in the U.S. at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said:

Other politicians echoed that sentiment. But prayers are not going to fix the fact that each year 30,000 deaths and many more injuries are caused by firearm violence. Recognizing gun violence for the public health problem...

Read more: Public health research reduced smoking deaths -- it could do the same for gun violence

Debunking one of the biggest stereotypes about women in the gaming community

  • Written by Cuihua Shen, Professor of Communication, University of California, Davis
imageWhen girl gamers do well, men will often find ways to discredit the success.'Gamer' via www.shutterstock.com

Although women now make up almost half of all video game players, the gaming community remains, in some ways, hostile toward women.

For example, the GamerGate controversy, which began in 2014 and involved a harassment campaign against...

Read more: Debunking one of the biggest stereotypes about women in the gaming community

There's more than practice to becoming a world-class expert

  • Written by D. Zachary Hambrick, Professor of Psychology, Michigan State University
imageWhat explains the exceptional performance of Stephen Curry?Keith Allison, CC BY-SA

Some people are dramatically better at activities like sports, music and chess than other people. Take the basketball great Stephen Curry. This past season, breaking the record he set last year by over 40 percent, Curry made an astonishing 402 three-point shots...

Read more: There's more than practice to becoming a world-class expert

What would Abraham Lincoln say to Donald Trump about religion, politics and being a 'Know Nothing'?

  • Written by Donald Nieman, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Binghamton University, State University of New York

As the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump could learn a lot from his party’s first president, Abraham Lincoln. He should start with religion and immigration, topics on which he has appealed to fear and bigotry rather than “the better angels of our nature" as Lincoln did.

Trump has called for a ban on immigration and travel to...

Read more: What would Abraham Lincoln say to Donald Trump about religion, politics and being a 'Know Nothing'?

Learning to live with wildfires: how communities can become 'fire-adapted'

  • Written by Susan J. Prichard, Research Scientist of Forest Ecology, University of Washington
imageAn airtanker in the Chelan Butte wildfire in August 2015.benagain_photo/flickr, CC BY-SA

In recent years wildfire seasons in the western United States have become so intense that many of us who make our home in dry, fire-prone areas are grappling with how to live with fire.

When I moved to a small town in eastern Washington in 2004, I thought I was...

Read more: Learning to live with wildfires: how communities can become 'fire-adapted'

Can next-generation bomb 'sniffing' technology outdo dogs on explosives detection?

  • Written by David Atkinson, Senior Research Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
imageTechnology is catching up with dogs – and has additional advantages.Stef, CC BY-NC-ND

With each terrorist attack on another airport, train station or other public space, the urgency to find new ways to detect bombs before they’re detonated ratchets up.

Chemical detection of explosives is a cornerstone of aviation security. Typically...

Read more: Can next-generation bomb 'sniffing' technology outdo dogs on explosives detection?

Opioid crisis: How did we get here?

  • Written by Lynne Anderson, Senior Editor, Health & Medicine, The Conversation

Lawmakers meet today to try to finalize legislation to solve the nation’s opioid crisis. It’s an issue that The Conversation has been covering for many months.

How can it be that nearly half a million people in the U.S. are addicted to heroin and another two million have substance use disorders related to prescription drug abuse? In...

Read more: Opioid crisis: How did we get here?

Why are people starting to believe in UFOs again?

  • Written by Joseph P. Laycock, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Texas State University

The 1990s were a high-water mark for public interest in UFOs and alien abduction. Shows like “The X-Files” and Fox’s “alien autopsy” hoax were prime-time events, while MIT even hosted an academic conference on the abduction phenomenon.

But in the first decade of the 21st century, interest in UFOs began to wane. Fewer...

Read more: Why are people starting to believe in UFOs again?

More Articles ...

  1. Helping ex-prisoners keep out of prison: what works
  2. How video can help police – and the public
  3. Reducing water pollution with microbes and wood chips
  4. How today's crisis in Venezuela was created by Hugo Chávez's 'revolutionary' plan
  5. Is Trump right that the TPP will destroy millions of jobs and cede US sovereignty?
  6. Eid al-Fitr 2016: understanding the differences among America's Muslims
  7. American Islam: a view from the suburbs
  8. The curious history of 'Mein Kampf' in France
  9. Plate tectonics: new findings fill out the 50-year-old theory that explains Earth's landmasses
  10. Why river floodplains are key to preserving nature and biodiversity in the western US
  11. Most Americans believe we should have gun regulation. Here is why those who don’t are winning the debate.
  12. Can slower financial traders find a haven in a world of high-speed algorithms?
  13. Dr. Franklin, I presume? The founder who could have been our founding physician
  14. Fading hope: why the youth of the Arab Spring are still unemployed
  15. Playing a science-based video game? It might be all wrong
  16. Where are new college grads going to find jobs?
  17. Early-onset Alzheimer's: should you worry?
  18. Explaining the Istanbul bombing: Turkey's six foreign policy sins
  19. Green and cool roofs provide relief for hot cities, but should be sited carefully
  20. Is there life after debt for Puerto Rico?
  21. How social media can distort and misinform when communicating science
  22. Concussions and kids: know the signs
  23. How TV dating shows helped change love and marriage in China forever
  24. Bikini islanders still deal with fallout of US nuclear tests, 70 years later
  25. Whatever the soul is, its existence can't be proved or disproved by natural science
  26. Early days of internet offer lessons for boosting 3D printing
  27. Can outsiders help Venezuela in the midst of crisis, again?
  28. Is it time to eliminate tenure for professors?
  29. Why Iran's anti-American hardliners want to buy US-made Boeings for Iran Air
  30. Criminal injustice: Wounds from incarceration that never heal
  31. Thorny technical questions remain for net neutrality
  32. Intolerance on the march: do Brexit and Trump point to global rejection of liberal ideals?
  33. Sex and other myths about weight loss
  34. Just graduated? Does it make you feel like a grown up?
  35. Even scientists take selfies with wild animals. Here's why they shouldn't.
  36. What's lost when we photograph life instead of experiencing it?
  37. Un-Trapped: Supreme Court strikes down Texas law limiting abortion
  38. How do food manufacturers pick those dates on their product packaging – and what do they mean?
  39. How do children learn to detect snakes, spiders and other dangerous things?
  40. Explainer: how Panama Canal expansion will transform shipping once again
  41. License and registration, please: how regulating guns like cars could improve safety
  42. Bartering for science: using mobile apps to get research data
  43. The geography of Brexit: what the vote reveals about the Disunited Kingdom
  44. Supreme Court immigration confusion? Blame the U.S. Senate
  45. Why the GM food labeling debate is not over
  46. Is it ethical to purchase human organs?
  47. Deadlocked: what a nine-word decision means for five million undocumented immigrants
  48. What explains Britain's Brexit shocker?
  49. What consumers want in GM food labeling is simpler than you think
  50. Eliminating inequalities needs affirmative action