The Conversation

Stoneflies and mayflies, canaries of our streams

Written by Boris Kondratieff, Professor of Entomology and Curator of the C. P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity, Colorado State University

The presence of mayflies and stone flies indicates clean water is nearby.Andrew/flickr, CC BY-NC

Experienced anglers recognize that for a trout, the ultimate “steak dinner” is a stonefly or mayfly. That’s why fly fishing enthusiasts will go to extreme lengths to imitate these graceful, elegant and fragile insects.

I share their...

When politicians turn immigration into a 'crisis,' they hurt their own people

Written by Megan A. Carney, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Arizona

An Italian official gestures at migrants waiting to disembark in the Sicilian port of Catania in August 2018.Giovanni Isolino/AFP via Getty Images

A massive influx of immigrants on the southern border led to record numbers of people entering the country without legal permission, record numbers of migrant deaths and the criminalization of...

Snacks after youth sports add more calories than kids burn while playing, study says

Written by Jay Maddock, Professor of Public Health, Texas A&M University

Clark Moss, 12, of Gilbert, Ariz., shows the chips and drink he received after his soccer match, Jan. 18, 2020.Kristi Moss, CC BY-SA

Youth sports leagues are a great way for children to get physical activity, develop teamwork and create friendships. Research has shown that youth who participate in sports leagues are eight times as likely to be...

Is secondhand screen time the new secondhand smoking?

Written by Joelle Renstrom, Lecturer of Rhetoric, Boston University

Babies need to make eye contact with people, not phones.AFP via Getty

The Environmental Protection Agency first warned of secondhand smoke in 1991, some 30 years after scientists determined that smoking cigarettes causes cancer. Today, a growing body of research points toward a new indirect health hazard.

Just as frequently being around other people...

Where are the Hispanic executives?

Written by JD Swerzenski, Ph.D. Candidate in Communication, University of Massachusetts Amherst

American executives only represent a fraction of the workforce.UfaBizPhoto/The Conversation

Many organizations have prioritized workplace equality and access to high-paying, executive level jobs for minority groups in recent years.

Several 2020 presidential candidates are putting forward plans to increase minority executive positions by diversifing...

Is it ethical to show Holocaust images?

Written by Paul Morrow, Human Rights Fellow, University of Dayton

A wall-size image at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum that shows Jewish prisoners marching. The Nazis killed prisoners during these marches.AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

Seventy-five years ago, the world first saw the horrors of Nazi concentration camps.

Shot by photographers Lee Miller, George Rodger and others, and published in Time, the...

Giving is changing as philanthropy faces more scrutiny

Written by Emily Schwartz Greco, Philanthropy + Nonprofits Editor, The Conversation

The foundation Bill and Melinda Gates run has more assets than any other. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

The more than US$400 billion Americans donate annually to charitable causes of all kinds, such as houses of worship, universities and efforts to cure cancer, add up to around 2% of the economy. The Indiana University Lilly Family School of...

Vital Hasson, the Jew who worked for the Nazis, hunted down refugees and tore apart families in WWII Greece

Written by Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Professor of History, Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies, Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director, Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles

Jewish youth on a sailboat in Salonika harbor, 1929,United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gabriel Albocher

I learned a lesson when conducting research for my recently published book, “Family Papers: a Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century.” I had discovered the story of a young Jewish man forgotten to history...

There's more than one good way to teach kids how to read

Written by Kindel Turner Nash, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Phonics emphasizes the sounds letters and groups of letters make.Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com

We are literacy professionals, former reading teachers who now prepare college and graduate students to teach kids how to read.

As scholars, we believe in the study, exchange and debate of ideas. But recently we have become concerned by the direction that...

Iceland didn't hunt any whales in 2019 – and public appetite for whale meat is fading

Written by Joe Roman, Research Affiliate, Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont

Whale watching (here, off Húsavík, Iceland) may be better for the local economy than whale hunting. Davide Cantelli/Wikimedia , CC BY

One of the most important global conservation events of the past year was something that didn’t happen. For the first time since 2002, Iceland – one of just three countries that still allow...