NewsPronto

 
Men's Weekly

.

The Conversation

I’m a neuroscientist who taught rats to drive − their joy suggests how anticipating fun can enrich human life

  • Written by Kelly Lambert, Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Richmond
imageRats will choose to take a longer route if it means they get to enjoy the ride to their destination.Kelly Lambert, CC BY-ND

We crafted our first rodent car from a plastic cereal container. After trial and error, my colleagues and I found that rats could learn to drive forward by grasping a small wire that acted like a gas pedal. Before long, they...

Read more: I’m a neuroscientist who taught rats to drive − their joy suggests how anticipating fun can enrich...

Why does everything look flat even though the Earth is round?

  • Written by Kelly R. MacGregor, Professor of Geology, Macalester College
imageThis 2014 image of a tropical storm from the International Space Station clearly shows Earth's curvature.NOAA/Getty Imagesimage

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.

Why does everything look flat even though the Earth is round? –...

Read more: Why does everything look flat even though the Earth is round?

How the Taliban are seeking to reshape Afghanistan’s schools to push their ideology

  • Written by Enayat Nasir, Doctoral Research Assistant in Educational Policy, University at Albany, State University of New York
imageAfghan students will get more lessons in religion and resistance under the Taliban's proposed changes to their schools. Sanaullah Seiam

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 was a blow for education across the country – but especially for girls and women. Since then, the Taliban’s leaders have outlawed education for girls after...

Read more: How the Taliban are seeking to reshape Afghanistan’s schools to push their ideology

How updated Vatican rules on validating supernatural appearances of Mary will affect the famed pilgrimage site of Medjugorje

  • Written by Lisa Bitel, Dean’s Professor of Religion & Professor of History, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
imagePeople pray at a shrine to the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina.Zeljko Milicevic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

For over 40 years, six people from Medjugorje, a small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina, have claimed to see and speak with the Virgin Mary. For almost as long, hordes of pilgrims have traveled to visit sites of the...

Read more: How updated Vatican rules on validating supernatural appearances of Mary will affect the famed...

Companies are buying up cheap carbon offsets − data suggest it may be more about greenwashing than helping the climate

  • Written by Sehoon Kim, Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Florida
imageGreenwashing involves giving false impressions about a company's impact on the environment.Illustration by WhataWin/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Carbon offsets have become big business as more companies make promises to protect the climate but can’t meet the goals on their own.

When a company buys carbon offsets, it pays a project elsewhere to...

Read more: Companies are buying up cheap carbon offsets − data suggest it may be more about greenwashing than...

Companies are buying up cheap carbon offsets − data suggest it’s more about greenwashing than helping the climate

  • Written by Sehoon Kim, Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Florida
imageGreenwashing involves giving false impressions about a company's impact on the environment.Illustration by WhataWin/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Carbon offsets have become big business as more companies make promises to protect the climate but can’t meet the goals on their own.

When a company buys carbon offsets, it pays a project elsewhere to...

Read more: Companies are buying up cheap carbon offsets − data suggest it’s more about greenwashing than...

‘Inflation is radioactive’: Trump’s victory is part of a global populist wave of voters throwing out incumbents

  • Written by James D. Long, Professor of Political Science and Co-founder of the Political Economy Forum, University of Washington
imageInflation may have decreased, but the prices at the grocery store didn't.Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Was the U.S. election the latest eruption of populism across the globe? The Conversation U.S. senior politics editor Naomi Schalit brought this question to James D. Long and Victor Menaldo, two political scientists at the University of...

Read more: ‘Inflation is radioactive’: Trump’s victory is part of a global populist wave of voters throwing...

Voters in Arab American strongholds likely tipped Michigan in Trump’s favor

  • Written by Michael Traugott, Research Professor at the Center for Political Studies, University of Michigan
imageMore than 200,000 Arab Americans live in Michigan.AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

President-elect Donald Trump won Michigan in the 2024 election, an important prize in his decisive victory.

The state has earned its title as a swing state. After narrowly defeating Hillary Clinton in Michigan in 2016, Trump lost the state to President Joe Biden in 2020,...

Read more: Voters in Arab American strongholds likely tipped Michigan in Trump’s favor

Pennsylvania will keep its divided legislature thanks to split-ticket voters

  • Written by Richardson Dilworth, Professor of Politics, Drexel University
imageDemocrats held on to their one-seat majority in the Pennsylvania House.Laurence Kesterson/AP

Pennsylvania’s red shift in the 2024 election wasn’t isolated to the presidential race.

Statewide races for attorney general, auditor general and state treasurer all went to the Republican candidates, and the AP declared Republican David...

Read more: Pennsylvania will keep its divided legislature thanks to split-ticket voters

Boeing workers secure big gains after strike, but the future for organized labor under Trump is uncertain

  • Written by Jake Rosenfeld, Professor of Sociology, Washington University in St. Louis
imageJon Holden, a leader of Boeing workers belonging to a labor union, speaks at a rally on Oct. 15, 2024.Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images

Striking Boeing machinists approved a new contract on Nov. 4, 2024. It was negotiated between their union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and the nation’s largest...

Read more: Boeing workers secure big gains after strike, but the future for organized labor under Trump is...

More Articles ...

  1. What should journalists do when the facts don’t matter?
  2. What’s the ‘standard deduction’? An accounting expert explains how it simplifies tax filing and saves most Americans money
  3. Trump’s plans to extend tax cuts and slash red tape will likely spur economic growth − but there’s a cost
  4. Disaster survivors want to rebuild safer, more sustainable homes, but cost misperceptions often stand in the way
  5. Strength training early in life can set up kids and adolescents for a lifetime of health and well-being
  6. 10 states had abortion measures on the ballot – where they passed, where they failed, and what it all means
  7. Compassion amid chaos − how one of America’s greatest poets became a lifeline for wounded soldiers
  8. The election is over − but what is a ‘lame duck’ anyway?
  9. Is AI dominance inevitable? A technology ethicist says no, actually
  10. New Apostolic Reformation evangelicals see Trump as God’s warrior in their battle to win America from satanic forces and Christianize it
  11. How Trump might target DACA recipients and other immigrant groups
  12. How Trump won Pennsylvania − and what the numbers from key counties show about the future of a pivotal swing state
  13. What Trump can do to reverse US climate policy − and what he probably can’t change
  14. The 4 ‘ashramas’ of Hinduism and what they can teach us about aging gracefully
  15. Religions talk about the value of humility − but it can be especially hard for clergy to practice what they preach
  16. Ballot measures to legalize recreational use of cannabis fail in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota
  17. ‘Yellowstone’ highlights Montana’s long-forgotten connection to the Confederacy
  18. Military veterans are disproportionately affected by suicide, but targeted prevention can help reverse the tide
  19. Microplastics promote cloud formation, with likely effects on weather and climate
  20. America’s glass ceiling remains − here are some of the reasons why a woman may have once again lost the presidency
  21. Iran’s currency was already tumbling − and then news of Trump’s victory broke
  22. Now the Electoral College votes for president – 4 essential reads
  23. What Buddhism can teach in this moment of deep divisions: No person is ‘evil,’ only ‘mistaken’
  24. This course uses crime novels to teach critical thinking
  25. Trump’s comeback victory, after reshaping his party and national politics, looks a lot like Andrew Jackson’s in 1828
  26. What is ‘ballot curing’? Election expert explains the method for fixing errors made when voters cast their ballots
  27. 2024’s quick win for Trump will go down in the history books alongside 1964 and 1980 Election Day landslides
  28. Will the lights go out on Cuba’s communist leaders? With fewer options to prop up economy, their future looks dimmer
  29. Kristallnacht’s legacy still haunts Hamburg − even as the city rebuilds a former synagogue burned in the Nazi pogrom
  30. Carl Sagan’s scientific legacy extends far beyond ‘Cosmos’
  31. Cells have more mini ‘organs’ than researchers thought − unbound by membranes, these rogue organelles challenge biology’s fundamentals
  32. Only 5.3% of welders in the US are women. After years as a writing professor, I became one − here’s what I learned
  33. Beefing up Border Patrol is a bipartisan goal, but the agency has a troubled history of violence and impunity
  34. Is the election making you feel adrift and wobbly? That’s ‘zozobra’ – and Mexican philosophers have some advice
  35. How Native Americans guarded their societies against tyranny
  36. Quincy Jones mastered the art of arrangement, transforming simple tunes into epic soundscapes
  37. The 27 Club isn’t true, but it is real − a sociologist explains why myths endure and how they shape reality
  38. What poll watchers can − and can’t − do on Election Day
  39. Political bickering and policy uncertainty take a toll on business investment, research shows
  40. I’m a Muslim immigrant and a psychiatrist living in Michigan – I haven’t decided how to vote yet
  41. How can Jupiter have no surface? A dive into a planet so big, it could swallow 1,000 Earths
  42. As the stars of hip-hop’s golden age approach their golden years, some confront questions about whether old blood can make new music
  43. Svalbard Global Seed Vault evokes epic imagery and controversy because of the symbolic value of seeds
  44. Osteoporosis, the silent disease, can shorten your life − here’s how to prevent fractures and keep bones healthy
  45. The racist ‘one-drop rule’ lives on in how Trump talks about Black politicians and whiteness in America
  46. Undoing the ‘deep state’ means Trump would undo over a century of progress in building a federal government for the people and not just for rich white men
  47. Election anxiety doesn’t need to win − here are 3 science-backed strategies from a clinical psychologist to rein in the stress
  48. Massachusetts could be the next state to get rid of the ‘subminimum wage’ for tipped workers
  49. Massachusetts votes to keep its ‘subminimum wage’ for tipped workers
  50. Jobs report gives a final lackluster snapshot prior to election − but overall, the economy under Biden has been a tale of 2 eras