The Conversation

Curious Kids: Can people colonize Mars?

Written by Anita Sengupta, Adjunct Research Associate Professor of Astronautics, University of Southern California

In the future, people may be able to go to Mars.Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com

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.

Can we colonize Mars? – Clara, age 9, Newton, Massachusetts

In all likelihood, the first Martian will be a...

Intelligence whistleblowers often pay a severe price

Written by Jennifer M. Pacella, Assistant Professor of Business Law and Ethics, Indiana University

Blowing the whistle carries major risks.BlueSkyImage/Shutterstock.com

When President Donald Trump likened a whistleblower’s White House sources to spies and made a lightly veiled reference to execution, he highlighted a longstanding peril facing those who come forward to alert the public to governmental wrongdoing.

In many instances,...

Spies and the White House have a history of running wild without congressional oversight

Written by Charles Tiefer, Professor of Law, University of Baltimore

Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani in late November 2016, after Trump won the presidential election. AP/Carolyn Kaster

At the heart of the current crisis over President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is an intelligence whistleblower whose information has finally made it into public view.

The...

Beautiful people don't always win in the workplace

Written by Chun Zhang, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Dayton

Consumers react differently to beautiful service employees.Ruben M Ramos/Shutterstock.com

Beautiful people tend to have a lot more luck in the work world.

Research has shown people deemed attractive get paid more, receive better job evaluations and are generally more employable. It’s even been shown that good-looking CEOs bring better stock...

Rising seas threaten hundreds of Native American heritage sites along Florida's Gulf Coast

Written by Jayur Mehta, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Florida State University

Native American burial mound at Lake Jackson Mounds State Park, north of Tallahassee, Fla.Ebaybe/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA

Native North Americans first arrived in Florida approximately 14,550 years ago. Evidence for these stone-tool-wielding, megafauna-hunting peoples can be found at the bottom of numerous limestone freshwater sinkholes in...

Why the flu shot cannot give you the flu (and why you should get one now)

Written by Libby Richards, Associate professor of nursing, Purdue University

A nurse in Atlanta prepared the fu vaccine for a shot on Feb. 7, 2109. David Goldman/AP Photo

Flu vaccination prevents millions of flu-related illnesses and deaths annually, but vaccination rates are low for many reasons.

During the 2018-2019 flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 45% of U.S. adults received...

Climate change is really about prosperity, peace, public health and posterity – not saving the environment

Written by Ezra Markowitz, Associate Professor of Environmental Decision-Making, University of Massachusetts Amherst

What will it take to get people to connect to the climate change story?mauro mora/Unsplash, CC BY

The story of climate change is one that people have struggled to tell convincingly for more than two decades. But it’s not for lack of trying.

The problem is emphatically not a lack of facts and figures. The world’s best scientific minds...

Arrests of 6-year-olds shows the perils of putting police in primary schools

Written by F. Chris Curran, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Florida

The portion of primary schools that have police officers on site has risen dramatically in recent years.Simone Hogan/Shutterstock.com

When states like Florida pass laws to put more police officers in schools, the idea is to keep kids safe.

But as the arrest of two six-year-olds in a Florida school in October has shown, sometimes one threat to the...

Why cheaper drugs from Canada likely won't cure what ails US

Written by C. Michael White, Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut

Could buying drugs from Canada be a solution to high prices for prescription drugs? It's complicated. Burlingham/Shutterstock.com

President Trump has called for ways to allow U.S. residents to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. Many drugs are cheaper in Canada, thanks to government price controls in that country.

I teach a course in...

Founders: Removal from office is not the only purpose of impeachment

Written by Clark D. Cunningham, W. Lee Burge Chair in Law & Ethics; Director, National Institute for Teaching Ethics & Professionalism, Georgia State University

Benjamin Franklin was a leading voice in the debates framing the Constitution.Howard Chandler Christy/Architect of the Capitol

As Congress moves toward a possible formal impeachment of President Donald Trump, they should consider words spoken at the Constitutional Convention, when the Founders explained that impeachment was intended to have many...