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The Conversation

Huge wildfires in the Arctic and far North send a planetary warning

  • Written by Nancy Fresco, SNAP Coordinator, Research Faculty, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Smoke from wildfires in Siberia drifts east toward Canada and the U.S. on July 30, 2019.NASA

The planet’s far North is burning. This summer, over 600 wildfires have consumed more than 2.4 million acres of forest across Alaska. Fires are also raging in northern Canada. In Siberia, choking smoke from 13 million acres – an area nearly the...

Read more: Huge wildfires in the Arctic and far North send a planetary warning

Mexico wants to run a tourist train through its Mayan heartland — should it?

  • Written by Gabriel Diaz Montemayor, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Arkansas

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has a dream for the Yucatan Peninsula. He wants to build a train that will leverage the tourism economy of Cancun by bringing more visitors inland to the colonial cities, Mayan villages and archaeological sites that dot the region.

The Yucatan is a unique Mexican cultural crossroads. Many Maya...

Read more: Mexico wants to run a tourist train through its Mayan heartland — should it?

Surprising volunteers with awards is one way to keep them on board

  • Written by Marlene Walk, Assistant Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, IUPUI
Cub Scouts outings aren't possible without dedicated volunteers.Karin Hildebrand Lau/Shutterstock.com

The United States has a long tradition of volunteering. Back in 1737, for instance, Benjamin Franklin co-founded the nation’s first volunteer fire brigade in Philadelphia.

And this custom is still going strong. About 77.4 million Americans...

Read more: Surprising volunteers with awards is one way to keep them on board

We use satellites to measure water scarcity

  • Written by Emad Hasan, Postdoctoral Researcher in Geography, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Visualization of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite in space over a tropical cyclone.NASA

Today, more than 700 million people around the world drink water from unsafe or untreated sources, such as wells, springs and surface water.

About half of these people live in sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, in more than 30 African countries,...

Read more: We use satellites to measure water scarcity

Want better sleep? Try a warm bath or shower 1-2 hours before bedtime, study suggests

  • Written by Shahab Haghayegh, Doctoral candidate, biomedical engineering, University of Texas at Austin
There's a biological reason why a warm bath before bedtime can improve sleep quality.iordani/Shutterstock.com

Do you struggle trying to fall asleep? Do you feel you don’t get enough sleep and you feel sleepy during the day? You are not alone. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has found that one in three American adults have symptoms of...

Read more: Want better sleep? Try a warm bath or shower 1-2 hours before bedtime, study suggests

New laws give victims more time to report rape or sexual assault – even Jeffrey Epstein's

  • Written by Jane E. Palmer, Professorial Lecturer, Department of Justice, Law & Criminology, American University School of Public Affairs

The #MeToo movement seems to be having a positive effect on sexual assault and rape victims’ willingness to report the crimes against them.

In 2017, 40.4% of victims of rape or sexual assault in the U.S. reported the crime to police, up from 23.2% in 2016.

New laws being passed around the country may increase these numbers even more by giving...

Read more: New laws give victims more time to report rape or sexual assault – even Jeffrey Epstein's

Saving endangered species: 5 essential reads

  • Written by Jennifer Weeks, Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation
Steller sea lions in the eastern Pacific are an Endangered Species Act success story.David B. Ledig/USFWS, CC BY

The Trump administration has announced rule changes that alter how it will enforce the 1973 Endangered Species Act, which protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats. Among these changes, officials can now consider...

Read more: Saving endangered species: 5 essential reads

Restoring soil can help address climate change

  • Written by David R. Montgomery, Professor of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington
No-till farming conserves soil by greatly reducing erosion.USDA NRCS South Dakota/Eric Barsness, CC BY-SA

It’s time to take soil seriously. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states with very high confidence in its latest report, land degradation represents “one of the biggest and most urgent challenges” that...

Read more: Restoring soil can help address climate change

Guatemala's next president has few plans for fixing rampant corruption, crime and injustice

  • Written by Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Hastings
Alejandro Giammattei is a former prison official whose tenure was tainted by the 2006 mass killing of seven prisoners. He was accused but never indicted on conspiracy charges in those deaths.AP Photo/ Santiago Billy

Guatemala’s next leader will be Alejandro Giammattei, a right-wing former national prison director.

With 58% of votes,...

Read more: Guatemala's next president has few plans for fixing rampant corruption, crime and injustice

I'm one of hundreds of archaeologists exiled from Syria who's mourning what the war is costing us

  • Written by Lubna Omar, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Binghamton University, State University of New York

I used to be a Near Eastern archaeologist working in Syria. Nowadays, I am stuck in academic purgatory, observing from a great distance as the country burns, unable to help protect its history or its present.

Syria sits within what’s known as the cradle of civilization. It’s part of the area archaeologists call the Fertile Crescent that...

Read more: I'm one of hundreds of archaeologists exiled from Syria who's mourning what the war is costing us

More Articles ...

  1. A neuroscience-based action plan to deal with stress after El Paso and Dayton shootings
  2. Making money off of politics isn't new – it was business as usual in the Gilded Age
  3. The journalist who exposed the Jeffrey Epsteins of Victorian London
  4. New climate change report underscores the need to manage land for the short and long term
  5. Why the 2020 census matters for rural Americans
  6. Talking about Charlottesville with alt-right students
  7. Remote control for brain cells: scientists use ultrasound waves to activate neurons
  8. The new field of sonogenetics uses sound waves to control the behavior of brain cells
  9. Companies promoting causes can be accused of 'wokewashing' – allying themselves only for good PR
  10. Curious Kids: Is homework worthwhile?
  11. Saudi women are fighting for their freedom – and their hard-won victories are growing
  12. Americans’ support for immigration is at record highs – but the government is out of sync with their views
  13. Can experts determine who might be a mass killer? 3 questions answered
  14. I traveled to American Samoa 5 times to study the secret to its football success
  15. 5 tips for parents to build communication skills with children with autism spectrum disorder
  16. NASCAR may be the fastest way to learn about physics
  17. Trump's fight to count US citizens and non-citizens: 5 questions answered
  18. Gender equality at home takes a hit when children arrive
  19. Climate change will mean more multiyear snow droughts in the West
  20. 5 reasons why Trump's Venezuela embargo won't end the Maduro regime
  21. A tick detective wants to understand what drives tick abundance
  22. What 1860 and 1968 can teach America about the 2020 presidential election
  23. French cannabis legalization debate ignores race, religion and the mass incarceration of Muslims
  24. Mass shootings aren't growing more common – and evidence contradicts common stereotypes about the killers
  25. Blood tests for Alzheimer’s: Two experts on why new studies are encouraging
  26. The US-China trade war: 5 essential reads
  27. How to grow human mini-livers in the lab to help solve liver disease
  28. Drilling deeper wells is a band-aid solution to US groundwater woes
  29. Everything in Mecca gets 5 stars — and online reviews of other holy sites are wildly inflated, too
  30. The facts on the US children and teens killed by firearms
  31. The 'warspeak' permeating everyday language puts us all in the trenches
  32. Guns and mental illness: A psychiatrist explains the complexities
  33. From across the globe to El Paso, changes in the language of the far-right explain its current violence
  34. Space travel might fry your brain, causing permanent learning and memory problems
  35. Astronauts' brains are subject to long-lasting damage due to low dose space radiation
  36. Police are more likely to kill men and women of color
  37. Stop blaming video games for mass killings
  38. How the University of Alaska – and other public U.S. universities – now struggle for funding
  39. This tax credit wasn't meant to help with housing, but that's exactly what it's doing
  40. Will Trump’s trade war with China ever end?
  41. Human breast milk may help babies tell time via circadian signals from mom
  42. Why do so many working class Americans feel politics is pointless?
  43. Understanding Christians' climate views can lead to better conversations about the environment
  44. Boost in high school students taking advanced computer science could change the face of tech
  45. Could a national buyback program reduce gun violence in America?
  46. Could a national gun buyback program reduce the 393 million guns on America's streets?
  47. Scammers don't cheat because they need the money — they cheat because they're cheaters
  48. Puerto Ricans unite against Rosselló – and more than a decade of cultural trauma
  49. There's a dark political history to language that strips people of their dignity
  50. The White House is upending decades of protocol for policy-making