The Conversation

I’ve been studying astronaut psychology since Apollo − a long voyage to Mars in a confined space could raise stress levels and make the journey more challenging

Written by Nick Kanas, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco

Crew members in space will spend lots of time together during future missions to Mars. NASA via AP

Within the next few decades, NASA aims to land humans on the Moon, set up a lunar colony and use the lessons learned to send people to Mars as part of its Artemis program.

While researchers know that space travel can stress space crew members both...

What is Alaskapox? A microbiologist explains the recently discovered virus that just claimed its first fatality

Written by Raúl Rivas González, Catedrático de Microbiología. Miembro de la Sociedad Española de Microbiología., Universidad de Salamanca

Red-backed voles may be harboring Alaskapox.iNaturalist Ecuador, CC BY-NC-SA

Alaskapox, a virus in the same family as smallpox, cowpox and mpox, claimed its first fatality in January 2024 when an elderly Alaskan man died of the illness.

The virus, which was discovered in 2015, had previously resulted in only relatively mild illnesses in the six...

3D printing promises more efficient ways to make custom explosives and rocket propellants

Written by Monique McClain, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University

3D printing can be used to build with all kinds of materials – even those that go 'boom.'kynny/iStock via Getty Images

Imagine you’re driving to work on a rainy day, when a distracted, reckless driver hits your car out of nowhere. With a “boom,” an air bag deploys faster than you can blink your eyes to save your life.

That...

Carbon offsets bring new investment to Appalachia’s coal fields, but most Appalachians aren’t benefiting

Written by Gabe Schwartzman, Assistant Professor of Geography and Sustainability, University of Tennessee

For decades, railroad tracks carried coal from eastern Tennessee to power plants in the eastern U.S.Appalachian Voices, CC BY

Central Appalachia is home to the third-largest concentration of forest carbon offsets traded on the California carbon market. But while these projects bring new investments to Appalachia, most people in Appalachia are not...

Murderous mice attack and kill nesting albatrosses on Midway Atoll − scientists struggle to stop this gruesome new behavior

Written by Wieteke Holthuijzen, Ph.D. Candidate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee

Their 'island naïveté' means these seabirds are easy pickings when mice attack.USFWS - Pacific Region/Flickr, CC BY-NC

At the far end of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands lies Kuaihelani – also known as Midway Atoll – a small set of islands home to the world’s largest albatross colony. Over a million albatrosses return...

Separate water fountains for Black people still stand in the South – thinly veiled monuments to the long, strange, dehumanizing history of segregation

Written by Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami University

In this 1938 image, a Black boy uses a fountain marked 'colored' at a North Carolina county courthouse.Getty Images

No one knows for certain when public facilities like bathrooms and drinking fountains were separated by race.

But starting in the 1890s, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized “separate but equal” in P...

How politicians can draw fairer election districts − the same way parents make kids fairly split a piece of cake

Written by Benjamin Schneer, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Unchecked, politicians are likely to try to grab as much electoral power as they can.Fabrice LEROUGE/ONOKY via Getty Images

Redistricting – the process of determining the boundaries of election districts in which people vote – is a key element of politics that has more of an effect than people might realize. One Republican political...

Nikki Haley insists she can lose South Carolina and still get the nomination – but that would defy history

Written by Charles R. Hunt, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State University

Nikki Haley greets supporters at a campaign stop in Aiken, S.C., on Feb. 5, 2024.Allison Joyce /AFP via Getty Images

Former South Carolina governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, a Republican, has lost the first four presidential primary contests, but has vowed to stay in the race for the foreseeable future. Haley seems to be counting...

How Lula’s big-tent pragmatism won over Brazil again – with a little help from a backlash to Bolsonaro

Written by Anthony Pereira, Director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University

Brazilian President Lula greets journalists, in Brasilia, one year after rioters stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court buildings.AP Photo/Eraldo Peres

A year is a long time in Brazilian politics.

When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva assumed office in Brazil for a third time in January 2023, many observers were pessimistic about...

Nearly 2 million Americans are using kratom yearly, but it is banned in multiple states: A pharmacologist explains the controversy

Written by C. Michael White, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut

Kratom products are sold online and at smoke shops and gas stations, like this one in Lone Tree, Colo.Amanda Mascarelli

The herbal substance kratom, derived from the leaves of a Southeast Asian tree, is used by nearly 2 million people in the United States annually. It can be easily purchased at gas stations and convenience stores, smoke shops and...