The Conversation

From Rodney King to George Floyd, how video evidence can be differently interpreted in courts

Written by Sandra Ristovska, Assistant Professor in Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Video evidence at trial played a crucial part in the conviction of a police officer for the 2020 murder of George Floyd.AP Photo/Ben Gray

News media coverage of Derek Chauvin’s trial for the murder of George Floyd highlighted the role of video as a “star witness.” Jurors in this trial saw footage from cellphones, police body...

Water wells are at risk of going dry in the US and worldwide

Written by Debra Perrone, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Barbara

An orchard near Kettleman City in California's San Joaquin Valley on April 2, 2021.Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

As the drought outlook for the Western U.S. becomes increasingly bleak, attention is turning once again to groundwater – literally, water stored in the ground. It is Earth’s most widespread and reliable source of...

A metropolis arose in medieval Cambodia – new research shows how many people lived in the Angkor Empire over time

Written by Sarah Klassen, Postdoctoral Researcher of Archaeological Sciences, Leiden University

A visualization of daily life around Angkor Wat in the late 12th century. Tom Chandler, Mike Yeates, Chandara Ung and Brent McKee, Monash University, 2021, CC BY-NC-ND

How big were the world’s ancient cities? At its height, the world’s first city of Uruk may have had about 40,000 people about 5,000 years ago. In the medieval period,...

Mary Ball Washington, George’s single mother, often gets overlooked – but she's well worth saluting

Written by Martha Saxton, Professor emerita of History and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies, Amherst College

Mary Washington helped her son develop into the leader he became. While her son was the subject of several portrait artists, there is no record that Mary ever was.Stock Montage/Getty Images

It is important and poignant to recall the hard life of Mary Ball Washington, who struggled – mostly alone – to raise our Founding Father....

US prisons hold more than 550,000 people with intellectual disabilities – they face exploitation, harsh treatment

Written by Jennifer Sarrett, Lecturer, Center for Study of Human Health, Emory University

The rate of intellectual disabilities is disproportionately high among incarcerated populations.Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Prison life in the U.S. is tough. But when you have an intellectual, developmental or cognitive disability – as hundreds of thousands of Americans behind bars do – it can make you especially vulnerable.

In March, the...

Lag BaOmer pilgrimage brings Orthodox Jews closer to eternity – I experienced this spiritual bonding in years before the tragedy

Written by Joshua Shanes, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, College of Charleston

A condolence message and candles for the victims of a stampede during a Jewish ultra-Orthodox mass pilgrimage to Mount Meron, projected on a wall of Jerusalem's Old City.Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images

The annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in Israel attracts as many as half a million visitors every year. Because of...

Space tourism is here – 20 years after the first stellar tourist, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin plans to send civilians to space

Written by Wendy Whitman Cobb, Professor of Strategy and Security Studies, US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies

Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson on the International Space Station with a view many more are likely to see soon. NASA/Tracy Caldwell Dyson/WIkimediaCommons

For most people, getting to the stars is nothing more than a dream. But on May 5, 2021, the 60th anniversary of the first suborbital flight, that dream became a little bit more achievable.

The...

Popping toys, the latest fidget craze, might reduce stress for adults and children alike

Written by Katherine Isbister, Professor of Computational Media, University of California, Santa Cruz

Popping toys like this one can relieve stress and anxiety and are just plain fun.Inna Reznik/Shutterstock.com

The newest fidget craze is popping toys. Adults and kids all over the world have been buying up this endlessly reusable version of a longtime favorite fidget activity: popping bubble wrap. Made of silicone and coming in a range of colors,...

Warming is clearly visible in new US 'climate normal' datasets

Written by Russ Schumacher, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science and Colorado State Climatologist, Colorado State University

Sunrise in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.Robert D. Barnes via Getty Images

Anyone who listens to weather reports has heard meteorologists comment that yesterday’s temperature was 3 degrees above normal, or last month was much drier than normal. But what does “normal” mean in this context – and in a world in which the climate is...

Faces of those America is leaving behind in Afghanistan

Written by Brian Glyn Williams, Professor of Islamic History, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

The people of Afghanistan that the author encountered live very different lives from Americans.Brian Glyn Williams, CC BY-ND

U.S. troops are already heading home from Afghanistan, ending a two-decade-long war that saw as many as 100,000 American troops there. The withdrawal of the remaining few thousand is slated to be complete by the symbolic date...