The Conversation

Stressful times are an opportunity to teach children resilience

Written by Vanessa LoBue, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University Newark

To protect students and communities across the U.S. from COVID-19, many districts have switched to digital learning or a hybrid of in-classroom and virtual schooling.ZEPHYR/Getty Images

Between the global COVID-19 pandemic, the associated economic downturn and widespread protests over racism, it’s difficult for everyone. Many people are...

How the airline industry recovers from COVID-19 could determine who gets organ transplants

Written by Tinglong Dai, Associate Professor of Operations Management & Business Analytics, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing

The airline industry has been cancelling routes because of the traffic drop-off during the pandemic. That has an impact on organ transplants.Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

The COVID-19 pandemic has crippled the airline industry. Passenger numbers are down more than two-thirds from last year, and airlines have been canceling flights and shutting down rou...

What is charismatic Catholicism?

Written by Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross

Members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal organization, which began in Pennsylvania in 1967, holding a meeting in FrancePhoto by Jacques Pavlovsky/Sygma via Getty Images

President Donald Trump has nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett in Milwaukee, on Aug. 24, 2018.Ra...

Not letting students choose their roommates can make college a drag

Written by Kevin Fosnacht, Associate Research Scientist, Indiana University

Assigning roommates in college doesn't lead students to have more diverse circles of friends. GCShutter/iStock via Getty Images Plus

When colleges and universities assign roommates instead of letting students pick and choose their own, the idea is often to increase the chance that students will live with someone from a different racial or ethnic...

How COVID-19 is changing the English language

Written by Roger J. Kreuz, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of Memphis

The coronavirus forced the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary to break with tradition.Illustration by Anurag Papolu/The Conversation; dictionary photo by Spauln via Getty Images and model of COVID-19 by fpm/iStock via Getty Images , CC BY-SA

In April, the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary did something unusual. For the previous 20...

Quarantine rule breakers in 17th-century Italy partied all night – and some clergy condemned the feasting

Written by Hannah Marcus, Assistant Professor, Department of the History of Science, Harvard University

The 17th-century plague in Rome.Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts between religious freedom and public health regulations have been playing out in courts around the world.

Churches from California to Maine have flouted public health orders by convening in person, indoors, unmasked and...

Sacred violence is not yet ancient history – beating it will take human action, not divine intervention

Written by Michael A. Vargas, Professor of History, State University of New York at New Paltz

Pope Urban II giving marching orders ahead of the First Crusade.Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Along with their swastikas borrowed from Nazi Germany, white supremacists marching in the U.S. and elsewhere have in recent years displayed crosses embellished with the Latin phrase “Deus Vult” – “God wills it.”...

If Obamacare goes away, here are eight ways your life will be affected

Written by Simon F. Haeder, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Pennsylvania State University

Open enrollment for health insurance in the healthcare.gov marketplaces begins Nov. 1. https://www.healthcare.gov, CC BY-SA

More than 10 years after its passage, the Affordable Care Act once more hangs in the balance. There have been plenty of near misses before, including previous Supreme Court appearances and Congressional votes. Yet in the wake...

Votes cast in November will shape Congress through 2030

Written by Robin Best, Associate Professor of Political Science, Binghamton University, State University of New York

A small sliver of a congressional district in Pennsylvania crossed four counties, on a map that was ruled to be a partisan gerrymandering plan.AP Photo/Keith Srakocic

When voters cast their ballots in November, they won’t just decide who will be president in 2021 – they will also have a voice in determining the partisan makeup of...

Ancient microbial life used arsenic to thrive in a world without oxygen

Written by Pieter Visscher, Professor of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut

Purple microbial mats offer clues to how ancient life functioned. Pieter Visscher, CC BY-ND

Billions of years ago, life on Earth was mostly just large slimy mats of microbes living in shallow water. Sometimes, these microbial communities made carbonate minerals that over many years cemented together to become layered limestone rocks called...