The Conversation

How do fire ants form amazing towers and rafts without a master plan?

Written by Craig Tovey, Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering and Co-Director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Design, Georgia Institute of Technology

How do they each know what to do?Tim Nowack, CC BY-ND

Drop a clump of 5,000 fire ants in a pond of water. In minutes the clump will flatten and spread into a circular pancake that can float for weeks without drowning the ants.

Drop the same clump of ants near a plant on solid ground.

Hundreds of thousands of ants creating a tower together – but...

How daughters can repair a damaged relationship with their divorced dad

Written by Linda Nielsen, Professor of Education, Wake Forest University

How can dads and daughters reconnect after a divorce?Marie Linner/Shutterstock.com

In a 2002 study involving nearly 2,500 children, researchers found that daughters’ relationships with their fathers were more damaged than sons’. What’s more, estranged daughters are more likely than estranged sons to suffer negative effects from...

Is the world ready for a strong German leader?

Written by Johanna Schuster-Craig, Assistant Professor of German and Global Studies, Michigan State University

U.S. President Donald Trump is welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the first day of the G-20 summit.AP Photo/Jens Meyer

What does it take to be elected chancellor of the most populous country in Europe four times in a row?

Germany does not have a system of term limits for heads of state. Candidates for chancellor can seek reelection as...

Cleaning up toxic sites shouldn't clear out the neighbors

Written by Lindsey Dillon, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Abandoned industrial buildings at San Francisco's Pier 70, with a smokestack in the background.Lindsey Dillon, CC BY-NC-ND

San Francisco has embarked on a project to transform its industrial southeast waterfront into a bike-friendly destination called the Blue Greenway. When completed, the Blue Greenway will be a 13-mile network of parks, bike...

CNN-Reddit saga exposes tension between the internet, anonymity and power

Written by Bree McEwan, Assistant Professor of Communication and Technology, DePaul University

It originated as a Reddit post. The president tweeted it. Then all hell broke loose.HanAssholeSolo/Reddit

On July 2, President Trump tweeted a video of himself fighting Vince McMahon in a WWE match with a CNN logo superimposed over McMahon’s head.

By July 5, CNN political reporter Andrew Kaczynski had tracked down the identity of the...

Is it ever a good idea to arm violent nonstate actors?

Written by Patricia Sullivan, Associate Professor of Public Policy and the Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

In May, President Donald Trump authorized a plan to arm the YPG, a Kurdish militia in Syria. A month later, the YPG and their Arab partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces began the fight to take the Syrian city of Raqqa back from the Islamic State. While the U.S., Russia and Jordan agreed to a ceasefire in southwest Syria that went into effect...

Banning smartphones for kids is just another technology-fearing moral panic

Written by Nicholas Bowman, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, West Virginia University

Should children under the age of 13 be given access to smartphones?Africa Studio/Shutterstock

If a few concerned parents have their way, Colorado will be among the first states to ban the sale of smartphones for use by children under the age of 13. After witnessing what he called a “dramatic, very violent outburst” from one of his sons...

Why we need to save the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Written by Jeff Sovern, Professor of Law, St. John's University

Republicans in Congress and the White House have been very blunt about their desire to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The agency was launched in 2011 in the aftermath of the financial crisis as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The goal was to protect consumers from deceptive or misleading...

Give and take: Credentials could aid panhandling

Written by Brendan O'Flaherty, Professor of Economics, Columbia University

People have always asked for alms, including the men depicted in this 17th-century European etching.Wenceslaus Hollar/The Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio recently said on a radio show that he would like to ban panhandling but wouldn’t try because the courts wouldn’t allow it. Many panhandlers “are not...

Revisiting the legacy of Jerry Falwell Sr. in Trump's America

Written by Richard Flory, Senior Director of Research and Evaluation, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Recently, President Donald Trump appointed evangelical Christian leader Jerry Falwell Jr. to head the White House education reform task force. Not much is known about the task force or what its work will be. And, tapping Falwell Jr. as its leader may seem odd to some observers given that he is president of Liberty University, a Christian...