The Conversation

How your social network could save you from a disaster

Written by Daniel P. Aldrich, Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Director, Security and Resilience Program, Northeastern University

Evacuating Corpus Christi, Texas ahead of Hurricane Bret in 1999.FEMA

In early November 2017, Brooks Fisher’s neighbor in Sonoma, California, pounded on his door at 2 a.m., rang the doorbell and shouted, “There’s a fire coming and you need to get out now! I can hear trees exploding!”

The sky was orange and the smell of smoke...

3 charts explain how Russians see Trump and US

Written by Erik C. Nisbet, Associate Professor of Communication, Political Science, and Environmental Policy and Faculty Associate with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, The Ohio State University

Just before the one-on-one summit between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held on July 16, Russian pollster VCIOM asked the Russian public how they viewed the American president and U.S.-Russian relations.

Though an authoritarian country, public opinion is still an important factor that the Russian government takes into account when...

As Putin-Trump summit nears, 3 charts explain how Russians see the US

Written by Erik C. Nisbet, Associate Professor of Communication, Political Science, and Environmental Policy and Faculty Associate with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, The Ohio State University

Donald Trump sits down with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 16 in Helsinki for their first one-on-one summit.

In anticipation of this event, Russian pollster VCIOM asked the Russian public this week about how they viewed the American president and U.S.-Russian relations. Though an authoritarian country, public opinion is still an...

Securing America's voting systems against spying and meddling

Written by Jeff Inglis, Science + Technology Editor, The Conversation US

shutterstock

The federal indictments of 12 Russian government agents accuse them of hacking computers to spy on and meddle with the U.S. 2016 presidential election – including state and county election databases.

With the 2018 midterm congressional elections approaching – along with countless state and local elections – here are...

Revisiting Jimmy Carter's truth-telling sermon to Americans

Written by David Swartz, Associate Professor of History, Asbury University

Employees at a gas station in Los Angeles watch President Jimmy Carter giving his energy speech over national television on July 15, 1979.AP Photo/Mao

Nearly 40 years ago, on July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter went on national television to share with millions of Americans his diagnosis of a nation in crisis. “All the legislation in the...

Emmett Till's life matters

Written by Davis W. Houck, Professor, Florida State University

A 1950s photograph of Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till Mobley, during a visit to Jackson, Miss.AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

The U.S. federal government is again investigating the case of Emmett Till’s murder, the Department of Justice has announced, bringing optimism that some measure of justice might ultimately prevail.

Nearly 63 years...

Central American kids come to the US fleeing record-high youth murder rates at home

Written by Julio Ernesto Acuna Garcia, Assistant Professor, Economics Department, Universidad San Fracisco de Quito (Ecuador)

Gang violence and expanding criminal networks have made El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala – an area of Central America known as the “Northern Triangle” – some of the world’s most dangerous countries.

El Salvador’s homicide rate in 2016 – 109 murders per 100,000 people – was more than 25 times that...

Spain's majority-female cabinet embodies women's global rise to power

Written by Susan Franceschet, Professor of Political Science, University of Calgary

Gender-equal governments, which include the same number of men and women as ministry heads and in other cabinet posts, used to be the purview of woman-friendly Nordic countries and highly progressive societies like Canada and Costa Rica.

No longer.

Mexico’s president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who takes office in...

What is Novichok? A neurotoxicologist explains

Written by William Atchison, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University

In this file photo taken on on Oct. 4, 1987, a Soviet army officer presents ammunition rigged with chemical agents during a visit by Western diplomats and journalists to a chemical weapons research facility in Shikhany, Saratov region, Russia. The facility in Shikhany led the efforts to develop Soviet chemical weapons, including Novichok-class...

Scientist at work: Identifying individual gray wolves by their howls

Written by Angela Dassow, Assistant Professor of Biology, Carthage College

Each wolf calls with its own 'voice.'Angela Dassow, CC BY-ND

Love them or hate them, wolves are vital members of natural ecosystems and the health of a wolf population can be an important factor in maintaining balance among species. Wolf populations are growing in North America – the Great Lakes region in particular now supports over 3,700...