The Conversation

Adult human brains don't grow new neurons in hippocampus, contrary to prevailing view

Written by Shawn Sorrells, Post-doc in Neurological Surgery, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

A lone new neuron (green) in a 13-year-old's hippocampus.Sorrells et al, CC BY-ND

When our recent study met significant skepticism, we weren’t surprised. After all, we ourselves remained skeptical of what we were seeing throughout our investigation. But repeated and varied experiments convinced us our conclusions were correct: New brain cells...

Is the NRA an educational organization? A lobby group? A nonprofit? A media outlet? Yes

Written by Samuel Brunson, Professor of Law, Loyola University Chicago

NRA volunteer shooting instructors Vern Marion and Brian Beck, firing at targets in 2002. AP Photo/Debra Reid

The National Rifle Association has hit more turbulence since 17 people died in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, than the nation’s biggest gun advocacy group is accustomed to after such...

Trump meets Kim Jong Un: 5 essential reads

Written by Naomi Schalit, Senior Editor, Politics + Society, The Conversation US

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un featured in a South Korean news program.AP

Editor’s note: The following is a roundup of stories from The Conversation’s archive.

In an unexpected development, President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un have agreed to meet and discuss improving relations.

Ove...

Why child care costs more than college tuition - and how to make it more affordable

Written by Taryn Morrissey, Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy, American University

A teaching assistant helps a child with glue at Redwood Early Learning Center in North Little Rock, Arkansas.Danny Johnston/AP

Amid the continually rising cost of tuition, the idea of free college has received growing attention over the past few years. For instance, from 2014 to 2017, 35 states took up 80 bills related to free college.

Early care...

There are dozens of sea snake species in the Indian and Pacific oceans, but none in the Atlantic or Caribbean. Why?

Written by Harvey Lillywhite, Professor of Biology and Director, Seahorse Key Marine Laboratory, University of Florida

Yellow-bellied sea snake (_Hydrophis platurus_).Coleman M. Sheehy III, Florida Museum of Natural History, CC BY-ND

Beachgoers often find unusual things that have washed up with the tides. But many people were surprised when a venomous yellow-bellied sea snake recently was found alive on California’s Newport Beach. Sea snakes are less...

Arbitration as a way out of the North Korean crisis

Written by Ronald Sievert, Senior Lecturer in Government, Texas A&M University

According to latest polls, a majority of Americans see North Korea as the greatest immediate threat to the U.S. with as many as 73 percent concerned about Kim Jung Un’s use of nuclear weapons. The world lives in fear that one more provocation in the form of a North Korean missile or nuclear test could lead to major war on the Korean...

Why child care costs more than college tuition – and how to make it more affordable

Written by Taryn Morrissey, Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy, American University

A teaching assistant helps a child with glue at Redwood Early Learning Center in North Little Rock, Arkansas.Danny Johnston/AP

Early care...

Influenza's wild origins in the animals around us

Written by Jonathan Runstadler, Professor of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University

People and animals live side by side – and can have pathogens in common.Nichola Hill, CC BY-ND

In the early 20th century, the leading cause of death was infectious disease. Epidemics erupted with little warning, seemingly out of the blue. When the “Great Influenza” struck in 1918, it killed thousands of people a week in American...

How to get more Americans to volunteer

Written by Rebecca Nesbit, Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia

Volunteers assemble food to be distributed to low-income schoolchildren in Pittsburgh through a government-funded program.AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th-century Frenchman fascinated by U.S. life, praised what he saw during his travels across the new nation as an unusual eagerness to volunteer.

Today, Americans volunteer as...

100 years later, the madness of daylight saving time endures

Written by Michael Downing, Lecturer in Creative Writing, Tufts University

Unfortunately, there's not an unlimited amount of daylight that we can squeeze out of our clocks.igorstevanovic/Shutterstock.com

One hundred years after Congress passed the first daylight saving legislation, lawmakers in Florida this week passed the “Sunshine Protection Act,” which will make daylight saving a year-round reality in the...