As the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump could learn a lot from his party’s first president, Abraham Lincoln. He should start with religion and immigration, topics on which he has appealed to fear and bigotry rather than “the better angels of our nature" as Lincoln did.

Trump has called for a ban on immigration and travel to...

In recent years wildfire seasons in the western United States have become so intense that many of us who make our home in dry, fire-prone areas are grappling with how to live with fire.

When I moved to a small town in eastern Washington in 2004, I thought I was...

With each terrorist attack on another airport, train station or other public space, the urgency to find new ways to detect bombs before they’re detonated ratchets up.

Chemical detection of explosives is a cornerstone of aviation security. Typically...

Lawmakers meet today to try to finalize legislation to solve the nation’s opioid crisis. It’s an issue that The Conversation has been covering for many months.

How can it be that nearly half a million people in the U.S. are addicted to heroin and another two million have substance use disorders related to prescription drug abuse? In...

The 1990s were a high-water mark for public interest in UFOs and alien abduction. Shows like “The X-Files” and Fox’s “alien autopsy” hoax were prime-time events, while MIT even hosted an academic conference on the abduction phenomenon.

But in the first decade of the 21st century, interest in UFOs began to wane. Fewer...

In California, about 74 percent of people who leave prison return within 12 months. Considering that the California prison system paroles about 45,000 people each year, this recidivism rate presents serious problems for policymakers and correctional agency administrators. It’s a revolving door – one that needs to be stopped.

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With three billion camera-equipped cellphones in circulation, we are awash in visual information. Cameras are lighter, smaller and cheaper than ever and they’re everywhere, making it possible for nearly anyone to watch, create, share and video.

One of the most dramatic ways camera proliferation is changing our lives is in the area of law...

Beneath fields of corn and soybeans across the U.S. Midwest lies an unseen network of underground pipes. These systems, which are known as tile drainage networks, channel excess water out of soil and carry it to lakes, streams and...

Venezuela is a nation rich with natural resources such as oil, gold, diamonds and other minerals. Yet, it is experiencing a crisis in which most people cannot find food or medicine.

In the past several months, there has been great social unrest in Venezuela. Venezuelans are going out on the streets demanding their basic needs, and storming delivery...

Donald Trump has been bashing free trade for much of his campaign. But in recent weeks he’s taken his anti-trade tirades to a whole new level in lashing out at the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal that was signed by its 12 Asia-Pacific members but has yet to be ratified.

On June 22, he told a crowd in New York City that the TPP would...