The Conversation

Bridges can be protected from ship collisions – an expert on structures in disasters explains how

Written by Sherif El-Tawil, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan

A cargo ship hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Florida's Tampa Bay in 1980, collapsing one span and killing 35 people.AP Photo/Jackie Green

The MV Dali, a 984-foot, 100,000-ton cargo ship, rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge when leaving Baltimore harbor on March 26, 2024, causing a portion of the bridge to collapse.

In an interview,...

Port of Baltimore bridge collapse rattles supply chains already rocked by troubles in Panama and the Red Sea

Written by Simona Stan, Professor of Marketing, University of Montana

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024, has put a spotlight on the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest harbors in the U.S., which paused shipping and immediately halted all vessel traffic in and out.

The port remained open to trucks following the incident, but the loss of maritime traffic is expected to cost US$9 million a...

The roots of the Easter story: Where did Christian beliefs about Jesus’ resurrection come from?

Written by Aaron Gale, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, West Virginia University

A mosaic of the Resurrection in the Basilica of St. Paul in Harissa, Lebanon.FredSeiller/Wikimedia Commons

As Easter approaches, Christians around the world begin to focus on two of the central tenets of their faith: the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Other charismatic Jewish teachers or miracle workers were active in Judea around the...

How to have the hard conversations about who really won the 2020 presidential election − before Election Day 2024

Written by Robert A. Strong, Emeritus Professor of Politics, Washington and Lee University; Senior Fellow, Miller Center, University of Virginia

It's important to democracy to have difficult discussions across political lines.MirageC/Moment via Getty Images

Millions of Americans believe that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. They think Donald Trump won by a landslide in 2020 and lost only because of widespread voter fraud. Some of the people who hold these views are my relatives,...

Why civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer was ‘sick and tired of being sick and tired’

Written by Marlee Bunch, Staff K-12 Initiatives, Office of the Chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Fanny Lou Hamer speaks out against Mississippi's racist voting laws on Aug. 8, 1964.Bettmann/Getty Images

It wasn’t called voter suppression back then, but civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer knew exactly how white authorities in Mississippi felt about Black people voting in the 1960s.

At a rally with Malcolm X in Harlem, New York, on Dec....

‘The Amazon of Sports’ has already cornered baseball’s apparel market – and is now on the verge of subsuming baseball cards, too

Written by Nathaniel Grow, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics, Indiana University

The U.S. sports card industry is an estimated $12 billion market.Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images

During spring training, Major League Baseball’s official uniform supplier, Fanatics, became a focal point for all the wrong reasons.

After arriving in Florida and Arizona, players began to complain about the quality of their new,...

Horses lived in the Americas for millions of years – new research helps paleontologists understand the fossils we’ve found and those that are missing from the record

Written by Stephanie Killingsworth, Ph.D. Student in Geological Sciences, University of Florida

People have collected fossil horses throughout North America for centuries.Florida Museum/Mary Warrick

Many people assume that horses first came to the Americas when Spanish explorers brought them here about 500 years ago. In fact, recent research has confirmed a European origin for horses associated with humans in the American Southwest and Great...

Cancer often requires more than one treatment − an oncologist explains why some patients like Kate Middleton receive both chemotherapy and surgery

Written by Alexander Olawaiye, Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

Some cancer patients receive additional treatment after surgery with the goal of eliminating any remaining tumor cells.BSIP/Collection Mix: Subjects via Getty Images

When Kate Middleton, the princess of Wales, announced in March 2024 that she was receiving “preventive chemotherapy” following abdominal surgery, many wondered what that...

Easter 2024 in the Holy Land: a holiday marked by Palestinian Christian sorrow

Written by Roni Abusaad, PhD, Lecturer, San José State University

A procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial place of Jesus Christ.AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner

Every year, Christians from across the world visit Jerusalem for Easter week, walking the Via Dolorosa, the path Jesus is said to have walked on the way to his crucifixion over...

I’ve captained ships into tight ports like Baltimore, and this is how captains like me work with harbor pilots to avoid deadly collisions

Written by Allan Post, Deputy Superintendent, Texas A&M Maritime Academy, Texas A&M University

The ship Dali amid the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024. AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Details are still emerging about the disaster that happened in the early morning of March 26, 2024, when the Dali, a large cargo ship on its way out of the port of Baltimore, hit a major bridge and caused it to collapse.

The Conversation’s...