The Conversation

Food expiration dates don't have much science behind them – a food safety researcher explains another way to know what's too old to eat

Written by Jill Roberts, Associate Professor of Global Health, University of South Florida

Without obvious signs of contamination like the mold in this jam, consumers use expiration dates to decide whether to keep or throw away food. Ralf Geithe via iStock/Getty Images

Florida’s outbreak of listeria has so far led to at least one death, 22 hospitalizations and an ice cream recall since January. Humans get sick with listeria...

Jan. 6 committee set to examine Trump's connection to Capitol rioters – a militia expert explains this complex relationship

Written by Amy Cooter, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Vanderbilt University

Members of the Oath Keepers stand outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press

It’s not quite clear what, exactly, former President Donald Trump was doing and privately saying inside the White House during the five long, violent hours when more than 2,000 rioters invaded the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6,...

Supreme Court reversed almost 200 years of US law and tradition upholding tribal sovereignty in its latest term

Written by Kirsten Matoy Carlson, Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Wayne State University

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Chuck Hoskin Jr. speaks in Tahlequah, Okla. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling is upending decades of law in support of tribes. AP Photo/Michael Woods

Over the past 50 years, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have increasingly diverged in how they view the laws that relate to Indian tribes. Congress has passed...

Silent, subtle and unseen: How seizures happen and why they're hard to diagnose

Written by Jacob Pellinen, Assistant Professor of Neurology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Approximately 10% of people will experience at least one seizure during their lifetime.Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

The dramatic and incapacitating nature of seizures is reflected in the word itself, which derives from the Greek “to take hold” – like an invisible force suddenly grasping someone and...

It’s a myth that sunscreen prevents melanoma in people of color – a dermatologist explains

Written by Adewole S. Adamson, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine (Division of Dermatology), University of Texas at Austin

Melanoma is a potentially deadly form of skin cancer that effects people of every racial and ethnic group. The risk factor most closely linked to developing melanoma is exposure to ultraviolet, or UV, rays from the sun. In fact, sunburns have been associated with doubling one’s risk of melanoma.

Sunscreen can block UV rays and therefore...

Losing a grandmother can have long-lasting mental health effects for kids and adolescents, a new study finds

Written by Emily Smith-Greenaway, Associate Professor of Sociology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Research shows that grandparents' involvement in their grandchildren's lives plays a critically important role in a child's overall health and development. Mayur Kakade/Moment via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

The death of a grandmother can have severe and lasting mental health...

Human garbage is a plentiful but dangerous source of food for polar bears finding it harder to hunt seals on dwindling sea ice

Written by Thomas Scott Smith, Professor - Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation Program, Brigham Young University

Scenes like this one are becoming increasingly common in the Arctic.ALEXANDER GRIR/Contributor/AFP via Getty Images

More than 50 hungry polar bears invaded the Russian coastal village of Belushya Guba over a period of three months, attracted by the local dump. Some bears entered homes and businesses by ripping doors off hinges and climbing through...

Warsaw Ghetto's defiant Jewish doctors secretly documented the medical effects of Nazi starvation policies in a book recently rediscovered on a library shelf

Written by Merry Fitzpatrick, Research Assistant Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University

The book includes haunting photos from inside the ghetto, along with its record of the medical effects of starvation.'Maladie de Famine," American Joint Distribution Committee

Exactly 80 years ago, a group of starving Jewish scientists and doctors in the Warsaw Ghetto were collecting data on their starving patients. They hoped their research would...

Why are drug names so long and complicated? A pharmacist explains the logic behind the nomenclature

Written by Jasmine Cutler, Assistant Professor of Pharmacotherapeutics, University of South Florida

Having multiple prescriptions is difficult enough to keep track of, let alone ones with complicated names.Hill Street Studios/Stone via Getty Images

At some point in your life, you’ll likely find yourself with a prescription from your doctor to fill. While it’s important to keep track of all the medications you’re taking, that can...

The westward spread of zebra and quagga mussels shows how tiny invaders can cause big problems

Written by Christine Keiner, Chair, Department of Science, Technology, and Society, Rochester Institute of Technology

A boat propeller encrusted with zebra mussels.NPS/Flickr

The zebra mussel has been a poster child for invasive species ever since it unleashed economic and ecological havoc on the Great Lakes in the late 1980s. Yet despite intensive efforts to control it and its relative, the quagga mussel, these fingernail-sized mollusks are spreading through U.S....