The Conversation

The Wall of Wind can blow away buildings at Category 5 hurricane strength to help engineers design safer homes – but even that isn't powerful enough

Written by Richard Olson, Director of the Extreme Events Institute, Florida International University

The Wall of Wind can create Category 5 hurricane winds for testing life-size structures.Margi Rentis/Florida International University

In an airplane hangar in Miami, engineers are recreating some of the most powerful hurricane winds to ever strike land. These Category 5 winds can shatter a test building in the blink of an eye.

Yet they...

What are HeLa cells? A cancer biologist explains

Written by Ivan Martinez, Associate Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, West Virginia University

Cancer-causing viruses like HPV can cause cells to divide indefinitely and, in the case of Henrietta Lacks, become immortal.Tom Deerinck/NIH via Flickr, CC BY-NC

In an amazing twist of fate, the aggressive cervical cancer tumor that killed Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year old African American mother, became an essential tool that helped the biomedical...

Shavuot: A Jewish holiday of renewing commitment to God

Written by Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies, College of the Holy Cross

An Ultra Orthodox Jewish man in Israel harvests wheat ahead of the holiday of Shavuot.AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

The festival of Shavuot, marked this year on June 5 and 6, celebrates the biblical story of God revealing Torah – Jewish scriptures and teachings – to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. This gift, and the observance of Torah’s...

Deaths and injuries in road crashes are a 'silent epidemic on wheels'

Written by John Rennie Short, Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Pedestrians pass the aftermath of a crash in Gaza City in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 11, 2021.Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated mind-numbing statistics over the past two years: half a billion cases, 6 million deaths, 1 million in the U.S. alone. But another, less-publicized global scourge preceded it and is...

One family's photo album includes images of a vacation, a wedding anniversary and the lynching of a Black man in Texas

Written by Jeffrey L. Littlejohn, Professor of History, Sam Houston State University

In this photo from Aug. 20, 1922, Gene Kemp and Mary 'Teddie' Kemp, at left, are seen with two friends.Jeffrey L. Littlejohn

As a historian and director of the Lynching in Texas project, which has documented more than 600 racial terror lynchings, I receive regular emails from journalists, scholars and activists who want to discuss the history of...

If plastic comes from oil and gas, which come originally from plants, why isn’t it biodegradable?

Written by Yael Vodovotz, Professor of Food Science & Technology, The Ohio State University

Plastic trash accumulates in trees and shrubs along the Los Angeles River.Citizen of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

If plastic comes from oil and gas, which...

Race, gender and the ways these identities intersect matter in cancer outcomes

Written by Timothy Pawlik, Professor of Surgery, The Ohio State University

Cancer care research usually focuses on just one of a patient's social identities.Isaac Lane Koval/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

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

The big idea

Belonging to one or more groups with long-standing social and economic disadvantages increases the risk of cancer diagnoses and death, according...

Arming teachers – an effective security measure or a false sense of security?

Written by Aimee Huff, Associate Professor, Marketing, Oregon State University

Even trained police officers often miss their target during gunfights.RichLegg / Getty Images

In the wake of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, some elected officials are making calls anew for teachers to be armed and trained to use firearms to protect the nation’s schools. To shine light on the matter, The...

The ordination of the first female rabbi 50 years ago has brought many changes – and some challenges

Written by Carole B. Balin, Professor Emerita of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

Sara Hurwitz, Amy Eilberg, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and Sally J. Priesand, each of whom was the first female rabbi in her branch of Judaism.Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives

Fifty years ago, on June 3, 1972, as Sally J. Priesand became the first woman ordained a rabbi by a Jewish seminary, her 35 male classmates...

The 'sonnenrad' used in shooters' manifestos: a spiritual symbol of hate

Written by Helen A. Berger, Affliate Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University

A person visits a makeshift memorial near the scene of the fatal shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 19, 2022.AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Just before the supermarket shooting that killed 10 people on May 14, 2022 in Buffalo, New York, the suspected terrorist posted a manifesto online. The top is adorned with a “sonnenrad,”...