The Conversation

A large solar storm could knock out the power grid and the internet – an electrical engineer explains how

Written by David Wallace, Assistant Clinical Professor of Electrical Engineering, Mississippi State University

Typical amounts of solar particles hitting the earth's magnetosphere can be beautiful, but too much could be catastrophic.Svein-Magne Tunli - tunliweb.no/Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-SA

On Sept. 1 and 2, 1859, telegraph systems around the world failed catastrophically. The operators of the telegraphs reported receiving electrical shocks, telegraph paper...

How prosthetic penises in shows like HBO's 'Minx' reinforce existing stereotypes and taboos

Written by Peter Lehman, Emeritus Professor, Film and Media Studies in English, Arizona State University

Entertainment Weekly recently published an interview with actor Taylor Zakhar Perez, teasing the piece with a headline about Perez “baring it all” as a nude model for a 1970s magazine centerfold in the first episode in HBO Max’s “scandalous” new show, “Minx.”

The real scandal, in my view, is not the...

How poetry can help people get through hard times – 4 essential reads

Written by Alvin Buyinza, Editorial and Outreach Assistant, The Conversation US

Poetry can be a way for people to come together. Saul Loeb - Pool/Getty Images

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian American writer Ilya Kaminsky’s poem “We Lived Happily During the War” went viral across social media.

Poetry can often help people make sense of the world in difficult times. For World Poetry Day, The Conversation...

Lasso-ing Chelsea FC? Why super-rich US sports owners are looking to buy a London soccer team

Written by Stefan Szymanski, Professor of Sport Management, University of Michigan

Putting the Blues in the red, white and blue.Bradley C Bower/EMPICS via Getty Images

Ted Lasso, the story of an American football coach bringing his unique management skills to a fictional soccer club in West London, has entertained TV viewers since 2020. It now appears that some investors stateside are looking to experience this close up by buying...

Ukraine's foreign fighters have little in common with those who signed up to fight in the Spanish Civil War

Written by Sebastiaan Faber, Professor of Hispanic Studies, Oberlin College and Conservatory

A woman hugs a Polish volunteer before he crosses the border to go and fight against Russian forces.AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu

When an aging Abe Osheroff recalled why, as a 21-year-old kid from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood, he had volunteered to join the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War in 1936, he framed it as a personal,...

Ukraine is benefiting from generous donations – and many other global causes need help, too

Written by Jessica Eise, Assistant Professor of Social and Environmental Challenges, The University of Texas at San Antonio

A Yemeni mother holds the tiny foot of her malnourished child in 2021. Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images

Ukraine’s resistance to Russia has captivated the world, dominating social media and the news since the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion. With this attention has come a massive outpouring of financial support.

Ordinary people, governments, corporations an...

Russia’s no longer a ‘most-favored nation’: 5 questions about the coveted trading status answered

Written by Charles Hankla, Associate Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University

Russian-made goods will likely cost more in Western liquor stores if most-favored-nation status is removed. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

The U.S., the European Union, Japan and Canada are further severing Russia from global markets by removing a coveted trading designation over its war in Ukraine. Known as most-favored-nation status, it generally...

Why Crimean Tatars are fearful as Russia invades Ukraine

Written by Brian Glyn Williams, Professor of Islamic History, UMass Dartmouth

Crimean Tatars gathered for a rally commemorating the 70th anniversary of Stalin's mass deportation, in Simferopol, Crimea, on May 18, 2014. AP Photo/Alexander Polegenko

As Vladimir Putin’s forces wage a brutal war against Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars living in Russian-occupied Crimea and on the Ukrainian mainland feel particularly threatened...

How does the immune system mobilize in response to a COVID-19 infection or a vaccine? 5 essential reads

Written by Amanda Mascarelli, Senior Health and Medicine Editor

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught most people more than they ever expected to know about immunology.Membio/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Heading into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have become amateur immunologists, having conversations at the dinner table and in the grocery store aisle about mRNA vaccines, variants, breakthrough...

From healthy births to sustainable management, 5 essential reads on the fascinating and complex vagina

Written by Leah Samuel, Health + Equity Editor

The vagina is a muscular tube that can maintain itself and be beneficial to babies.magicmine/iStock via Getty Images Plus

As the most common route for arriving into the world, the human vagina has, of course, existed for as long as there have been people. Despite the name, however, it’s not so much a “sheath” – the Latin...