The Conversation

Hollywood's love of guns increases the risk of shootings – both on and off the set

Written by Brad Bushman, Professor of Communication and Rinehart Chair of Mass Communication, The Ohio State University

Actor Alec Baldwin was involved in a tragic on-set accident.Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for National Geographic

In what appears to be a tragic accident, actor Alec Baldwin shot dead a cinematographer on Oct 21, 2021, while discharging a prop gun on set in New Mexico.

It is too early to speculate what went wrong during the filming of the Western...

Parents were fine with sweeping school vaccination mandates five decades ago – but COVID-19 may be a different story

Written by James Colgrove, Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health; Dean of the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program, Columbia School of General Studies, Columbia University

Children and parents lined up for polio vaccines outside a Syracuse, New York school in 1961.AP Photo

The ongoing battles over COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S. are likely to get more heated when the Food and Drug Administration authorizes emergency use of a vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, expected later this fall.

California has announced it will...

The future of work is hybrid – here's an expert's recommendations for success

Written by Alanah Mitchell, Associate Professor and Chair of Information Management and Business Analytics, Drake University

A hybrid work arrangement means employees divide work time between the office and home. KT Images/The Image Bank via Getty Images

COVID-19 has changed the way we work.

Even before the pandemic, the U.S. workforce increasingly relied on remote collaboration technologies like videoconferencing and Slack. The global crisis accelerated the adoption of...

The future of work is hybrid – here's an expert's recommendations

Written by Alanah Mitchell, Associate Professor and Chair of Information Management and Business Analytics, Drake University

A hybrid work arrangement means employees divide work time between the office and home. KT Images/The Image Bank via Getty Images

COVID-19 has changed the way we work.

Even before the pandemic, the U.S. workforce increasingly relied on remote collaboration technologies like videoconferencing and Slack. The global crisis accelerated the adoption of...

Trump wants the National Archives to keep his papers away from investigators – post-Watergate laws and executive orders may not let him

Written by Shannon Bow O'Brien, Associate Professor of Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts

Nixon resigned after tapes he had fought making public incriminated him in the Watergate coverup.Bettmann/Getty

The National Archives is the United States’ memory, a repository of artifacts that includes everything from half-forgotten correspondence to the paper trails that document the days of the country’s life. The National Archives...

The horse bit and bridle kicked off ancient empires – a new giant dataset tracks the societal factors that drove military technology

Written by Peter Turchin, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Connecticut

Ancient military innovations – like the bit and bridle that enabled mounted horseback riding – changed the course of history.Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin/British Museum via WikimediaCommons , CC BY-NC

Starting around 3,000 years ago, a wave of innovation began to sweep through human societies around the globe. For the next millennium the...

Extreme rain heads for California's wildfire burn scars, raising risk of mudslides – this is what cascading climate disasters look like

Written by Amir AghaKouchak, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine

A firefighter checks homes after a mudslide that killed 23 people in Montecito, Calif., in 2018.Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

A powerful storm system known as an atmospheric river is heading for northern California and Oregon, a region in the midst of an historic drought.

While it will bring much-needed water to the parched region...

Evacuations ordered as a powerful storm heads for California's wildfire burn scars, raising risk of mudslides – this is what cascading climate disasters look like

Written by Amir AghaKouchak, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine

A firefighter checks homes after a mudslide that killed 23 people in Montecito, Calif., in 2018.Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Officials issued evacuation orders for people living downhill from several of California’s wildfire burn scars on Oct. 24, 2021, as a powerful storm system known as an atmospheric river began to drench...

Extreme rain heads for California's burn scars, raising the risk of mudslides – this is what cascading climate disasters look like

Written by Amir AghaKouchak, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine

A firefighter checks homes after a mudslide that killed 23 people in Montecito, Calif., in 2018.Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Two powerful storm systems known as atmospheric rivers are heading for northern California and Oregon, a region in the midst of an historic drought.

While the storms will bring much-needed water to a...

How do you spot a witch? This notorious 15th-century book gave instructions – and helped execute thousands of women

Written by Melissa Chim, Adjunct Professor and Reference Librarian, General Theological Seminary

The 'Malleus Maleficarum,' a medieval handbook, was used to try and execute supposed witches. Its influence lasted for centuries – including at the Salem Witch Trials. Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Books have always had the power to cast a spell over their readers – figuratively.

But one book that was quite popular...