The Conversation

To help insects, make them welcome in your garden – here's how

Written by Brian Lovett, Postdoctoral Researcher in Mycology, West Virginia University

An insect-friendly wildflower swath at California State University, Fullerton's arboretum.TDLucas5000/Flickr, CC BY

As winter phases into spring across the U.S., gardeners are laying in supplies and making plans. Meanwhile, as the weather warms, common garden insects such as bees, beetles and butterflies will emerge from underground burrows or...

Why Christianity put away its dancing shoes – only to find them again centuries later

Written by Kathryn Dickason, Visiting Scholar, School of Religion, University of Southern California

Medieval Christians believed that heaven was a realm filled with dancing. Italian painter Fra Angelico's 'Last Judgment' showing dancing angels.Fra Angelico's Last Judgment/Wikimedia

In the PBS documentary series “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song,” scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. shows how African Americans introduced...

Jocks and frat boys more likely than other men in college to visit 'slut pages' and post nude images without consent

Written by Megan K. Maas, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Michigan State University

About 60 percent of men in fraternities have admitted to visiting 'slut pages.'Tero Vesalainen/iStock via Getty Images

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

The big idea

Over half of men in college fraternities or who play school sports say they have visited a secret webpage or social media account set up to post or view...

Why Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month is really something to celebrate this year

Written by Franklin G. Berger, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina

A man holds a photograph of Chadwick Boseman, who died from colon cancer at age 43. Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. I recognize that you’re not likely to throw a party to celebrate, since most of us are not comfortable talking about our butts and our bowel habits. However, there really...

'Sex addiction' isn't a justification for killing, or really an addiction – it reflects a person's own moral misgivings about sex

Written by Joshua B. Grubbs, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Bowling Green State University

Feeling 'addicted to sex' has more to do with one's values than frequency of behavior.Terraxplorer/E+ via Getty Images

A 21-year-old white man is alleged to have entered three different spas in the greater Atlanta area on March 16 and shot dead eight people, six of whom were Asian women. The following day, Cherokee County sheriff’s officials...

What is a hate crime? The narrow legal definition makes it hard to charge and convict

Written by Jeannine Bell, Professor of Law, Maurer School of Law, Indiana University

A memorial to the Asian American women gunned down at Gold Spa, in Atlanta, Ga., on March 18, 2021. Megan Varner/Getty Images

A white man travels to one business and kills several workers. He then kills more people at a similar business.

Six of the eight people he killed are Asian women, leading many people to call for him to be charged under the ne...

6 tratamientos que reciben pacientes COVID para sobrevivir, de anticuerpos a remdesivir

Written by William G. Bain, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh

Nuevos tratamientos para el COVID-19 se usan en distintas fases de la enfermedad, incluso hay tratamientos que pueden mantenerte fuera del hospital.Juan Monino via Getty Images

Hace un año, cuando las autoridades sanitarias de Estados Unidos emitieron su primera advertencia de que el COVID-19 causaría graves “trastornos en la...

Racism is behind anti-Asian American violence, even when it's not a hate crime

Written by Pawan Dhingra, Professor of Sociology and American Studies, Amherst College

Children attend a March 17 vigil at Clemente Park in Lowell, Massachusetts, for the victims of the shooting spree in Atlanta. Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Over the past year, attacks on Asian Americans have increased more than 150% over the previous year, including the March 16 murders of eight people, including six Asian American...

4 reasons no president should want to give a press conference

Written by David E. Clementson, Assistant Professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia

A president's reputation is safer when he's in the Oval Office rather than giving a press conference.Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

By mid-March 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden had not given a press conference since his inauguration – the longest that a new president has gone without holding a press conference in 100 years.

The Associated...

'Doing nothing' is all the rage – is it a form of resistance, or just an indulgence for the lucky few?

Written by Ingrid Nelson, Associate Professor of English, Amherst College

John White Alexander's 'Repose' (1895).Heritage Images via Getty Images

The pandemic has either created too much free time or too little. Kitchen-table commutes and reduced social obligations expand mornings and weekends for some, while caretakers and gig workers are exhausted by the constant, overlapping demands of home and work.

It’s no...