The Conversation

Taliban seize Herat and assault nearby dam that provides water and power to hundreds of thousands of Afghans

Written by Elizabeth B. Hessami, Faculty Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University

Afghan security forces stand guard on a roadside in Herat on Aug. 12, 2021, as the Taliban seized the city.AFP via Getty Images

The Taliban have taken over the Afghan city of Herat, capping three weeks of furious fighting in which both men and women took up arms to defend their city while many residents fled gunfights and rocket attacks.

The fall of...

El COVID-19 puede causar infertilidad masculina y disfunción eréctil. Las vacunas, en cambio, no

Written by Ranjith Ramasamy, Associate Professor of Urology, University of Miami

Una nueva investigación ha encontrado que algunos hombres que han tenido COVID-19 podrían experimentar efectos secundarios sexuales no deseadastuaindeed/iStock via Getty Images

Contrario a los mitos que circulan en las redes sociales, las vacunas contra el coronavirus no causan disfunción eréctil o infertilidad masculina....

5 issues that could affect the future of campus police

Written by John J Sloan, III, Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice and Sociology, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Campus police have been accused of biased practices. John Paraskevas/Newsday RM vis Getty Images

Since the May 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, much of the attention on police reform has been directed at municipal police departments. But there has also been a noticeable uptick in protests against the...

Why Cubans took to the streets: 3 questions about Cuba's economic crisis answered

Written by Jorge Salazar-Carrillo, Professor of Economics, Florida International University

The July 11 protests in Cuba were unprecedented. AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa

Thousands of Cubans took to the streets across the island around mid-July 2021 in a rare mass expression of dissent in a country known for repressive crackdowns. The government has cracked down by arresting hundreds of dissidents and clamped down on the internet, prompting new...

A century after the Appalachian Trail was proposed, millions hike it every year seeking 'the breath of a real life'

Written by Charles C. Chester, Lecturer in Environmental Studies, Brandeis University

McAfee Knob in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, one of the Appalachian Trail's most scenic vistas.Ben Townsend/Flickr, CC BY

The Appalachian Trail, North America’s most famous hiking route, stretches over 2,189 mountainous miles (3,520 kilometers) from Georgia to Maine. In any given year, some 3 million people hike on it, including more than...

What is the metaverse? 2 media and information experts explain

Written by Rabindra Ratan, Associate Professor of Media and Information, Michigan State University

Are these people interacting in some virtual world?Lucrezia Carnelos/Unsplash

The metaverse is a network of always-on virtual environments in which many people can interact with one another and digital objects while operating virtual representations – or avatars – of themselves. Think of a combination of immersive virtual reality, a mass...

Female scientists set back by the pandemic may never make up lost time

Written by Kristina Lerman, Research Professor of Computer Science, University of Southern California

Economist Esther Duflo sits with a tableful of men just after winning a Nobel Prize in 2019. She was the second female in history to win the economics prize for her research in global poverty.Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

During the COVID-19 quarantines, scientists, like most professionals, took their work home.

Women researchers,...

Emotion is a big part of how you assess risk – and why it's so hard to be objective about pandemic precautions

Written by Sheldon H. Jacobson, Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

It can be hard to see eye to eye when people don't see risk the same way.Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images

People tend to overestimate or underestimate risk. The pandemic brings this into stark relief. Picture someone wearing an N95 mask while walking their dog through a deserted park. Contrast that with someone entering a crowded bar maskless in an...

How gay men justify their racism on Grindr

Written by Christopher T. Conner, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Missouri-Columbia

Grindr allows for anonymity in a way that other dating apps do not.Martin Bureau/AFP via Getty Images

On gay dating apps like Grindr, many users have profiles that contain phrases like “I don’t date Black men,” or that claim they are “not attracted to Latinos.” Other times they’ll list races acceptable to them:...

Amid calls to #TaxTheChurches – what and how much do US religious organizations not pay the taxman?

Written by Ryan Cragun, Professor of Sociology, University of Tampa

Megachurches can be megarich.Allan Baxter/Getty Images

The hashtag #TaxTheChurches began trending on Twitter in mid-July.

The spark was allegations about the wealth of celebrity pastor Joel Osteen. But it wasn’t the first time that “tax the churches” has circulated. In fact it is slogan that long predates social media – Frank...