The Conversation

Why gain-of-function research matters

Written by David Gillum, Senior Director of Environmental Health and Safety and Chief Safety Officer, Arizona State University

In February 2021, a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of COVID-19 visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Due to unanswered questions into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, both the U.S. government and scientists have called for a deeper examination into the validity...

As urban life resumes, can US cities avert gridlock?

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

It's back: Rush-hour traffic in Los Angeles on June 15, 2021.Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Traffic is so ubiquitous in U.S. cities that until recently, imagining urban life without it meant looking to other nations for examples. Then, in 2020, COVID-19 closures and lockdowns took drivers off the roads. The thought experiment...

What's next for health care reform after the Supreme Court rejects ACA's most recent challenge

Written by Zack Buck, Associate Professor of Law, University of Tennessee

The Supreme Court has pushed back three challenges to the Affordable Care Act.AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act for the third time on June 17, 2021, this time in a case called California v. Texas. With seven justices holding that the states and individual plaintiffs lacked standing to sue because they...

Does outer space end – or go on forever?

Written by Jack Singal, Associate Professor of Physics, University of Richmond

It can stretch your mind to ponder what's really out there.Stijn Dijkstra/EyeEm 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.

What is beyond outer space? – Siah, age 11, Fremont, California

Right above you is the sky...

How to consume news while maintaining your sanity

Written by Aly Colón, Knight Professor of Journalism Ethics, Washington and Lee University

Too much news can overwhelm consumers and promote anxiety. The Washington Post / Contributor/ Getty Images

The amount and variety of news produced today often tests people’s ability to determine its value and veracity. Such a torrent of information threatens to drown news consumers in a river of confusion.

Media coverage of the coronavirus,...

The dip in the US birthrate isn't a crisis, but the fall in immigration may be

Written by Adrian Raftery, Boeing International Professor of Statistics and Sociology, University of Washington

Reports of an American “baby bust” may be premature. But the drop in immigration puts the nation's demographic future at risk.Ariel Skelly/DigitalVision via Getty

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in May 2021 that the nation’s total fertility rate had reached 1.64 children per woman in 2020, dropping 4%...

'Managed retreat' done right can reinvent cities so they're better for everyone – and avoid harm from flooding, heat and fires

Written by A.R. Siders, Assistant Professor, Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware

Low-lying communities near rivers and bays face increasing risk of flooding. RoschetzkyIstockPhoto

June’s record-breaking heat wave left more than 40 million Americans sweltering in temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Some places reached 120 F, and energy grids were struggling to keep people cool. More than half the Western U.S. is now...

This tiny minority of Iraqis follows an ancient Gnostic religion – and there's a chance they could be your neighbors too

Written by James F. McGrath, Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Butler University, Butler University

Like their ancient ancestors, contemporary Mandaeans revere John the Baptist and consider baptism the most important of their religious rituals.Hadi Mizban/AP

In March 2021 Pope Francis became the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to visit Iraq. The number of Christians in Iraq has fallen sharply in the past two decades amid mass violence...

4 ways to get more Black and Latino teachers in K-12 public schools

Written by Travis Bristol, Assistant Professor of Education, University of California, Berkeley

More than half of U.S. public school students are children of color, while most of their teachers are white.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Black children are more likely to score higher on standardized tests and finish high school and want to attend college, and less likely to be suspended, if they have a Black teacher. Similarly, studies show that...

Supreme Court unanimously upholds religious liberty over LGBTQ rights -- and nods to a bigger win for conservatives ahead

Written by Morgan Marietta, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell

The Supreme Court has tended to side in favor of religious rights.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

It wasn’t a dramatic expansion of religious rights – not yet. But the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of a Catholic adoption agency that had been excluded from Philadelphia’s foster programs for refusing to work with same-sex...