The Conversation

Installing solar panels over California's canals could yield water, land, air and climate payoffs

Written by Roger Bales, Distinguished Professor of Engineering, University of California, Merced

The California Aqueduct, which carries water more than 400 miles south from the Sierra Nevada, splits as it enters Southern California at the border of Kern and Los Angeles counties.California DWR

Climate change and water scarcity are front and center in the western U.S. The region’s climate is warming, a severe multi-year drought is underway...

Why we remember more by reading – especially print – than from audio or video

Written by Naomi S. Baron, Professor of Linguistics Emerita, American University

When mental focus and reflection are called for, it's time to crack open a book.Noam Galai/Getty Images

During the pandemic, many college professors abandoned assignments from printed textbooks and turned instead to digital texts or multimedia coursework.

As a professor of linguistics, I have been studying how electronic communication compares to...

Breakfast After the Bell programs reduce school absenteeism

Written by Jacob Kirksey, Assistant Professor Educational Psychology & Leadership, Texas Tech University

Chronic absenteeism rates fell 8 percentage points among schools in Nevada and Colorado that adopted the 'Breakfast after the Bell' program. Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

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

The big idea

Making a healthy breakfast available to students not only can help alleviate...

Massive flare seen on the closest star to the solar system: What it means for chances of alien neighbors

Written by R. O. Parke Loyd, Post-Doctoral Researcher in Astrophysics, Arizona State University

Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the solar system and is home to a potentially habitable planet.Hubble/European Space Agency/WikimediaCommons, CC BY-SA

The Sun isn’t the only star to produce stellar flares. On April 21, 2021, a team of astronomers published new research describing the brightest flare ever measured from Proxima Centauri...

What happened to Confederate money after the Civil War?

Written by Robert Gudmestad, Professor and Chair of History Department, Colorado State University

Confederate currency had images of enslaved people, historical figures and mythical deities.elycefeliz/Flickr, CC BY-ND

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 happened to Confederate money after the Civil War? – Ray G.,...

American cities have long struggled to reform their police – but isolated success stories suggest community and officer buy-in might be key

Written by Thaddeus L. Johnson, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State University

Getting police and community on board with reforms is crucial for success.Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

The guilty verdicts delivered against Derek Chauvin on April 20, 2021, represented a landmark moment – but courtroom justice cannot deliver the sweeping changes most Americans feel are needed to improve policing in the U.S.

As America...

Family meals are good for the grown-ups, too, not just the kids

Written by Anne Fishel, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, Harvard University

Moms and dads have better physical and mental health when they dine with their children – despite all the work of a family meal.Thomas Barwick/DigitalVision via Getty Images

For all the parents feeling exhausted by the cooking, cleaning and planning of a million meals during the pandemic, there’s some good news. Commensality, or the...

From tulips and scrips to bitcoin and meme stocks – how the act of speculating became a financial mania

Written by Gayle Rogers, Professor and chair of English, University of Pittsburgh

Financial bubbles are frequently depicted as manias. Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

In the late 1990s, America experienced a dot-com mania. In the 2000s, the housing market went wild.

Today, there are manias in everything from bitcoin and nonfungible tokens to SPACs and meme stocks – obscure corners of the market that are...

How to tell if your college is trans-inclusive

Written by Abbie Goldberg, Professor of Psychology, Clark University

An affirming college environment can set trans youth on a path of personal, academic and professional success.Alessandra Tarantino/AP

High school can be especially challenging for the 2%-3% of U.S. teens who identify as transgender, or trans. They disproportionately experience harassment and victimization by their peers and rejection by family...

The 'bystander effect' is real -- but research shows that when more people witness violence, it's more likely someone will step up and intervene

Written by Wayne Eastman, Professor, Department of Supply Chain Management, Rutgers University

An image from a police body camera shows bystanders including Darnella Frazier, third from right, filming a Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee on George Floyd's neck.Minneapolis Police Department via AP, File

The most powerful evidence for the prosecution at the trial of Derek Chauvin was a video showing the then-Minneapolis police...