The Conversation

Mary Ball Washington, George’s single mother, often gets overlooked – but she's well worth saluting

Written by Martha Saxton, Professor emerita of History and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies, Amherst College

Mary Washington helped her son develop into the leader he became. While her son was the subject of several portrait artists, there is no record that Mary ever was.Stock Montage/Getty Images

It is important and poignant to recall the hard life of Mary Ball Washington, who struggled – mostly alone – to raise our Founding Father....

US prisons hold more than 550,000 people with intellectual disabilities – they face exploitation, harsh treatment

Written by Jennifer Sarrett, Lecturer, Center for Study of Human Health, Emory University

The rate of intellectual disabilities is disproportionately high among incarcerated populations.Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Prison life in the U.S. is tough. But when you have an intellectual, developmental or cognitive disability – as hundreds of thousands of Americans behind bars do – it can make you especially vulnerable.

In March, the...

Lag BaOmer pilgrimage brings Orthodox Jews closer to eternity – I experienced this spiritual bonding in years before the tragedy

Written by Joshua Shanes, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, College of Charleston

A condolence message and candles for the victims of a stampede during a Jewish ultra-Orthodox mass pilgrimage to Mount Meron, projected on a wall of Jerusalem's Old City.Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images

The annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in Israel attracts as many as half a million visitors every year. Because of...

Space tourism is here – 20 years after the first stellar tourist, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin plans to send civilians to space

Written by Wendy Whitman Cobb, Professor of Strategy and Security Studies, US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies

Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson on the International Space Station with a view many more are likely to see soon. NASA/Tracy Caldwell Dyson/WIkimediaCommons

For most people, getting to the stars is nothing more than a dream. But on May 5, 2021, the 60th anniversary of the first suborbital flight, that dream became a little bit more achievable.

The...

Popping toys, the latest fidget craze, might reduce stress for adults and children alike

Written by Katherine Isbister, Professor of Computational Media, University of California, Santa Cruz

Popping toys like this one can relieve stress and anxiety and are just plain fun.Inna Reznik/Shutterstock.com

The newest fidget craze is popping toys. Adults and kids all over the world have been buying up this endlessly reusable version of a longtime favorite fidget activity: popping bubble wrap. Made of silicone and coming in a range of colors,...

Warming is clearly visible in new US 'climate normal' datasets

Written by Russ Schumacher, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science and Colorado State Climatologist, Colorado State University

Sunrise in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.Robert D. Barnes via Getty Images

Anyone who listens to weather reports has heard meteorologists comment that yesterday’s temperature was 3 degrees above normal, or last month was much drier than normal. But what does “normal” mean in this context – and in a world in which the climate is...

Faces of those America is leaving behind in Afghanistan

Written by Brian Glyn Williams, Professor of Islamic History, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

The people of Afghanistan that the author encountered live very different lives from Americans.Brian Glyn Williams, CC BY-ND

U.S. troops are already heading home from Afghanistan, ending a two-decade-long war that saw as many as 100,000 American troops there. The withdrawal of the remaining few thousand is slated to be complete by the symbolic date...

Police academies dedicate 3.21% of training hours to ethics and other public service topics – new research

Written by Galia Cohen, Assistant Professor, Director of the Division of Public Administration, Tarleton State University

A Los Angeles County police graduation ceremony, Aug. 21, 2020 in Monterey Park, Calif. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Police academies provide little training in the kinds of skills necessary to meet officers’ growing public service role, according to my research.

Highly publicized cases of police violence – such as the 2020 murder of George...

Wildfires are contaminating drinking water systems, and it's more widespread than people realize

Written by Andrew J. Whelton, Associate Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Center for Plumbing Safety, Purdue University

Fire in one part of a community can contaminate the water system used by other residents, as Santa Rosa, California, discovered after the Tubbs Fire.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

More than 58,000 fires scorched the United States last year, and 2021 is on track to be even drier. What many people don’t realize is that these wildfires can do...

Nocturnal dinosaurs: Night vision and superb hearing in a small theropod suggest it was a moonlight predator

Written by Lars Schmitz, Associate Professor of Biology, Scripps College

Fossils of _Shuvuuia deserti_ depict a small predatory creature with exceptional night vision and hearing.Mick Ellison/American Natural History Museum, CC BY-ND

Today, barn owls, bats, leopards and many other animals rely on their keen senses to live and hunt under the dim light of stars. These nighttime specialists avoid the competition of...