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The Conversation US launched as a pilot project in October 2014. It is an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community, delivered direct to the public.Our team of professional editors work with university and research institute experts to unlock their knowledge for use by the wider public.Access to independent, high quality, authenticated, explanatory journalism underpins a functioning democracy. Our aim is to promote better understanding of current affairs and complex issues. And hopefully allow for a better quality of public discourse and conversation.We aim to help rebuild trust in journalism. All authors and editors sign up to our Editorial Charter. All contributors must abide by our Community Standards policy. We only allow authors to write on a subject on which they have proven expertise, which they must disclose alongside their article. Authors’ funding and potential conflicts of interest must also be disclosed. Failure to do so carries a risk of being banned from contributing to the site.The Conversation launched in Australia in March 2011 and​ the UK in May 2013.The Conversation started in Melbourne Victoria and the innovative technology platform and development team is based in the university and research precinct of Carlton.We believe in open access and the free-flow of information. The Conversation is a free resource: free to read (we’ll never go behind a paywall), and free to share or Creative Commons. All you need to do is follow our simple guidelines. We provide valuable media resources: free content, ideas and talent to follow up for press, web, radio or TV.Special thanks go to the foundations who funded the pilot: Alfred P Sloan Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.And also to Boston University’s College of Communication who are hosting the operation.Our newsroom is based in Boston but our team is part of a global newsroom able to share content across sites and around the world. The Conversation US is a non-profit educational entity.​
a multiple-exposure photo of insects flying around a light
Science & Technology
The surprising reason why insects circle lights at night: They lose track of the sky
A woman in a black shirt holds up her arm on which there is a tattooed number.
Lifestyle & Belief
Why some descendants of Holocaust survivors choose to replicate a loved one’s Auschwitz tattoo
Photo showing tanks and jeeps rolling through a desert
Israel-Hamas war
How the Hamas assault echoes the 1973 Arab-Israeli war
Three people prostrating in prayer on a mat. In the backdrop are mountains and a damaged ancient brick structure.
Natural disasters
Tinmel — Morocco’s medieval shrine and mosque — is one of the historic casualties of the earthquake
A woman working at a carrel in library stacks
Education
Nonnative-English-speaking scientists work much harder just to keep up, global research reveals
A woman poses for a photo in front of the Wagner Group military vehicle.
Wagner Group
Wagner’s mutiny punctured Putin’s ‘strongman’ image and exposed cracks in his rule
man in front of banner
‘Courage is contagious’: The late Daniel Ellsberg’s decision to release the Pentagon Papers didn’t happen in a vacuum
black and white image of four people
Historians are learning more about how the Nazis targeted trans people
A person standing on a pyramid of dried salt, while the rest of the salt flat looks like the surface of a lake
Economics
Raw materials, or sacred beings? Lithium extraction puts two worldviews into tension.
Sad looking children at a cafeteria table
Finding Ukraine’s stolen children and bringing perpetrators to justice: lessons from Argentina
portrait of nun reading a musical score
Music
The astonishing life and music of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, the Ethiopian nun who has died at 99
Casual photo of middle-aged Bachrach leaning forward
Burt Bacharach mastered the art of the perfect pop song — and that ain’t easy
The book includes haunting photos from inside the ghetto, along with its record of the medical effects of starvation.
Warsaw Ghetto’s defiant Jewish doctors secretly documented the medical effects of Nazi starvation policies
Bees look for water on an outdoor tap in Berlin, Germany during a hot spell, June 19, 2022.
Bees face many challenges — and climate change is ratcheting up the pressure
A small herd of reindeer on a snowy field
Reindeer eyes change color, putting Rudolph’s red nose in the shade, new research says
A life-size replica of a slave ship graces the Marina Project in Benin.
History
Benin is building a theme park to remember slavery — is history up for sale?
The Supreme Court is deciding a case on whether, and how, universities may consider an applicant’s race when making admissions decisions.
Development & Education
What is affirmative action? Here are 4 essential reads.
Extreme flooding in Pakistan in 2022 affected 33 million people.
Climate Change
Loss and damage: Who is responsible when climate change harms the world’s poorest countries?
Image of a rocket being fired by a defense system
Ukraine
A game of numbers: How air defense systems work and why Ukraine is eager for more protection
A woman strides down a street in front of Ukrainian yellow and blue banners with the branded slogans on them
Ukraine
With ‘bravery’ as its new brand, Ukraine is turning advertising into a weapon of war
Black-and-white photo of two men in outdoor gear standing besides a large harpoon gun on a boat
Environment
The Soviet Union once hunted endangered whales to the brink of extinction — but its scientists opposed whaling and secretly tracked its toll
Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo
Revealed: Untold story of the CIA/Stasi double agent abandoned after 22 years of service
China and the U.S. both have big plans for the Moon, but there are a number of reasons why no country could actually claim ownership of any land there.
NASA’s head warned that China may try to claim the moon — two space scholars explain why that’s unlikely to happen
Anti-abortion demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court on the day the court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade abortion laws.
Abortion
Opinion: Roe v. Wade overturned: Will more Americans travel to Canada and Mexico for abortions?
Russia is losing tanks at an astonishing rate.
Global arms industry getting shake-up by war in Ukraine — and China and US look like winners from Russia’s stumbles
Photo of a Swedish city at sunset, with lights glowing in windows and reflecting into a fjord
Should you feed child guests dinner? What #Swedengate tells us about food culture and social expectations.
concert stage with musicians
Russian artists grapple with the same dilemma as their Soviet forebears — to stay or to go?
protest with signs
Abortion
Roe v. Wade highlights the important role of high courts in democratic societies
President Zelenskyy wearing a green t-shirt looks out of a large screen on the stage and puts his hand on his heart while the US Congress watches
Ukraine
Ukraine’s information war is winning hearts and minds in the West
Bongbong Marcos holds up his hand in a celebratory pose as his wife and children look on
A member of the Marcos family is returning to power — here’s what it means for democracy in the Philippines
Could Ukraine’s entry be heading for Eurovision success?
Ukraine
How Eurovision helps define Europe’s boundaries (and why Ukraine will likely win)
Social media posts by Vietnamese influencers are spreading dangerous falsehoods about Ukrainians and lauding Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine
How Vietnamese ‘Putinistas’ are spreading disinformation about Ukrainians
A forklift placing crates of weaponry into a military truck
Ukraine
How weapons get to Ukraine and what’s needed to protect vulnerable supply chains
A Ukrainian family crosses into Slovakia on Feb. 25, 2022.
Even once female Ukrainian refugees reach safety, they face new burdens as single heads of household
The author’s father, Wolodymyr ‘Mirko’ Pylyshenko, pictured in an ID card at a German displacement camp for Ukrainians.
Ukraine
Why Ukrainian Americans are committed to preserving Ukrainian culture — and national sovereignty
Muddy water running through an informal settlement of huts
South African floods: Protecting people must include a focus on women and girls
Sepia-toned illustration showing roosters trying to put out a fire in a hut
Ukraine
Libraries around the world are helping safeguard Ukrainian books and culture
protest
Ukraine
Russia’s feminists are protesting the war and its propaganda with stickers, posters, performance and graffiti
The body of a serviceman near a destroyed Russian military vehicle.
Ukraine
Reliable death tolls from the Ukraine war are hard to come by — the result of undercounts and manipulation
Three women displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine check their mobile phones at a refugee centre in Hungary.
Ukraine
The Russian invasion shows how digital technologies have become involved in all aspects of war
A woman Ukrainian soldier in combat fatigues at a train station
Ukraine’s women fighters reflect a cultural tradition of feminist independence
Lasso-ing Chelsea FC? Why super-rich US sports owners are looking to buy a London soccer team.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the U.S. Congress.
Ukraine
‘I have a need’: How Zelenskiy’s plea to Congress emphasized shared identity with the US
‘Inventing Anna’ is based on Anna Sorokin, who in this photo appears in the New York State Supreme Court on grand larceny charges.
Gender
The art of the con: ‘Inventing Anna,’ ‘The Tinder Swindler’ and gender
Local militiaman Valery, 37, carries a child as he helps a fleeing family across a bridge destroyed by artillery, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wed., March 2, 2022.
Ukraine
Many Ukrainians face a future of lasting psychological wounds from the Russian invasion
A screenshot of Ukrainian President and onetime actor Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video he posted online.
Ukraine
Why Zelenskiy’s ‘selfie videos’ are helping Ukraine win the PR war against Russia
People protest in front of Ukraine’s embassy to Romania in Bucharest on Feb. 24, 2022.
Conflict & Justice
International law says Putin’s war against Ukraine is illegal. Does that matter?
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s popularity is on the rise again, but conflict with Ukraine may eventually change that.
Ukraine
Putin’s public approval is soaring during the Russia-Ukraine crisis — but it’s unlikely to last
Is “Twosday” as special as some corners of the internet seem to think?
Arts, Culture & Media
Happy Twosday! Why numbers like 2/22/22 have been too fascinating for over 2,000 years.
Commercial satellite companies provide views once reserved for governments, like this image of a Russian military training facility in Crimea.
Ukraine
Technology is revolutionizing how intelligence is gathered and analyzed — and opening a window onto Russian military activity around Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin walks through a hall in the building housing Russia’s GRU military intelligence service. 
Ukraine
Russia has been at war with Ukraine for years — in cyberspace
The Department of Justice indicted six officers of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service in October 2020 on charges of hacking and deploying malware.
Ukraine
Russia could unleash disruptive cyberattacks against the US — but efforts to sow confusion and division are more likely
A live broadcast of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking is shown on Dec. 23, 2021, from a media control room in Russia.
Ukraine
It’s just a ‘panic attack’ – Russian media blames US for escalating Ukraine crisis
Russian President Vladimir Putin standing in front of country flags
A year after Navalny’s return, Putin remains atop a changed Russia
President Lyndon B. Johnson, right, talks with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders in his White House office in Washington, D.C., Jan. 18, 1964.
Conflict & Justice
How the Vietnam War pushed MLK to embrace global justice, not only civil rights at home
Developing mixed use and mixed income neighbourhoods will help cities recover after the pandemic.
Infrastructure
Inclusion, walkability will be key to rebuilding cities after the pandemic
The Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol offers an example of how refusing to accept election results can lead to violence.
2020 US presidential election
The ‘sore loser effect’: Rejecting election results can destabilize democracy and drive terrorism
A woman holding a distorted alarm clock
How your emotional response to the COVID-19 pandemic changed your behavior and your sense of time
Edward O. Wilson sitting in a chair in his office
Environment
E.O. Wilson’s lifelong passion for ants helped him teach humans about how to live sustainably with nature
The handwritten lyrics of the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” better known by its opening line “‘Twas the Night before Christmas."
Arts, Culture & Media
‘Twas the night before Christmas’ helped make the modern Santa — and led to a literary whodunit