The Conversation USToxins Seaweed and sea slugs rely on toxic bacteria to defend against predatorstheconversation.com - Samantha Mascuch and Julia Kubanek Plants, animals and even microbes that live on coral reefs have evolved a rich variety of defense strategies to protect themselves from predators. …
The Conversation USU.S. Department of Homeland Security Who’s your daddy? Don’t ask a DNA testtheconversation.com - Nara Milanich “Man Ordered to Pay $65K in Child Support for Kid Who Isn’t His.” “Father Hopes to Change State Paternity Law” after losing custody of his biological …
The Conversation USPlay buttonEuropean Parliament European elections suggest US shouldn't be complacent in 2020theconversation.com - Liisa Past In many ways, the European Parliament elections in late May were calmer than expected. The more extreme political players, while gaining strength, …
The Conversation USGEDmatch Consumer genetic testing customers stretch their DNA data further with third-party interpretation websitestheconversation.com - Sarah Catherine Nelson Back in 2016, Helen (a pseudonym) took three different direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests: AncestryDNA, 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA. She saw …
The Conversation USPlay buttonHeadaches For some, self-tracking means more than self-helptheconversation.com - Joseph Reagle People who identify with the “Quantified Self movement” are, as expressed in the movement’s motto, seeking “self-knowledge through self-tracking.” …
The Conversation USNext-Generation Sequencing Rapid DNA analysis helps diagnose mystery diseasestheconversation.com - Charles Chiu As doctors, we deal with a lot of uncertainty. Often, it is difficult to diagnose what is making a patient sick because symptoms from both infectious …
The Conversation USPlay buttonNobel Prize Companies' self-regulation doesn't have to be bad for the publictheconversation.com - Scott Shackelford If Boeing is allowed to certify that a crash-prone aircraft is safe, and Facebook can violate users’ privacy expectations, should companies and …
The Conversation USAutomation Artificial intelligence-enhanced journalism offers a glimpse of the future of the knowledge economytheconversation.com - Nicholas Diakopoulos Much as robots have transformed entire swaths of the manufacturing economy, artificial intelligence and automation are now changing information work, …
The Conversation USSelf-Driving Cars Driverless cars are going to disrupt the airline industrytheconversation.com - Stephen Rice and Scott Winter As driverless cars become more capable and more common, they will change people’s travel habits not only around their own communities but across much …
The Conversation USBelize Trophies made from human skulls hint at regional conflicts around the time of Maya civilization's mysterious collapsetheconversation.com - Gabriel D. Wrobel Two trophy skulls, recently discovered by archaeologists in the jungles of Belize, may help shed light on the little-understood collapse of the once …
The Conversation USPlacebos Are brain games mostly BS?theconversation.com - Walter Boot You’ve probably seen ads for apps promising to make you smarter in just a few minutes a day. Hundreds of so-called “brain training” programs can be …
The Conversation USSleep Does hitting the snooze button really help you feel better?theconversation.com - Steven Bender To sleep or to snooze? You probably know the answer, but you don’t prefer it. Most of us probably use the snooze function on our alarm clocks at some …
The Conversation USMeteorites The tell-tale clue to how meteorites were made, at the birth of the solar systemtheconversation.com - William Herbst and James Greenwood April 26, 1803 was an unusual day in the small town of L’Aigle in Normandy, France – it rained rocks. Over 3,000 of them fell out of the sky. …
The Conversation USPhysiology Spider glue's sticky secret revealed by new genetic researchtheconversation.com - Sarah Stellwagen What do all of the over 45,000 described spider species on Earth have in common? Each makes at least one type of silk. And there are an awful lot of …
The Conversation USPlay buttonBacteria Antibiotic resistance is not new – it existed long before people used drugs to kill bacteriatheconversation.com - Ivan Erill Imagine a world where your odds of surviving minor surgery were one to three. A world in which a visit to the dentist could spell disaster. This is …
The Conversation USBaltimore Hackers seek ransoms from Baltimore and communities across the UStheconversation.com - Richard Forno The people of Baltimore are beginning their fifth week under an electronic siege that has prevented residents from obtaining building permits and …
The Conversation USAngkor Wat Angkor Wat archaeological digs yield new clues to its civilization's declinetheconversation.com - Alison Kyra Carter Cambodia’s famous temple of Angkor Wat is one of the world’s largest religious monuments, visited by over 2 million tourists each year. It was built …
The Conversation USBoise State University Big tech surveillance could damage democracytheconversation.com - Chase Johnson Data is often called the oil of the 21st century. The more tech companies know about their users, the more effectively they can direct them to goods …
The Conversation USPlay buttonSleep Pilots sleeping in the cockpit could improve airline safetytheconversation.com - Scott Winter and Stephen Rice Airline pilots are often exhausted. An extreme example happened in 2008, when a pilot and a co-pilot both fell asleep at the controls, missing their …
The Conversation USOpioids Naked mole rat genes could hold the secret to pain relief without opioidstheconversation.com - Erin Young Anyone with an annoying roommate story knows that a difficult living situation can change you in many ways. Now, imagine that instead of just eating …
The Conversation USMosquitoes Fighting malaria with fungi: biologists engineer a fungus to be deadlier to mosquitoestheconversation.com - Antonis Rokas Bed nets. Insecticides. Sterile and genetically modified insects. Now scientists are adding a genetically engineered toxic fungus to the arsenal of …
The Conversation USEast Africa Ancient DNA is revealing the origins of livestock herding in Africatheconversation.com - Mary Prendergast and Elizabeth Sawchuk Visitors to East Africa are often amazed by massive herds of cattle with a gorgeous array of horn, hump and coat patterns. Pastoralism – a way of …
The Conversation USCRISPR Gene-edited babies don't grow in test tubes -- mothers' roles shouldn't be erasedtheconversation.com - Rachel Adams A baby with incandescent green eyes, a baby stamped with a bar code, another with a glowing gold brain: these are some of the images illustrating …
The Conversation USViruses This year the flu came in two waves – here’s whytheconversation.com - Patricia L. Foster The just-ended 2018-2019 flu season was relatively mild compared to the last season, during which nearly 80,000 people in the U.S. died of …
The Conversation USSocial Media 6 ways to protect your mental health from social media's dangerstheconversation.com - Jelena Kecmanovic More than one-third of American adults view social media as harmful to their mental health, according to a new survey from the American Psychiatric …
The Conversation USWater Rapid water quality tests better protect beachgoerstheconversation.com - Rachel Noble Planning a trip to the beach? Along with looking forward to some summer fun, beachgoers may be thinking about the safety of their waterfront …
The Conversation USDoping Doping soldiers so they fight better – is it ethical?theconversation.com - Maxwell Mehlman The military is constantly using technology to build better ships, warplanes, guns and armor. Shouldn’t it also use drugs to build better …
The Conversation USUniversity of Michigan Mathematics of scale: Big, small and everything in betweentheconversation.com - Mitchell Newberry Breathe. As your lungs expand, air fills 500 million tiny alveoli, each a fraction of a millimeter across. As you exhale, these millions of tiny …
The Conversation USUniversity of Michigan Water stays in the pipes longer in shrinking cities – a challenge for public healththeconversation.com - Nancy Love and Richard Jackson and Shawn P. McElmurry The geographic locations where Americans live are shifting in ways that can negatively affect the quality of their drinking water. Cities that …
