NewsPronto

 

The Conversation

Body hair helps animals stay clean – and could inspire self-cleaning technologies

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageHair as helpers in the quest for cleanliness.stratman², CC BY-NC-ND

Watch a fly land on the kitchen table, and the first thing it does is clean itself, very, very carefully. Although we can’t see it, the animal’s surface is covered with dust, pollen and even insidious mites that could burrow into its body if not removed.

Staying...

Read more: Body hair helps animals stay clean – and could inspire self-cleaning technologies

Does psychotherapy research with trauma survivors underestimate the patient-therapist relationship?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageThe therapeutic relationship can be as important as the type of therapy. In this photo, occupational therapist Carly Rogers (second from left) talks to military veterans at the surf therapy program she founded, in Manhattan Beach, California.Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

When I first arrived at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center to practice psychology in...

Read more: Does psychotherapy research with trauma survivors underestimate the patient-therapist relationship?

Scholars: Fox Biz did its job, debate highlighted political differences

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageKasich, Bush, Rubio, Trump, Carson, Cruz, Fiorina and Paul before the debate held by Fox Business Network, November 10, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young

Eight candidates came together in Milwaukee for the fourth GOP prime time debate on Tuesday. The event followed weeks of squabbling over questions and format, and how moderators should behave. We asked two...

Read more: Scholars: Fox Biz did its job, debate highlighted political differences

Does Missouri president ouster offer lessons to universities grappling with a racist past?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageUniversities struggling with racist past?Let Ideas Compete, CC BY-NC-ND

In the wake of the resignation of University of Missouri System President Tom Wolfe, much is being written about the power of collective action among student groups to affect positive change on their campuses.

The Black Lives Matter movement has demonstrated the same. Young...

Read more: Does Missouri president ouster offer lessons to universities grappling with a racist past?

In targeting Exxon on climate, New York puts all corporations on notice

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageEven if Exxon eludes charges in New York, the attorney general's investigation sends a message on corporate accountability.mortaupat/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

In a move that is potentially transformative, the New York attorney general is investigating Exxon for financial fraud.

The company made public statements questioning the science of climate change...

Read more: In targeting Exxon on climate, New York puts all corporations on notice

Fox relies on polls too much in planning GOP debate

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imagePoor polls results have pushed Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee off the main debate stage.REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (l), Mike Blake (r)

Polling is more important than ever in US presidential politics.

In the 2016 campaign, the polls now function as a primary election of their own, forcing candidates out of the race and influencing which candidates the...

Read more: Fox relies on polls too much in planning GOP debate

How ratings-driven presidential debates are weakening American democracy

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageAs Donald Trump knows all too well, sensationalism sells.Rick Wilking/Reuters

Anyone curious about the state of American democracy should simply tune into the GOP debate series, whose next episode airs Tuesday night on Fox Business Network.

If the first two debates are any indication, advertisers will be clamoring to buy up commercial spots,...

Read more: How ratings-driven presidential debates are weakening American democracy

Academic print books are dying. What's the future?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageNumbered days of the print form of scholar's book?quattrostagioni, CC BY

The print-format scholarly book, a bulwark of academia’s publish-or-perish culture, is an endangered species. The market that has sustained it over the years is collapsing.

Sales of scholarly books in print format have hit record lows. Per-copy prices are at record highs....

Read more: Academic print books are dying. What's the future?

US and Chinese tempers rise in the South China Sea

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageUS Secretary of Defense Ash Carter observes the destroyer USS Lassen in the South China Sea. US Navy

US defense officials are open about the fact they sent a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese artificial island in the South China Sea on October 27.

In response, Chinese President Xi Jinping asserted “islands in the...

Read more: US and Chinese tempers rise in the South China Sea

More Articles ...

  1. Businesses can actually sue you for posting negative reviews – and now Congress is fighting back
  2. If the US had price on carbon, would Keystone XL have made sense?
  3. As the US heads to climate talks, it seeks a plan to 'trust but verify'
  4. How the science of human behavior is beginning to reshape the US government
  5. Teaching assistants like me? Here's what could change
  6. How computers broke science – and what we can do to fix it
  7. Fitness versus fatness: which matters more?
  8. The activists' playbook behind Obama's Keystone rejection
  9. The Keystone XL pipeline debate is over, but our infrastructure needs are not
  10. Hollywood shines a spotlight on real journalism
  11. Jobs report shows why it's time Speaker Ryan and President Obama sat down for a beer
  12. Black Panthers and Black Lives Matter -- parallels and progress
  13. Labor's rank and file still believe in collective bargaining's power to bolster middle class
  14. Think you're reading the news for free? New research shows you're likely paying with your privacy
  15. It's not rocket science: we need a better way to get to space
  16. Will the Arctic shift from a carbon sink to a carbon source?
  17. 'Powerpoint was not his thing': a poem on teaching and technology
  18. On the 120th anniversary of the X-ray, a look at how it changed our view of the world
  19. Ben Carson: token candidate
  20. How we got to now: why the US and Europe went different ways on GMOs
  21. How do our brains reconstruct the visual world?
  22. Here are some more reasons why liberal arts matter
  23. Labs make new, dangerous synthetic cannabinoid drugs faster than we can ban them
  24. How campaign finance disenfranchises America's silent majority of socialists
  25. Do refugees have a 'right' to hospitality?
  26. Sam Smith's ambitious attempt to reshape the Bond song lands with a whimper
  27. Ted Cruz's birther problem
  28. Delayed or killed, Keystone pipeline will live on as political touchstone
  29. What is the legacy of Yitzhak Rabin?
  30. Ohio strikes blow against gerrymandering
  31. If a solar plant uses natural gas, is it still green?
  32. Lessons from Newark: why school reforms will not work without addressing poverty
  33. Wedding bells or single again: psychology predicts where your relationship is headed
  34. In the verses of Jordan's most popular poet, the hopes and fears of the Arab world
  35. Eleven body fluids we couldn’t live without
  36. Some find redemption on death row, but few find mercy
  37. In our Wi-Fi world, the internet still depends on undersea cables
  38. As US shutters aging nuclear plants, cutting emissions will become more costly
  39. What Grantland's demise says about ESPN's past and future ambitions
  40. Why Asian Americans don't vote Republican
  41. 'Rise' of China's yuan is much ado about little
  42. The biggest sticking point in Paris climate talks: money
  43. Look what is being sold to kids when they are in school
  44. What do the new breast cancer screening guidelines recommend about when to start yearly mammograms?
  45. It turns out clothes really do make the man
  46. Cities are booming but progress is uneven and, to some, too costly
  47. Hearing ghost voices relies on pseudoscience and fallibility of human perception
  48. Is one of the largest real estate deals in American history a requiem for middle-class New York?
  49. Why mayors are looking for ideas outside the city limits
  50. Can innovators build a future that's both disruptive and just?