Give Chaucer a chance! Why ‘dead white men’ can still be relevant in NZ’s classrooms

By Simone Celine Marshall

While the proposed revisions of the English curriculum in secondary schools have unnerved and offended some, there is perhaps one silver lining. In a system seemingly intent on pushing students towards scientific and...

A byelection to watch: What the Toronto-St. Paul’s vote means for Justin Trudeau

By Sam Routley

Residents of the federal riding of Toronto-St. Pauls will soon be tasked with voting for their next Member of Parliament. Under conventional circumstances, this wouldnt be very interesting. The riding, occupying a sizable...

Mealtimes can be tough when your child is autistic or has ADHD. Here are 5 tips to try

By Stella Boyd-Ford Et Al

Gathering as a family for a meal can serve several purposes: from social connection to nutrition. But this can also make eating and mealtimes tricky to manage when someone in the family is neurodivergent. Many autistic...

NZ needs a 300% increase in qualified midwives – and those working need more support and recognition

By James Greenslade-Yeats Et Al

New Zealands understaffed and underfunded midwifery sector is hoping to benefit from increased health funding announced in the 2024 budget. The government has promised NZ$8.15 billion in additional operating capital for...

Respectful canoeing means acknowledging Indigenous authority over the land and water

By Bruce Erickson

In a satirical look at canoeing in Canada, Ojibway comedian and author Drew Hayden Taylor once joked every time a non-native person whitewater canoes down the Madawaska River, or goes kayaking off Tobermory, they should...

Another election, another round of Nigel Farage hype, with no lessons learned

By Aurelien Mondon

Nigel Farage, a man who has never been elected to the House of Commons despite years of trying, has again been allowed to set the agenda in the UK. Ten years after Ukip won the European parliament elections, throwing...

Did the Victorians have better roads than us? A history of Britain’s potholed streets

By Lauren Colley

Potholes are the motorists ultimate bug bear, responsible for an estimated 474 million worth of damage in the UK last year. As insurance companies wade through a further 30% average increase in compensation claims, have...

How Vladimir Putin projects his image as a modern-day Peter the Great

By George Gilbert

Russian energy giant Gazprom is reported to have been hit particularly hard by sanctions imposed as a result of the war with Ukraine. An internal report obtained and published by the Financial Times has forecast that the...

Election 2024: migrants aren’t to blame for Britain’s housing crisis

By Regina Serpa

Migration has become the most toxic issue in British politics, driving intensely emotional debates that are often based on prejudice and misunderstanding. Similarly emotional is housing a finite resource in high demand at...

Scary-sounding new virus in the news? Here are the questions you should ask

By Ed Hutchinson

In the US, a dairy-farm worker develops itching, blood-shot eyes. In Australia, a young girl falls ill after a foreign holiday and is rushed to hospital. In Mexico, another man, already ill and bed-bound, becomes seriously...

The world no longer needs fossil fuels – and the UK could lead the way in making them taboo

By Greg Muttitt Et Al

North Sea oil and gas has become a battleground issue in the UK general election. The Labour partys manifesto promises an end to issuing new licenses for finding oil and gas. The Conservative party meanwhile proposes a...

Myth: How the US manipulates global markets for economic supremacy

By Jostein Hauge

US president, Joe Biden, raised tariffs on Chinese-made goods sharply in May, claiming that the Chinese government has cheated by pouring money into Chinese companies … hurting competitors who play by the rules. The...

Canadians are feeling increasingly powerless amid economic struggles and rising inequality

By Scott Schieman1 Et Al

If you feel like youre being pushed around in life, youre not alone. Our recent research has found that Canadians are increasingly feeling a sense of powerlessness in their lives. This sentiment has been steadily...

AI can make African elections more efficient – but trust must be built and proper rules put in place

By Shamira Ahmed Et Al

Time magazine has dubbed 2024 a super election year. An astonishing 4 billion people are eligible to vote in countries across the world this year. Many are on the African continent, where presidential, parliamentary and...

Romantic breakups can spark severe trauma in young people – new study

By Alberta SJ van der Watt

What should I study? What do I want to be? How will I pay for my education? Who do I want to spend the rest of my life with? These are the life-changing decisions many young people face. Emerging adulthood (between the...

Mauritius’ next growth phase: a new plan is needed as the tax haven era fades

By Pritish Behuria

Mauritians will head to the polls by November 2024 and politicians are considering the economic direction of the island country. For the last two decades, the countrys economic growth has depended heavily on its...

Elder fraud has reached epidemic proportions – a geriatrician explains what older Americans need to know

By Laurie Archbald-Pannone

Americans age 60 and older lost more than US$3 billion to scammers in 2023, according to the FBI. To put that whopping figure in context, Taylor Swifts Eras Tour recently made news as the first concert tour ever to earn...

Modern surgery began with saws and iron hands – how amputation transformed the body in the Renaissance

By Heidi Hausse

The human body today has many replaceable parts, ranging from artificial hearts to myoelectric feet. What makes this possible is not just complicated technology and delicate surgical procedures. Its also an idea that...

The Hubble telescope has shifted into one-gyro mode after months of technical issues − an aerospace engineering expert explains

By Panagiotis Tsiotras

Imagine keeping a laser beam trained on a dime thats 200 miles away. Now imagine doing that continuously for 24 hours, while riding a merry-go-round. Seem difficult? Well, thats basically what the Hubble Space Telescope...

Modern-day outlaws, ‘sovereign citizens’ threaten the rule of law

By Christine Sarteschi

In May 2024, an Oklahoma man was arrested and charged with kidnapping and murdering two women, becoming the fifth member of an anti-government group called Gods Misfits to face such charges. With the investigation still...

Sunday school – Monday through Friday: Oklahoma joins states with ‘release time’ laws letting K-12 kids leave school for religious lessons

By Charles J. Russo

Children in American public schools traditionally learned the three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic. Today, students in more than half of the U.S. states can study a fourth R: religion. Oklahoma is the most recent...

Business basics: how do companies pay tax?

By Toni Patricia Brackin

This article is part of The Conversations Business Basics series where we ask leading experts to discuss key concepts in business, economics and finance. A company is a business that is established as a separate legal...

Known unknowns: controversy over CSIRO’s electricity report reveals an uncomfortable truth

By Bruce Mountain

CSIROs latest annual GenCost update, released last month, was billed as Australias most comprehensive electricity generation cost report. GenCost has proven to be highly controversial. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton...

Inflation is cooling, but not fast enough for the Fed

By Christopher Decker

It was a double-whammy Wednesday for economic-data enthusiasts. During the morning of June 12, 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published its latest inflation figures. The news was relatively good, showing that...

Global demand for oil could peak soon

By Jen Purdie

This weeks announcement of the governments plans to reopen New Zealands territorial waters to oil drilling comes as no surprise. All three coalition parties campaigned on reversing the 2018 ban on offshore oil...

With Russia not attending, what can this weekend’s Ukraine peace summit achieve?

By Jon Richardson

The Summit on Peace in Ukraine, hosted by Switzerland this weekend, is not a peace conference in the usual sense. Russia, which has dismissed it as irrelevant, wont participate. And any summit aimed at ending the war cant...

The secrets of Maya child sacrifice at Chichén Itzá uncovered using ancient DNA

By Adam "Ben" Rohrlach Et Al

In some parts of Australia, local roads are falling apart. Here’s an easy federal fix

By Dominic Jones Et Al

There are local councils in Australia that cant afford to fix their roads, part of the problem is simply that they arent in Australias biggest states. The problem arises from the archaic way grants to councils are...

An ounce of prevention: Now is the time to take action on H5N1 avian flu, because the stakes are enormous

By Matthew Miller

Bird flu poses a massive threat, and the potential for a catastrophic new pandemic is imminent. We still have a chance to stop a possible humanitarian disaster, but only if we get to work urgently, carefully and...

Malawi farming experiment shows how simple changes can boost maize yields and improve soil

By Alan Dixon

Malawis increasingly unpredictable rainfall and higher than usual temperatures are causing problems for smallholder farmers. Soil erosion has increased, causing soil fertility and water availability to decline. Crops often...

South Africa’s biggest arts festival turns 50 – we assess its impact

By Jen Snowball

The National Arts Festival was established in 1974 in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) in South Africas Eastern Cape province. Each year, in winter, the rural town transforms into a hive of theatres, galleries, markets and...

Sudan food emergency: local researcher unpacks scale of the disaster and what action is needed

By Oliver Kiptoo Kirui

The UN recently warned of the risk of famine in Sudan. The war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed civilians and devastated livelihoods on a massive scale. Around 18 million people are...

Microrobots made of algae carry chemo directly to lung tumors, improving cancer treatment

By Zhengxing Li

Tumors that travel to the lungs, or lung metastases, pose a formidable challenge in the realm of cancer treatment. Conventional chemotherapy often falls short because its inefficient. It doesnt directly target the lungs...

China’s war games near Taiwan threaten international peace and security

By Kuan-Wei Chen

Taiwan recently saw yet another peaceful transition of power with the inauguration of President Lai Ching-Te, who was elected to office in January. In his inaugural speech, Lai called on neighbouring China to cease its...

Canada must make communication more inclusive for deaf people

By Paula Bath

I am a hearing person married to a deaf person. In 2015, I remember going to the midwife clinic for our first babys appointment. We arranged for our own sign language interpreter because we knew there would be...

How the health of honeybee hives can inform environmental policies in Canadian cities

By Mischa Young Et Al

In recent years, there has been a notable surge in Canada and around the world in the popularity of urban beekeeping. Driven by a heightened awareness of the vital role of pollinators and the practices increasing...

Bridgerton: tips on how to dress and hold yourself in London society straight from the Regency period

By Lisa Smith

As viewers of Bridgerton know, finding the right suitor is an art, requiring charm and beauty. It helped to be a diamond (the most eligible woman of the season, as chosen by the Queen), but all young ladies benefited from...

Mexico: why Sheinbaum’s historic election may not translate to gender equality

By Jennifer Castañeda-Navarrete

Claudia Sheinbaum has made history. On June 2, she became the first woman to be elected as president of Mexico. Nearly 36 million Mexicans cast their votes for Sheinbaum, more than double the number received by her closest...

Fossil fuel ads work on you too – here’s how

By Jack Marley

If countries cannot keep fossil fuels in the ground then they should at least keep their ads off the air. Godfathers of climate chaos in the coal, oil and gas industries have used slick advertising campaigns (not to...

How secure are banking apps?

By Ismini Vasileiou

These days, banking apps have become integral to financial transactions. As a result banks are finding that ensuring the security of their apps is more critical than ever. Cybercriminals have evolved and so financial...

No commercial incentive to develop gene therapy – hospitals will try to fill the gap

By Claire Booth

Individually, rare diseases are rare, but there are so many rare diseases that over 400 million people are affected worldwide. Together, rare diseases arent so rare. Only 5% of rare diseases have an approved treatment...

Four tips to avoid being bamboozled by political statistics and data

By Renaud Foucart

With a plethora of elections around the world in 2024, voters considering their options can expect to be presented with all kinds of numbers and statistics aimed at giving credibility to various claims from various...

African swine fever: are there better ways to manage the disease than Italy’s mass pig culls?

By Frédéric Keck

Prime Minister Giorgia Melonis attacks on Italys cultural heritage from libel suits against intellectuals to her governments censorship of texts critical of Mussolini have made headlines across Europe. Less attention,...

Mental health services are scarce in Nigeria but there’s a huge need: what we learnt from callers to a hotline

By Aloysius Odii Et Al

Emergency hotlines have a crucial role to play in improving access to mental health services, particularly in countries where these services are in short supply. This is the case in Nigeria, where in one study one in...

Columbia Law Review article critical of Israel sparks battle between student editors and their board − highlighting fragility of academic freedom

By Neal H. Hutchens

Editors of Columbia Law Review, a prominent journal run by students from the prestigious universitys law school, say the publications board of directors urged them on June 2, 2024, to refrain from publishing an article...

Politics is still both local and personal – but only for independents, not for Democrats or Republicans

By Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz Et Al

Independent voters who live in communities with lots of gun violence are very concerned about gun safety and gun regulations, our research has found. That should not be surprising. But what is surprising is our...

Paris 2024 Olympics to debut high-level breakdancing – and physics in action

By Amy Pope

Two athletes square off for an intense dance battle. The DJ starts spinning tunes, and the athletes begin twisting, spinning and seemingly defying gravity, respectfully watching each other and taking turns showing off...

Ontario expanding alcohol to convenience stores is a covert union avoidance strategy

By Steven Tufts

The Ontario government has announced its expediting its plan to get beer into thousands of convenience stores. The announcement received immediate backlash, primarily against the $225 million given to the Beer Store to...

Climate holdout Japan drove Australia’s LNG boom. Could the partnership go green?

By Wesley Morgan

Without funding from Japan, many of Australias gas projects wouldnt have gone ahead. Massive public loans from Japanese taxpayers are propping up Australias now-enormous fossil gas industry. Japan is also becoming a major...

Trust hits new low: 45% of people think politicians put party before country

By John Curtice

There is an air of deja vu about this election. Trust and confidence in how Britain is governed is as low as it has ever been just as it was shortly before the last election five years ago. Yet the circumstances that...