As health care grows more digital, an array of health apps promise to track steps, count heartbeats and look at moles. But without more FDA oversight, could we be shooting ourselves in the foot?
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Counting steps?
Analysis and Comment
The disappearance and alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is worsening relations between US allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia. An expert on the region believes there may be a way out.
The stability and integrity of democratic society are too important to be relegated to inherently flawed computer systems that are vulnerable to malfunctions and malicious attacks.
Trump has called Venezuela a 'human tragedy' and threatened invasion while quietly deporting and denying asylum to Venezuelan refugees. His anti-socialist rhetoric may make for good midterm politics.
Americans are overwhelmingly committed to a free press and hostile to government restrictions, a new poll finds. But the country is divided on the meaning of President Trump's attacks on the press.
The public is increasingly pessimistic about the way Brexit negotiations are going.
Parents can help protect their kids from cannabis abuse by openly discussing the health risks, the pleasures and the responsible ways to use the drug.
Individuals who carry the breast cancer genes _BRCA1_ or _BRCA2_ are often unaware of the fact. That suggests that physicians need a new way to apply DNA-based screens to identify those at risk.
Droughts and heat waves are bad news for a key ingredient in beer.
A big spill in Michigan's Straits of Mackinac could have devastating consequences. But does replacing the pipeline running beneath it make sense in a warming world?
As lawmakers debate the future of the primary federal program aimed at ending domestic violence, one scholar says the criminal system supported by the legislation isn't the way to stop that violence.
The true number of people who do not favor either of the two major political parties in the US has actually remained stable in recent years.
The death of the rules-based world order that supports the global economy and free trade has been greatly exaggerated.
Cybersecurity efforts could take a lead from open-source software, creating hardware whose designs are open for all to see and examine.
An algorithm named AICAN has been 'taught' the entire canon of Western art history – and now produces, titles and sells works of its own.
When people form local networks to take care of resources such as drinking water, they strengthen their communities. Technology can support these efforts and promote learning and innovation.
A missing Saudi journalist has put Trump's 'America First' rhetoric to the test.
When political polls are aggregated together, that can make the results misleading.
Later this month, Christie's will be auctioning its first piece of AI art – a portrait created via machine learning.
Just what role does exercise play in weight loss? Plenty. While word has spread in recent years that physical activity isn't all that important, a doctor debunks that myth.
A majority of the over 24 mosques spread over Palu were damaged in the tsunami. Two of them survived, though one of them is gradually sinking.
Trump may rhetorically attack the media, but the US still ranks 45th of 180 countries in terms of press freedom. North Korea ranks last. And Mexico is the world's most dangerous place for reporters.
Artificial intelligence research owes a lot to biology and chemistry.
Smooth surfaces often provide nooks and crannies for bacteria to hold onto and create a colony. New research with nanoparticles is revealing the secrets of surfaces that prevent bacterial attachment.
A deep recession, a severe drought and a plunging currency have led to the biggest bailout in IMF history. The government hopes it can avoid the meltdowns that followed past crises.
American spending on pets is more than the combined GDP of the 39 poorest countries in the world. What if even a small percentage of this spending was allocated to reducing suffering, asks a philosopher.
Nicaraguan migrants send over US$1 billion home each year. This money has played a changing role in domestic politics – first boosting the Ortega regime and, now, sustaining the uprising against him.
There are different ballots, voting machines, registration and eligibility requirements and procedures for counting votes across the country. That's a recipe for occasional confusion and miscounts.
Legal scholars offer a vision for appointing Supreme Court justices more fairly. While it wouldn't require any constitutional amendments, it would require Congress to pass a bill.
The toll of the opioid epidemic is often derived from toxicology reports. These rely on drug tests. A medical historian explains these tests and how they fall short of capturing why people are dying.
Twenty years ago, Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered for being gay. A lawyer who helped implement hate crime legislation in Shepard's name reflects on its strengths and limitations.
What's really the most dangerous American city? The way crimes are currently counted in the US can easily confuse and mislead.
The testimony of Christine Blasey Ford in the Kavanaugh nomination hearings showed what happens when abuse survivors enter systems that are not designed to respond to their words or meet their needs.
A massive star, with a radius 500 times that of our sun, exploded. But the supernova fizzled – it was weak and dim. Figuring out what went wrong led to insights about how rare binary star systems form.
Research and News
The United States already has a space agency: NASA. So why do we need a Space Force, and what would it do? Could a Space Force strain diplomatic relationships, reigniting the race to militarize space?
Only a small fraction of the data from archaeological fieldwork is made accessible to the public or preserved for future research.
The National Park Service is moving wolves to Isle Royale in Lake Superior to replenish a small pack on the island. Wolves prey on moose, which are overgrazing the island. It doesn't hurt that they are charismatic.
Body mass index is often used to gauge health. But there may be more accurate measures. A report on your blood metabolites, your metabolome, may distinguish healthier-obese from sicker-obese.
Is gene editing compatible with organic farming? A scholar explains the differences between old genetic engineering and CRISPR methods, and why the latter is similar to tradition plant breeding.
Midterm elections
More college students are registered to vote in the November midterm elections this year than they were in 2014, but it remains to be seen how many more will vote.
Climate change
Exxon Mobil has a clear motive to back a new plan to tax carbon with its clout and money. And a carbon tax that is high enough to work might prove politically impossible to enact.
Breast cancer
There is usually no one factor that causes breast cancer. It's likely a combination of the effects of a person's risks combined with an element of bad luck.
Hurricane Michael
After the storm is over, it's time to rebuild – and natural disasters can affect survivors' health for years to come.
Our new podcast
Research and Expert Database
Analysis from academics around the world
Editors’ Picks
Visiting a haunted house or watching a horror movie can be terrifying and enjoyable at the same time. A sociologist explains the psychological benefits of being safely scared.
Yes, giant mosquitoes are a thing. They're specialized to wait out the dry times only to emerge from their eggs when high water provides the perfect larval environment.
A person in the US can expect to live an average of 78.8 years. But that number can change by decades depending on the community they come from.
One of the largest concentrations of poverty in the US exists in communities at the US-Mexico border called 'colonias.' These informal settlements lack access to basic infrastructure.
Worker naked mole-rats take care of their colony's young even though they aren't the pups' actual parents. New research suggests the queen gets them ready via hormones in her poop.
Many states are also eroding a woman's right to access abortions.
The rise of superstar companies that dominate their industries may be partly to blame for the lack of wage growth in the US in recent years. It could also suggest a solution.
Progress has been made toward gender parity in science fields. But explicit and implicit barriers still hold women back from advancing in the same numbers as men to the upper reaches of STEM academia.
To survive in 19th-century newsrooms, reporters would have to hustle to get by, even if it meant producing fakes, staging events and sharing work with reporters from competing newspapers.
The inventor of the brain-teasing Möbius strip died 150 years ago, but his creation continues to spawn new ideas in mathematics.
People are still wrestling with what artificial intelligence could and should do, half a century after the debut of the Kubrick-Clarke classic.
Canada, the US and Mexico are about to rip up the 25-year-old NAFTA and replace it with something new. But how new?
Before she became a Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s work as an attorney in the 1970s fundamentally changed the court’s approach to women's rights and how we think about women – and men.
While many parents believe equipping their young child with a cellphone is a matter of safety, research shows the practice comes with certain risks.
On Sept. 30, 1968, the first Boeing 747 rolled off the assembly line, ready to hit the skies as the bigger commercial jet at the time. Today, as its days as a civilian carrier come to a close, the first jumbo jet remains an icon of aviation.
Most Read past week
Pitch an idea
Got a news tip or article idea for The Conversation?
Our Audience
The Conversation has a monthly audience of 10.7 million users, and reach of 38.2 million through Creative Commons republication.
Want to Write?
Write an article and join a growing community of more than 74,200 academics and researchers from 2,567 institutions.
Make a Donation
The Conversation relies on university, foundation and reader support. If you would like to help us have even better conversations, then you may like to make a one-off or on-going donation.