Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Why are bullies so mean? – Daisy, age 9, Lake Oswego, Oregon

Being bullied can make your life miserable, and decades of research prove it: Bullied children and teens are at...Read more

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

What would happen if all the diseases in the world hit us at the exact same time? – Gabriella, age 12, Irving, Texas

When I was younger, I would watch “Batman” on my ...Read more

CHONBURI PROVINCE, Thailand — Like most babies, Moo Deng spends a lot of her time sleeping.

But for a few hours a day, the 4-month-old pygmy hippo springs to life, gumming on leaves, zooming around the compound and tossing her head in a silent, open-mouthed roar.

These moments, captured by her zookeeper at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo, a two-...Read more

MIAMI — A bright searchlight pierces the darkness as the 18-foot airboat glides across the Everglades, the beam igniting small sparkling shimmers in the ink-black water dotted with lily pads.

Glowing gator eyes — the tell-tale reflections of lurking reptiles.

Alligators like to hunt in the dark but tonight they’re the creatures being ...Read more

BALTIMORE — When Donald Trump first considered longtime wrestling executive Linda McMahon for a Cabinet role, the team behind the president-elect’s vetting process wrote out a series of questions she might address under a headline titled “political vulnerabilities.”

The document, obtained and published by the news organization Axios in ...Read more

Trevor Hawkins, an attorney at Legal Aid of Arkansas, remembers how busy his job got when the state for a time imposed work requirements on Medicaid recipients: His office was swamped with frantic phone calls from people who said they couldn’t comply with the new rule because they weren’t healthy enough to work or had to care for sick ...Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Months after an alarmist review from NASA’s Office of the Inspector General, hundreds of construction workers seem out to prove their critics wrong as progress picks up steam on the Artemis program’s mobile launcher 2, the platform atop which future versions of the powerful Space Launch System rocket will launch.

...Read more

LOS ANGELES — When Heather Hoff took a job at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, she was skeptical of nuclear energy — so much so that she resolved to report anything questionable to the anti-nuclear group Mothers for Peace.

Instead, after working at the plant for over a decade and asking every question she could think of about operations ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Rachel Harrison and Marcell Johnson were elated to have a baby. It would be the first for the couple, who have been together nearly 10 years and were looking forward to starting a family.

In September, when she was a little more than 17 weeks pregnant, Harrison was at home when she felt a gush of fluid. As the couple, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump will go up against a familiar adversary as he prepares to fulfill campaign promises of a swift rollback of Biden-era policies and an aggressive execution of his own agenda: The grind of the U.S. legal system.

The stubborn realities of litigation stymied Trump’s ability to carry out quick changes ...Read more

Americans celebrate the winter holidays in many ways, which typically include an abundance of food, drinks, desserts – and waste. Food waste is receiving increasing attention from managers, activists, policymakers and scholars, who call it a global social problem. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, wealthy nations ...Read more

“No profanity.”

This is the one rule spelled out on a sign in Lance Walker’s barbershop in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where political discussion between clients can get heated.

Three weeks before the election, on Oct. 14, 2024, I watched as Walker interviewed Michele Jansen, a conservative local talk show host, and Don ...Read more