The Conversation: In-depth analysis, research, news and ideas from leading academics and researchers.

Pedestrians are crossing the road from one side to the other

Almost everyone naturally turns left when walking – and we still have no idea why

Iñaki Echeverría Huarte, Universidad de Navarra; Ángel Garcimartín Montero, Universidad de Navarra, and Iker Zuriguel Ballaz, Universidad de Navarra

Demonstrators march through the centre of Madrid carrying placards to protest against high house prices and rents and to demand measures to tackle the housing crisis

Spain’s housing crisis is a warning for all of Europe – rights mean nothing if they’re not enforced

Andrei Quintiá Pastrana, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

How World Trade Organization reform could help address the EU-China trade imbalance

Kunhao Yang, European University Institute

How three colonial powers gained – and then lost – control over the straits of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb

Ibrahim Al-Marashi, IE University; California State University San Marcos

Boats sail through a stretch of sea between rocky cliffs.

Without water, forests lose their ability to absorb CO₂

Nicolas Martin, Inrae; Hervé Cochard, Inrae; Isabelle Maréchaux, Inrae, and Julien Lamour, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)

A view of the Ventoux forest from the roadside below.

Stripped titles? Compensating rivals? How the Manchester City cheating scandal could play out

James Skinner, University of Newcastle and Danny F Hill, Providence College

Erling Haaland celebrates a goal for Manchester City in the English Premier League in 2025.

A German soldier points a machine gun out to sea from a boat off the coast of Norway.

Why Europe wants to boost its Arctic presence

Klaus Dodds, RAND Europe; Middlesex University

A close-up shot of Pope Leo XIV delivering his homily.

Pope Leo XIV’s Europe

Jean-Pierre Darnis, Université Côte d’Azur

trees lining residential street in Freiberg Germany

‘Small, flowering islands’: German city reveals how nature thrives when neighbours care for street tree beds

Kelly Baldwin Heid, University of Freiburg and Rita de Sousa e Silva, Leiden University

How do Denmark and the UK compare when it comes to alcohol and drinking habits?

Peter Jepsen, Aarhus University

Cartoon Danish and British flag with a pint.

Water is precious – this Swedish city separates different waste sources to reuse more of it

Isabell Fritz, Lund University and Ashley Hall, Lund University

modern buildings in city district by clean blue river

How the emojis and fashion choices of Germany’s far-right supporters get around the ban on Nazi symbolism

Tom Birkett, University College Cork; Felix Lummer, University College Cork, and Timothy Liam Waters, University College Cork

From east to west: Why Turkey is playing both sides

Spyros A. Sofos, Simon Fraser University

A man speaks from a podium next to red flags. A NATO banner is behind him.

Xenia Fedorova, or how Russian propaganda turns free thinking on itself

Antoine Marie, Sciences Po and Maxime Audinet, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco)

Picture of Xenia Fedorova's book featuring at the 2025 Paris Book Fair.

Greater job security can make inventors less creative

David Wehrheim, IESE Business School (Universidad de Navarra) ; Eduardo Melero, Universidad Carlos III, and Neus Palomeras, Universidad Carlos III

Two people waving as they walk out of a glass door, with small crowds of people on either side applauding.

Silhouette of a woman seated in a gallery with a room decorated with red walls.

Museums on prescription: how cultural activities are becoming crucial to the public health debate

Maria Elena Buslacchi, Aix-Marseille Université (AMU)

From French outpost to Euro-Canadian corridor? Why Carney and Macron met in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon

Paco Milhiet, Institut catholique de Paris (ICP)

A man with short grey hair and a man with short dark hair clasp hands standing front of the Canadian and French flags on a sunny day.

Google’s content recommendation algorithm is a black box. Here’s how it decides what to show you

Olaya López Munuera, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Carlos Lopezosa, Universitat de Barcelona

A mobile phone screen, with the Google and News apps on the homescreen.

What might Canada’s EU ‘associate membership’ look like, and is it even a possibility?

Kenneth Armstrong, University of Cambridge

Mark Carney delivers a speech in front an EU flag.

Why banning AI in the classroom will not be enough to remedy poor reading skills in a post-literary society

Michael FitzGerald, European University Institute

Pope Leo leaving the papal aircraft as he arrives in Spain.

Which spiritual and political issues will be the focus of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France?

Xavier Boniface, Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV)

A destroyed car sits on the Zhytomyr highway on a foggy day.

As Ukraine rebuilds amid constant Russian attacks, small towns and villages are being sidelined

Doug Specht, University of Westminster; Elena Orap, Bern University of Applied Sciences, and Rob Sharp

Friedrich Merz looks dejected as he addresses the media following regional election defeats.

Two more election defeats pile pressure on German chancellor Friedrich Merz

Ed Turner, Aston University

How a traditional Nordic way of eating could help you live longer

Daniel Borch Ibsen, Aarhus University; Christina C. Dahm, Aarhus University, and Michael Fridén, Aarhus University

A smiling man with short grey hair stands next to a woman with blonde hair. a canadian and EU flag are behind them

Thanks, Trump: Why Canada may become the European Union’s first ever ‘associate member’

Stewart Prest, University of British Columbia

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Pedro Sánchez, with representatives of the State Security Forces at the Tarajal border (Ceuta), looking at screens showing the border

How Spain’s socialist-led government fumbled the Ceuta crisis, and put itself on the back foot

Asbel Bohigues, Universitat de València

How war and sanctions are reshaping how Russia governs its vast territory

Sofia Borushkina, European University Institute; Monash University

PISA 2025 rankings: are we asking the right questions about schooling?

Claude Diebolt, Université de Strasbourg and Romain Diebolt, University of Southampton

Could victory for the AfD spell the end of wind farms in Germany?

Bastien Fond, Humboldt University of Berlin; Université de Caen Normandie

Fields of rapeseed in the foreground against a backdrop of housing with wind turbines in the distance.

How Germany’s far-right AfD is courting the voters it promises to deport

Deniz Torcu, IE University

A group of women wearing headscarves walk down the street in Berlin.

Several astronauts are debating on stage before the summit participants.

Europe can’t achieve space sovereignty alone. Here’s why

Audrey Rouyre, Montpellier Business School; European Academy of Management (EURAM)

Meta is changing Instagram and Facebook to protect teens’ mental health. Are the new measures backed up by science?

Ingrid Mosquera Gende, UNIR - Universidad Internacional de La Rioja ; José A. Morales García, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and Luis M. Rojo Bofill, Universitat de València

Lonely seafarer on board of the cargo ship, he is looking into the open sea thinking about his home and family.

Strait of Hormuz crisis: how danger and uncertainty can affect the mental health of seafarers

Patricia Kennedy, University College Cork; Anita Rayegani, University of Hamburg, and Eka Siradze, Tbilisi State University

Sweden elections: why immigrants are underrepresented at the polls

Derek Stanford Hutcheson, Malmö University

Voters queue to cast their votes in Sweden's general election outside a polling station.

A Swedish ghost story

Katarzyna Herd, Lund University

hooded figure seen from behind walking through a dark forest.

Sweden’s prison population has doubled in a decade, and is set to spike even further – here’s why

Tova Bennet, Lund University and Sigrid Nikka, Lund University

Image of the Swedish flag flying behind a barbed wire fence

Europe’s e-waste is a valuable resource – let’s not throw it away

Nils Pauliks, Leiden University

old electronic devices in pile for recycling

France: the far-right’s proposed headscarf ban in public places breaches religious freedom and anti-discrimination principles

Lauren Bakir, Université de Strasbourg

People react to exit polls during the far-right Alternative for Germany election party.

Germany: why the AfD won in Saxony-Anhalt – and what happens next

Ed Turner, Aston University

A woman is exercising on the floor of her home whilst looking at a laptop

Is calisthenics as good as weight training? Here’s what the science says

Alejandro J. Almenar Arasanz, Universidad San Jorge and Marta Diarte Oliva, Universidad San Jorge

A person with a megaphone addressing a large crowd

Populists claim to speak for ‘the people’ – but who are they actually talking about?

Clara Juarez Miro, Universitat de Barcelona

Immigration in Sweden: how the country went from one of Europe’s most welcoming, to one of its most restrictive

Henrik Emilsson, Malmö University

A line of people on stairs at a train station

How ‘egalitarian’ Sweden became more comfortable with wealth

Håkan Johansson, Lund University and Axel Vikström, Lund University

aerial view of island chain and assembled yachts off the coast of stockholm, sweden.

A mother and her son at the doctor’s office

Why cancer affects children differently to adults

Lydia Begoña Horndler Gil, Universidad San Jorge

Fire and floods are usually treated as separate hazards. Portugal’s Pinhal Interior shows why they are part of the same cycle

Afonso Nuno Martins, University of Beira Interior

People taking measures and samples in the forest.

Galileo, Copernicus, Cleansky, IRIS² must work together to secure Europe’s place in the space race

Audrey Rouyre, Montpellier Business School; European Academy of Management (EURAM) and Anne-Sophie Fernandez, Université de Montpellier; European Academy of Management (EURAM)

Two engineers standing in front of equipment from the ExoMars programme.

Noise exposure is linked to chronic stress and heart disease. It’s time to make peace and quiet a public health right

Julia Almazán Catalán, Universidad CEU San Pablo and Carmen Morais Moreno, Universidad CEU San Pablo

A woman covers her ears in the middle of the streets of a city

Climate change images are getting scarier – could fear help drive action?

Joshua Garland, Lund University

Why France’s illustrious history of cheesemaking is full of holes

Dominique Frère, Université Bretagne Sud (UBS)

Man in his bed having trouble sleeping wearing a smart sleep band

Brain-reading wearables will soon be ordinary. What will this mean for the new generation of ‘neurotechnological natives’?

José M. Muñoz, IE University

People resting on benches in a city park.

Ceuta crisis: anti-migrant ‘invasion’ rhetoric threatens Europe’s food supply and economy

Diana Tung, Universitat de Barcelona and Seth M. Holmes, Universitat de Barcelona; ICREA; University of California, Berkeley

The pastry paradox: why are the Danes slimmer than Britons?

Vassiliki Sinopoulou, University of Lancashire

More trees are needed to cool down European cities in heatwaves – but they must be planted nearer to homes

Thami Croeser, RMIT University and Simon Hodder, Loughborough University

Puerta del Sol square in Madrid with people walking across the square.

Bees view the world in surprisingly different ways – understanding this could inspire new technology

Elisa Rigosi, Lund University and David O'Carroll, Lund University

A female blue-banded bee with large eyes gripping a plant stem.

Denmark versus UK: which country gets more health for their money?

Subhash Pokhrel, Brunel University of London

Autonomous weapons can select targets without human help – now is the time for binding rules

Elke Schwarz, Queen Mary University of London and Jessica Dorsey, Utrecht University

A rotogravure of a hysterectomy being performed by French surgeon Paul Segond at Paris' Salpêtrière hospital.

Endometriosis: a long-ignored disease, despite symptoms that can be traced back to ancient times

Nadjib Mohamed Mokraoui, Inserm; Université Paris-Saclay

Palaces and the Pope: the fascinating story of how Renaissance Rome was rebuilt

Alyssa Rusonik, HEC Paris Business School

Europe needs to fight back against US software dominance – and now is the time

Francesco Grillo, Bocconi University

How climate change affects different modes of transport – from roads to railways

Vahid Aryanpur, University College Cork

woman sat on train platform, straw hat on her face, hot, no trains

A black fungus is thriving in the midst of Ireland’s whiskey boom – we need to know more about it

Jenny Lawler, Dublin City University

Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference in Kyiv.

Why holding elections now may not be the best safeguard for Ukrainian democracy

Derek Stanford Hutcheson, Malmö University

Childhood sleep apnoea: when snoring is more than a noisy night

Mirja Quante, University of Tübingen

Little girl asleep in bed with mouth open

Nearly 30 years after Erasmus, university alliances are reshaping Europe’s higher education landscape but still lack visibility

Isabelle Corbett-Etchevers, Grenoble IAE Graduate School of Management; Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)

Graduates gather in academic dress and mortarboard caps on Brescia’s Piazza della loggia.

Roberta Metsola speaking into a microphone at a table, with Ursula von der Leyen sitting to her right

Women in politics face more personal, sexualised attacks than men, a recent analysis shows

Arianna Sala, Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Europe recycles just 12% of the materials it uses. Here’s how training can accelerate the transition to a circular economy

Marina Schmitz, IEDC-Bled School of Management; European Academy of Management (EURAM); Mirjana Matešić, IEDC-Bled School of Management, and Mislav Ante Omazić, IEDC-Bled School of Management

Three discoveries that transformed how we understand nutrition

José Miguel Soriano del Castillo, Universitat de València

A doctor points to a model of the human digestive system

Left-handed people tend to be left-leaning voters

Jérémie Bertrand, IÉSEG School of Management; Caroline Perrin, and Laurent Weill, Université de Strasbourg

Close-up of a voter's hand casting a ballot into a ballot box.

Why it’s so hard to apologise sincerely in a foreign language

Irini Mavrou, Universidad Nebrija; UCL and Lucía Martín Pérez, Universidad Nebrija

woman in white jumper blue jeans holds phone and scans label on washing machine in showroom

The free EU database that tells you if an appliance is actually green

Lala Rukh, University of Galway; Atlantic Technological University

The Mocha monopoly: how Yemen’s dominance of the global coffee trade birthed the Houthi rebels

Ibrahim Al-Marashi, IE University; California State University San Marcos

The law of the innocents: Ireland’s medieval precursor to the Geneva conventions

Chris Doyle, University of Galway

Stained glass depiction of Saint Adomnán, Abbott of Iona.

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The Conversation: In-depth analysis, research, news and ideas from leading academics and researchers.

Top stories

Almost everyone naturally turns left when walking – and we still have no idea why

Spain’s housing crisis is a warning for all of Europe – rights mean nothing if they’re not enforced

How World Trade Organization reform could help address the EU-China trade imbalance

How three colonial powers gained – and then lost – control over the straits of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb

Without water, forests lose their ability to absorb CO₂

Stripped titles? Compensating rivals? How the Manchester City cheating scandal could play out

Why Europe wants to boost its Arctic presence

Pope Leo XIV’s Europe

‘Small, flowering islands’: German city reveals how nature thrives when neighbours care for street tree beds

How do Denmark and the UK compare when it comes to alcohol and drinking habits?

Water is precious – this Swedish city separates different waste sources to reuse more of it

How the emojis and fashion choices of Germany’s far-right supporters get around the ban on Nazi symbolism

From east to west: Why Turkey is playing both sides

Xenia Fedorova, or how Russian propaganda turns free thinking on itself

Greater job security can make inventors less creative

Museums on prescription: how cultural activities are becoming crucial to the public health debate

From French outpost to Euro-Canadian corridor? Why Carney and Macron met in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon

Google’s content recommendation algorithm is a black box. Here’s how it decides what to show you

What might Canada’s EU ‘associate membership’ look like, and is it even a possibility?

Why banning AI in the classroom will not be enough to remedy poor reading skills in a post-literary society

Which spiritual and political issues will be the focus of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France?

As Ukraine rebuilds amid constant Russian attacks, small towns and villages are being sidelined

Two more election defeats pile pressure on German chancellor Friedrich Merz

How a traditional Nordic way of eating could help you live longer

Thanks, Trump: Why Canada may become the European Union’s first ever ‘associate member’

Get the Conversation Europe newsletter, direct to your inbox every Thursday

How Spain’s socialist-led government fumbled the Ceuta crisis, and put itself on the back foot

How war and sanctions are reshaping how Russia governs its vast territory

PISA 2025 rankings: are we asking the right questions about schooling?

Could victory for the AfD spell the end of wind farms in Germany?

How Germany’s far-right AfD is courting the voters it promises to deport

Europe can’t achieve space sovereignty alone. Here’s why

Meta is changing Instagram and Facebook to protect teens’ mental health. Are the new measures backed up by science?

Strait of Hormuz crisis: how danger and uncertainty can affect the mental health of seafarers

Sweden elections: why immigrants are underrepresented at the polls

A Swedish ghost story

Sweden’s prison population has doubled in a decade, and is set to spike even further – here’s why

Europe’s e-waste is a valuable resource – let’s not throw it away

France: the far-right’s proposed headscarf ban in public places breaches religious freedom and anti-discrimination principles

Germany: why the AfD won in Saxony-Anhalt – and what happens next

Is calisthenics as good as weight training? Here’s what the science says

Populists claim to speak for ‘the people’ – but who are they actually talking about?

Immigration in Sweden: how the country went from one of Europe’s most welcoming, to one of its most restrictive

How ‘egalitarian’ Sweden became more comfortable with wealth

Why cancer affects children differently to adults

Fire and floods are usually treated as separate hazards. Portugal’s Pinhal Interior shows why they are part of the same cycle

Galileo, Copernicus, Cleansky, IRIS² must work together to secure Europe’s place in the space race

Noise exposure is linked to chronic stress and heart disease. It’s time to make peace and quiet a public health right

Climate change images are getting scarier – could fear help drive action?

Why France’s illustrious history of cheesemaking is full of holes

Brain-reading wearables will soon be ordinary. What will this mean for the new generation of ‘neurotechnological natives’?

Ceuta crisis: anti-migrant ‘invasion’ rhetoric threatens Europe’s food supply and economy

The pastry paradox: why are the Danes slimmer than Britons?

More trees are needed to cool down European cities in heatwaves – but they must be planted nearer to homes

Bees view the world in surprisingly different ways – understanding this could inspire new technology

Denmark versus UK: which country gets more health for their money?

Autonomous weapons can select targets without human help – now is the time for binding rules

Endometriosis: a long-ignored disease, despite symptoms that can be traced back to ancient times

Palaces and the Pope: the fascinating story of how Renaissance Rome was rebuilt

Europe needs to fight back against US software dominance – and now is the time

How climate change affects different modes of transport – from roads to railways

A black fungus is thriving in the midst of Ireland’s whiskey boom – we need to know more about it

Why holding elections now may not be the best safeguard for Ukrainian democracy

Childhood sleep apnoea: when snoring is more than a noisy night

Nearly 30 years after Erasmus, university alliances are reshaping Europe’s higher education landscape but still lack visibility

Women in politics face more personal, sexualised attacks than men, a recent analysis shows

Europe recycles just 12% of the materials it uses. Here’s how training can accelerate the transition to a circular economy

Three discoveries that transformed how we understand nutrition

Left-handed people tend to be left-leaning voters

Why it’s so hard to apologise sincerely in a foreign language

The free EU database that tells you if an appliance is actually green

The Mocha monopoly: how Yemen’s dominance of the global coffee trade birthed the Houthi rebels

The law of the innocents: Ireland’s medieval precursor to the Geneva conventions

Most read this week

Stripped titles? Compensating rivals? How the Manchester City cheating scandal could play out

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