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 can’t we throw all our trash into a volcano and burn it up? – Georgine T.

It’s true that lava is hot enough to burn up some of our trash. When Kilauea erupted on ...Read more

NEW YORK — Amid ongoing fear of crime, more than 13,300 New Yorkers applied for licenses to carry guns in the city last year, a near-double increase compared to 2022 — and the New York City Police Department's financial bottom line has been boosted by the permit surge, according to a Daily News analysis.

Spokespeople for the NYPD and Mayor ...Read more

The abandoned fieldstone walls of New England are every bit as iconic to the region as lobster pots, town greens, sap buckets and fall foliage. They seem to be everywhere – a latticework of dry, lichen-crusted stone ridges separating a patchwork of otherwise moist soils.

Stone walls can be found here and there in other states, but ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Every year, when spring bleeds into summer, the desert heat awakes a chorus of Las Vegas singers that rival any residency you’ll find on the Strip — cicadas.

But these critters are not the ones you’ve probably been hearing about.

This year has recently been dubbed the year of “cicada-geddon” as two broods of cicadas ...Read more

A team of Montana researchers is playing a key role in the development of a more effective vaccine against tuberculosis, an infectious disease that has killed more people than any other.

The BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin) vaccine, created in 1921, remains the sole TB vaccine. While it is 40% to 80% effective in young children, its efficacy is ...Read more

A fast-emerging field of climate research is helping scientists pinpoint just how many dollars from a natural disaster can be tied to the historic emissions of individual oil companies — analysis that is the centerpiece of new state efforts to make fossil fuel companies pay billions for floods, wildfires and heat waves.

When a flood or ...Read more

When a sitting Haitian president was assassinated in 1915, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent in the Marines to protect American interests and secure stability. The military occupation, which lasted 19 years, marked the start of more than a century of close and controversial U.S. entanglement in the volatile internal affairs of Haiti.

Though ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden poked fun at Donald Trump during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, while seeking to portray his Republican rival as a threat to democracy six months before their rematch.

Biden’s remarks touched on many of the central themes of his campaign, including that America’s ...Read more

SpaceX sent up one rocket Saturday and has one more set for Sunday from the Space Coast.

First up was a Falcon 9 on the Galileo L12 mission carrying global navigation satellites for the European Commission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A at 8:34 p.m.

The first-stage booster flew for a record-tying 20th time, but was expended getting ...Read more

Concerns that asylum seekers are relocating from the U.K. to the Republic of Ireland show that the British government’s plan for deportations to Rwanda is already acting as a deterrent to illegal immigration, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.

In an interview with Sky’s "Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips" program, Sunak said that the ...Read more

The U.S. Department of Agriculture found bird flu in northeast Colorado dairy cows this week, according to state officials.

This is the first time avian flu has been diagnosed in Colorado cattle, the state Department of Agriculture said in its announcement.

Bird flu in dairy cows has been confirmed in eight other states, the USDA said. Those ...Read more

A 14-year-old Florida boy accidentally killed his 11-year-old brother while playing with a gun he found in an alley near their home, police in St. Petersburg said Friday.

The incident occurred shortly after 12 p.m. Upon responding to reports of a child being shot in a home, officers found 11-year-old Amir Williams with his two older siblings.

...Read more

NEW YORK — Seventy-eight people in New York have been killed this year in traffic crashes, according to city data, putting 2024 on track to be the deadliest year since the start of the city’s Vision Zero traffic safety program in 2014.

The deadly statistics follow those of 2023, which had a particularly low rate of pedestrian deaths, the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Saudi Arabia Monday for his seventh Middle East trip since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, setting off a war in Gaza that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and threatened to widen into a regional conflict.

Fresh from a visit to Beijing and Shanghai, the top U.S. diplomat will...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Members of the union representing Minneapolis teachers voted Friday to authorize a strike, staging a potential walkout for scores of education workers.

Support professionals with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers voted to authorize the strike Friday night. At least 92% voted in favor. The vote allows union leaders to call a...Read more

NEW YORK — A major uptick of muggings in Central Park — including three violent robberies within a 28-hour span — has left parkgoers on edge, wondering if they will be targeted next, visitors to the iconic greenspace said Saturday.

“It’s a little unnerving,” Upper West Side resident Deborah Moralez said about the jump in robberies ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Fulton Financial Corp. of Lancaster will roughly double its presence in the Philadelphia area by taking over $4 billion in customer deposits, nearly $3 billion in loans, and 30 area branches from the long-troubled Republic Bank of Philadelphia.

Republic was seized by Pennsylvania’s banking department and its assets ...Read more

NEW YORK — The tent demonstrations over the war in Gaza that have roiled Columbia University for the last two weeks have sparked anger and debate, and exploded into a national phenomenon.

But while the high-profile protests and calls for the resignation of the Columbia president seize public attention, a damaging and perhaps lasting change is...Read more

Bill Maher isn’t mincing words when it comes to pro-Palestine protesters, who have been demonstrating across the country this week amid the months-long war in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.

In Friday night’s “New Rule” segment of HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,” the Emmy Award winner dubbed such ...Read more