In keeping with The Conversation Canada’s commitment to provide our readers with analyses they might not read elsewhere, we have a thought-provoking and sex-positive piece today from Gonzalo R. Quintana Zunino, a researcher in behavioral neuroscience at Concordia University.

His findings on practitioners of BDSM (Bondage, Domination/Submission, Discipline and Sado-Masochism) may surprise you. They “display less depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms compared to ‘normal’ population standards,” Quintana Zunino writes. “Furthermore, BDSM practitioners also report significantly less benevolent sexism, rape myth acceptance and victim-blaming attitudes compared to college students and the general population.”

The new school year kicks off next week and our most prolific contributor, operations research professor Michael Armstrong of Brock University, has done a deep dive into how university students perform when they retake failed courses. In short, it depends on how well – or how badly – they did the first time around, and Armstrong says his research can help students better map out a strategy for success.

All eyes have been on Texas this week and the devastating flooding that’s resulted from Hurricane Harvey. Our partners at The Conversation in the U.S. and U.K. have churned out several insightful pieces, including one on why the hurricane stalled and dumped catastrophic amounts of rain on Houston. And if you've seen the TV footage of those floating groups of fire ants, we explain how that happens.

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