TC
The Conversation U.S.
@conversationus
PublisherAcademic rigor, journalistic flair. Trustworthy news, research-based and independent.
A nonprofit news organization dedicated to sharing the knowledge of experts with the public, in trustworthy, understandable, research-based journalism. Our editors work with academic experts to help them explain what they know about issues in the news and the latest research, in articles that simplify without over-simplifying. We give all of our articles away for free, to readers on Post and elsewhere. Pictured: just a few of our recent writers.
3,495 Posts
Large retailers don’t have smokestacks, but they generate a lot of pollution − and states are starting to regulate it
By Johnathan Williams, University of Northern Iowa Did you receive a mail-order package this week? Carriers in the U.S. shipped 64 packages for every American in 2022, so it’s quite possible. That commerce reflects the expansion of large-scale retail in recent decades, especially b Arizona’s 1864 abortion law was made in a women’s rights desert – here’s what life was like then
By Calvin Schermerhorn, Arizona State University Dora Juhl, a 15-year-old teenager, walked into Dr. Rosa Goodrich Boido’s obstetrical practice in Phoenix in January 1918. Juhl wanted to end her pregnancy. But abortion was illegal in Arizona. Boido, the city’s sole female physician, The US is one of the least trade-oriented countries in the world – despite laying the groundwork for today’s globalized system
By Peter A. Coclanis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Leon Fink, University of Illinois Chicago Given the spate of news about international trade lately, Americans might be surprised to learn that the U.S. isn’t very dependent on it. Indeed, looking at trade as a p Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’
By Raymond Hogler, Colorado State University Most American workers are hired “at will ”: Employers owe their employees nothing in the relationship except earned wages, and employees are at liberty to quit at their option. As the rule is generally stated, either party may terminate The costs of workplace violence are too high to ignore
By Miranda Kitterlin-Lynch, Florida International University Violence and harassment on the job are all too common: More than 1 in 5 workers worldwide have experienced it, according to the International Labor Organization, with women slightly more likely to be affected than men. I The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup
By Chris Impey, University of Arizona A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return , is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this decade to 2040. The mission IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects
By Doug Cowen, Penn State About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these “relic” neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they can’t harm you. In fact, only one of them is likely to lightly tap an atom Banning TikTok won’t solve social media’s foreign influence, teen harm and data privacy problems
By Sarah Florini, Arizona State University When President Joe Biden signed a US$95 billion foreign aid bill into law on April 24, 2024, it started the clock on a nine-month window for TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app. The president can extend the dea Celebrities routinely drop in on this Florida university’s hospitality course
By Michael Cheng, Florida International University Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: “The David Grutman Experience” What prompted the idea for the course? The first time David Grutma When the Supreme Court said it’s important to move quickly in key presidential cases like Trump’s immunity claim
By Donald Nieman, Binghamton University, State University of New York When former President Donald Trump’s attorneys argue before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 25, 2024, they will claim he is immune from criminal prosecution for official actions taken during his time in the Oval From shrimp Jesus to fake self-portraits, AI-generated images have become the latest form of social media spam
By Renee DiResta, Stanford University; Abhiram Reddy, Georgetown University, and Josh A. Goldstein, Georgetown University If you’ve spent time on Facebook over the past six months, you may have noticed photorealistic images that are too good to be true: children holding paintings How trains linked rival port cities along the US East Coast into a cultural and economic megalopolis
By David Alff, University at Buffalo The Northeast corridor is America’s busiest rail line. Each day, its trains deliver 800,000 passengers to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington and points in between. The Northeast corridor is also a name for the place those trains serve: t What is ‘techno-optimism’? 2 technology scholars explain the ideology that says technology is the answer to every problem
By Seyram Avle, UMass Amherst and Jean Hardy, Michigan State University Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen penned a 5,000-word manifesto in 2023 that gave a full-throated call for unrestricted technological progress to boost markets, broaden energy production, impro For millions of Americans, high-speed internet is unavailable or unaffordable − a telecommunications expert explains how to bring broadband to the places that need it the most
By Christopher Ali, Penn State Millions of Americans still don’t have access to high-speed internet . Christopher Ali , a professor of telecommunications at Penn State University, discusses who lacks access to broadband and how the federal government – with a US$65 billion commitmen Gender-nonconforming ancient Romans found refuge in community dedicated to goddess Cybele
By Tina Chronopoulos, Binghamton University, State University of New York A Vatican declaration, the “ Infinite Dignity ,” has brought renewed attention to how religions define and interpret gender and gender roles. Approved by the pope on March 25, 2024, the Vatican declaration asse Nearsightedness is at epidemic levels – and the problem begins in childhood
By Andrew Herbert, Rochester Institute of Technology Myopia, or the need for corrected vision to focus or see objects at a distance, has become a lot more common in recent decades. Some even consider myopia , also known as nearsightedness, an epidemic. Optometry researchers estimate Do implicit bias trainings on race improve health care? Not yet – but incorporating the latest science can help hospitals treat all patients equitably
By Nao Hagiwara, University of Virginia and Tiffany Green, University of Wisconsin-Madison There is increasing evidence that implicit bias – non-conscious attitudes toward specific groups – is a source of racial inequities in certain aspects of health care, and lawmakers are takin Senate approves nearly $61B of Ukraine foreign aid − here’s why it helps the US to keep funding Ukraine
By Tatsiana Kulakevich, University of South Florida The Senate overwhelmingly approved a US$95.3 billion foreign aid funding package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on April 23, 2024, following months of political infighting that stalled the bill in the House of Representatives. Ab What is curtailment? An electricity market expert explains why states sometimes have too much wind or solar power
By Theodore J. Kury, University of Florida Curtailment has a special meaning in electric power systems. It describes any action that reduces the amount of electricity generated to maintain the balance between supply and demand – which is critical for avoiding blackouts. Recently, c Should family members be in charge of family businesses? We analyzed 175 studies to understand when having a family CEO pays off
By Vitaliy Skorodziyevskiy, University of Louisville; Jeff Chandler, University of North Texas; Jim Chrisman, Mississippi State University; Joshua J. Daspit, Texas State University, and Oleg Petrenko, University of Arkansas From Hermes to Smuckers to the fictional Waystar Royco of
