The Conversation

Fed likely to stay the course on interest rate hike as inflation ticks up but gas prices ease

Written by Edouard Wemy, Assistant Professor of Economics, Clark University

Lower gas prices will put downward pressure on inflation.Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Federal Reserve received mixed news in the latest data on U.S. inflation as it mulls another rate hike.

Consumer prices rose 8.3% in August from a year earlier, data released on Sept. 13, 2022, shows. While this pace is down from the 8.5% annual gain experienced in...

Is your gas stove bad for your health?

Written by Jonathan Levy, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University

A growing body of research suggests that gas stoves can pose health risks, especially for people with respiratory ailments.Sean Gladwell/Getty Images

Cooks love their gadgets, from countertop slow cookers to instant-read thermometers. Now, there’s increasing interest in magnetic induction cooktops – surfaces that cook much faster than...

5 challenges of doing college in the metaverse

Written by Nir Kshetri, Professor of Management, University of North Carolina – Greensboro

A student wears virtual reality goggles and headphones as part of a digital learning experience.Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images

More and more colleges are becoming “metaversities,” taking their physical campuses into a virtual online world, often called the “metaverse.” One initiative has 10 U.S....

Free preventive care under the ACA is under threat again – a ruling exempting PrEP from insurance coverage may extend nationwide and to other health services

Written by Paul Shafer, Assistant Professor of Health Law, Policy and Management, Boston University

PrEP is almost 100% effective in preventing HIV infection when taken as directed.The Times/Gallo Images via Getty Images Editorial

Many Americans breathed a sigh of relief when the Supreme Court left the Affordable Care Act in place following the law’s third major legal challenge in June 2021. This decision left widely supported policies in...

Cold shutdown reduces risk of disaster at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – but combat around spent fuel still poses a threat

Written by Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Engineering and International Relations, University of Southern California

The last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, reactor No. 6, has been safely shut down.Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images

Energoatom, operator of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, announced on Sept. 11, 2022, that it was shutting down the last operating reactor of the plant’s six...

Student enrollment falls at colleges and universities that are placed on probation

Written by Christopher Burnett, Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Institute for Educational Policy Research and Evaluation, University of Houston

Colleges must notify students when they get in trouble with accreditors. SDI Productions via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

Whenever a college or university gets sanctioned by the agency that provides its accreditation, fewer students enroll in that school. That’s what I found in a...

The Catholic Church is increasingly diverse – and so are its controversies

Written by Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross

German Bishop Georg Bätzing talks with members of various Catholic youth organizations holding up umbrellas reading "Consecration for All" and "Jesus had two fathers."Sebastian Gollnow/Picture Alliance via Getty Images

There is a lot of talk about “synodality” in the Catholic church these days. Synodality refers to a process in...

How Shiite Islam reached Tanzania, and Ashoura processions became an annual tradition

Written by Mara Leichtman, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Muslim Studies, Michigan State University

Shiite women prepare to march in the inaugural Ashoura procession in a neighborhood of Arusha, Tanzania, in 2017.Mara Leichtman , CC BY

Each year, the largest contemporary Muslim pilgrimage takes place in Iraq to remember Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson. Before the pandemic, this event reportedly drew more than 30 million people,...

Should you vote early in the 2022 midterm elections? 3 essential reads

Written by Matt Williams, Senior Breaking News and International Editor

A voter fills out his ballot at an early voting location in Massachusetts.Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

As political campaigning for the midterm elections is ramping up, millions of voters are considering how they should cast their ballots on Nov. 8, 2022. In addition to the traditional way of voting at their local precinct on...

Uncovering the genetic basis of mental illness requires data and tools that aren't just based on white people – this international team is collecting DNA samples around the globe

Written by Hailiang Huang, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard University

Ethical and equitable scientific collaboration could help increase the genetic diversity of genomic data.gmast3r/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Mental illness is a growing public health problem. In 2019, an estimated 1 in 8 people around the world were affected by mental disorders like depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. While scientists...