The Conversation

Jerome Powell keeps his job at the Fed, where he'll be responsible for preventing inflation from spiraling out of control – without tanking the economy

Written by Veronika Dolar, Assistant Professor of Economics, SUNY Old Westbury

Biden reappointed Jerome Powell, seated at left, to head the Fed. Some progressives wanted him replaced with Lael Brainard, seated right. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

The person who helms the Federal Reserve is one of the most powerful figures in the world. Their job is also one of the most impactful on the lives of ordinary Americans, not to...

Meet the person responsible for keeping inflation from spiraling out of control – without tanking the economy

Written by Veronika Dolar, Assistant Professor of Economics, SUNY Old Westbury

Jerome Powell, seated at left, is the current Fed chair, but some progressives want him replaced with Lael Brainard, right. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

The person who helms the Federal Reserve is one of the most powerful figures in the world. Their job is also one of the most impactful on the lives of ordinary Americans, not to mention others...

Could oral antiviral pills be a game-changer for COVID-19? An infectious disease physician explains why these options are badly needed

Written by Patrick Jackson, Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases, University of Virginia

If authorized, molnupiravir could be a key oral treatment to help keep COVID-19 patients out of the hospital. Plyushkin/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Nearly two years into the pandemic, it has become starkly clear that we need better treatments for COVID-19 for people in the earlier stages of disease.

Two new antiviral drugs could soon be the first...

4 reasons why museums aren't cashing in on NFTs yet

Written by Brian Mittendorf, Fisher Designated Professor of Accounting, The Ohio State University

A woman looks at a non-fungible token digital art display in New York City in September 2021.Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

The eye-popping sale price of US$69 million on March 11, 2021, for a non-fungible token created by the digital artist Beeple sent shock waves through the art world. More multimillion-dollar sales of these digital assets...

Cuba's post-revolution architecture offers a blueprint for how to build more with less

Written by M. Wesam Al Asali, Global Fung Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University

Builders construct experimental vaults of brick and cement blocks in Santiago de Cuba in December 1960.Centro de Documentación, Empresa RESTAURA, Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana, CC BY-ND

Around the world, there’s a conjoined crisis of climate change and housing shortages – two topics at the top of the list of...

Tick management programs could help stop Lyme disease, but US funding is inadequate

Written by Isobel Ronai, Postdoctoral Researcher, Columbia University

Ticks cause many human diseases, including Lyme disease.fhm via Getty Images

Justin Bieber, Shania Twain, Amy Schumer, Avril Lavigne, Ben Stiller and Kelly Osbourne are just six of the millions of people who report that they have suffered from Lyme disease, an illness that costs the U.S. more than $3 billion annually.

Approximately a half-million...

Monitor or talk? 5 ways parents can help keep their children safe online

Written by Joris Van Ouytsel, Assistant Professor of Interpersonal Communication, Arizona State University

Communication is key, experts say.damircudic/E+ via Getty Images

Children have been spending more time online. A May 2020 study found that U.S. teenagers spent around seven hours a day, on average, using screens. Even before the pandemic, U.S. teens were indicating in surveys that they were “almost constantly online.”

As with any venue,...

Conspiracies about a 'catastrophic takeover' by Jews have long been an American problem

Written by Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University

An antisemitic cartoon called “The Dream of the Jew Realized,” in The Judge magazine.The Judge magazine 1882

“Jews will not replace us,” demonstrators chanted at the “Unite the Right” rally organized by armed white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, to stop the removal of a statue...

Misremembering might actually be a sign your memory is working optimally

Written by Robert Jacobs, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester

You don't really need to remember what you ordered at the bakery a couple weeks ago.andresr/E+ via Getty Images

When asked the other day about a bakery near my home, I responded that I’d recently eaten its mouth-watering chocolate chip cookies. My wife corrected me, noting that the cookies I ate were actually oatmeal raisin.

Why did I make...

Why Moderna won't share rights to the COVID-19 vaccine with the government that paid for its development

Written by Ana Santos Rutschman, Assistant Professor of Law, Saint Louis University

The U.S. government funded a significant portion of the R&D behind the Moderna vaccine. Peter Endig/picture alliance via Getty Images

A quiet monthslong legal fight between the U.S. National Institutes of Health and drugmaker Moderna over COVID-19 vaccine patents recently burst into public view. The outcome of the battle has important...