The Conversation

R0: How scientists quantify the intensity of an outbreak like coronavirus and its pandemic potential

Written by Joseph Eisenberg, Professor and Chair of Epidemiology, University of Michigan

To how many others will one infected person spread the infection?Bim/Getty Images

If you saw the 2011 movie “Contagion,” about a worldwide pandemic of a new virus, then you’ve heard the term R0.

Pronounced “R naught,” this isn’t just jargon made up in Hollywood. It represents an important concept in epidemiology...

Iowa caucuses did one thing right: Require paper ballots

Written by Herbert Lin, Senior Research Scholar for Cyber Policy and Security, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University

Paper ballots – the key to reconstructing what happened in Iowa.AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

As the confusion that was the Iowa caucuses unfolds, there will be a lot of questions about what happened and how to avoid it in the future.

But the results, ultimately, will be clear and undisputed because, amid everything they did wrong, the Iowa...

US could learn how to improve election protection from other nations

Written by Scott Shackelford, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics; Director, Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance; Cybersecurity Program Chair, IU-Bloomington, Indiana University

Are these people's votes accurately recorded and properly counted?Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

Hacking into voting machines remains far too easy.

It is too soon to say for sure what role cybersecurity played in the 2020 Iowa caucuses, but the problems, which are still unfolding and being investigated, show how easily systemic failures can lead to delays...

Learn to trust immigrants by role-playing in their shoes

Written by Brandon Bouchillon, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Arkansas

A university class included a game that simulated aspects of the experience people like these would-be immigrants can expect in the U.S.AP Photo/Elliot Spagat

People fear and mistrust what they don’t know – including people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. That lack of trust causes social and political divisions in the U.S. and arou...

Is hiring more black officers the key to reducing police violence?

Written by Jennifer Cobbina, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University

The thin blue line remains disproportionately white, despite diversity gains.Timothy Fadek/Corbis via Getty Images

High-profile cases of officer brutality against black citizens in recent years have caused Americans to question the racial makeup of their police departments.

Many advocates believe that diversifying these forces will help reduce...

The Iraq War has cost the US nearly $2 trillion

Written by Neta C. Crawford, Professor of Political Science and Department Chair, Boston University

Packed and ready to leave? Perhaps not quite yet.Capt. Robyn Haake/US Army/AFP via Getty Images

Editor’s note: The Costs of Wars project was started in 2011 to assess the long-term consequences of the post-9/11 wars. Project co-director Neta C. Crawford, professor and chair of political science at Boston University, explains the major...

A clue to stopping coronavirus: Knowing how viruses adapt from animals to humans

Written by Frederick Cohan, Huffington Foundation Professor of Biology in the College of the Environment, Wesleyan University

A horseshoe bat chasing a moth. Horseshoe bats were the source of SARS. Scientists consider bats to be a possible source of coronavirus.DE AGOSTINI PICTURE LIBRARY / Contributor

As the novel coronavirus death toll mounts, it is natural to worry. How far will this virus travel through humanity, and could another such virus arise seemingly from...

Cancer deaths decline in US, with advances in prevention, detection and treatment

Written by Jonathan M. Gerber, Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Medical Director of the Cancer Center, and Eleanor Eustis Farrington Chair in Cancer Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Former President Jimmy Carter pictured at an Atlanta Braves-Toronto Blue Jays game in Atlanta on Sept. 17, 2015, shortly after being treated for melanoma.AP Photo/John Bazemore

The American Cancer Society recently reported a drop in the overall cancer death rate in the U.S., with an overall 29% decline in cancer deaths from 1991 to 2017.

This...

At-risk colleges should do what's best for students, alumni, donors, employees – and local communities

Written by Genevieve Shaker, Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUI

The College of New Rochelle closed in 2019.DanTD, CC BY-SA

The College of New Rochelle closed in 2019, more than a century after its founding as New York’s first Catholic women’s college. The announcement left students scrambling to figure out what to do. The college’s land and buildings were sold for US$32 million, most of which...

100 years ago, Congress threw out results of the census

Written by Walter Reynolds Farley, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Michigan

A "very small section' of the Census Bureau, sometime between 1910 and 1930.Library of Congress

The 2020 Census hasn’t even started – but it has already kicked off spirited fights.

A Supreme Court case, decided last year, blocked a Trump administration proposal to ask every respondent if they were a citizen.

Meanwhile, there are three...