The Conversation

For autocrats like Vladimir Putin, ruthless repression is often a winning way to stay in power

Written by Shelley Inglis, Executive Director, University of Dayton Human Rights Center, University of Dayton

Russian police officers beat people protesting the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Jan. 23, 2021 in Moscow.Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)

Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, sick with a cough and fever, has been moved to the hospital ward of the remote penal colony where he is imprisoned.

Navalny landed in prison after legal troubles that...

Technology innovation gives government leverage to drive down emissions fast – here's how

Written by Jessika E. Trancik, Associate Professor, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Government policies sparked rapid growth and technology innovation in solar energy, wind energy and battery markets.Michael Hall/Getty Images

To avert the worst effects of climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions should fall at faster rates than they have risen for over a century. Economies must essentially turn on a dime and then move...

Scientists need to become better communicators, but it's hard to measure whether training works

Written by Robert Wyss, Professor Emeritus of Journalism, University of Connecticut

How can more scientists learn to communicate like Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases?Anna Moneymaker / POOL / AFP via Getty Images

Science is essential to solving many of society’s biggest problems, but it doesn’t always find a receptive audience. Today, when curbing COVID-19...

Netflix’s big bet on foreign content and international viewers could upend the global mediascape – and change how people see the world

Written by Paolo Sigismondi, Clinical Professor of Communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

TV and movies are one way we understand people and places we've never had direct contact with – and maybe never will.iStock / Getty Images Plus

As a kid growing up in Italy, I remember watching the American TV series “Happy Days,” which chronicled the 1950s-era Midwestern adventures of the Fonz, Richie Cunningham and other...

Vape sellers are using popular music videos to promote e-cigarettes to young people – and it's working

Written by Jon-Patrick Allem, Assistant Professor of Research, University of Southern California

Teens and young adults spend several hours a day looking at their phones and watching videos, many of which might contain product placements for vaping.Flashpop/Getty Images

Research that my colleagues and I recently conducted demonstrates that electronic cigarette product placement in music videos is associated with vaping among minors.

The Tobacco...

Sea level rise is killing trees along the Atlantic coast, creating 'ghost forests' that are visible from space

Written by Emily Ury, Ph.D. Candidate, Duke University

Ghost forest panorama in coastal North Carolina.Emily Ury, CC BY-ND

Trekking out to my research sites near North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, I slog through knee-deep water on a section of trail that is completely submerged. Permanent flooding has become commonplace on this low-lying peninsula, nestled behind North...

Sports remain hostile territory for LGBTQ Americans

Written by Rachel Allison, Associate Professor of Sociology, Mississippi State University

While professional sports franchises have become more socially conscious, LGBTQ fans and players aren't exactly embraced with open arms.Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

CC BY-ND

For all of the gains LGBTQ people have made over the past few decades, sports remain a highly visible reminder that homophobia and transphobia persist.

In recent years, more...

The US is worried about its critical minerals supply chains – essential for electric vehicles, wind power and the nation's defense

Written by Jordy Lee, Payne Institute Program Manager, Colorado School of Mines

Wind turbines and fighter jets both rely on imported critical minerals.U.S. Air Force; Dennis Schroeder/NREL

When U.S. companies build military weapons systems, electric vehicle batteries, satellites and wind turbines, they rely heavily on a few dozen “critical minerals” – many of which are mined and refined almost entirely by...

The 17th-century cloth merchant who discovered the vast realm of tiny microbes – an appreciation of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Written by Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University

Leeuwenhoek refined the magnifying glass, creating the world's first microscope.Tetra Images via Getty Images

Imagine trying to cope with a pandemic like COVID-19 in a world where microscopic life was unknown. Prior to the 17th century, people were limited by what they could see with their own two eyes. But then a Dutch cloth merchant changed...

An interactive visual database for American Sign Language reveals how signs are organized in the mind

Written by Zed Sevcikova Sehyr, Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Scientist, San Diego State University

Rhyming means something different in ASL than it does in spoken languageZed Sevcikova Sehyr, CC BY-ND

“Desire” and “still” don’t rhyme in English, but they do rhyme in American Sign Language. Just as poets can evoke emotions and meaning by choosing words that echo one another in English, actress and Tony nominee Lauren...