The Conversation

A booming international movie market is transforming Hollywood

Written by Weiko Lin, Associate Professor in Screenwriting, Emerson College

China is projected to surpass the U.S. in box office receipts in 2020.DGArt3D/Shutterstock.com

Marvel’s “Shang-Chi” – the studio’s first Asian superhero movie – is a sign of the times.

Destin Daniel Cretton, who is of Asian descent, will be directing the film, which will feature a Chinese superhero who...

Neuroscience and artificial intelligence can help improve each other

Written by Gabriel A. Silva, Professor of Bioengineering and Neurosciences; Founding Director, Center for Engineered Natural Intelligence, University of California San Diego

Neurons treated with a fluorescent dye show their interconnections.Silva Lab, CC BY-ND

Despite their names, artificial intelligence technologies and their component systems, such as artificial neural networks, don’t have much to do with real brain science. I’m a professor of bioengineering and neurosciences interested in understanding...

Women are less supportive of space exploration – getting a woman on the Moon might change that

Written by Wendy Whitman Cobb, Professor of Strategy and Security Studies, US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies

NASA is making a new effort to encourage women to pursue STEM careers.Khakimullin Aleksandr/Shutterstock.com

In March 2019, Vice President Mike Pence stated that the goal of NASA should be to return humans to the Moon by 2024. While the cost of such a venture isn’t known yet, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has supported the effort and gone...

How Congress lost power over trade deals – and why some lawmakers want it back

Written by William Hauk, Associate Professor of Economics, University of South Carolina

Congress was once the seat of all power on U.S. trade policyAP Photo

Some in Congress want to wrest control of trade policy back from the president. It might surprise you to learn that lawmakers ever had it.

Until the 1930s, it was Congress that set the terms of U.S. trade negotiations with other countries and raised and lowered tariffs as it saw...

Physician burnout: Why legal and regulatory systems may need to step in

Written by Sharona Hoffman, Professor of Health Law and Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University

Physician burnout can have an impact on both the doctors and their patients. Jamesboy Nuchaikong/shutterstock.com

A career as a physician has traditionally been considered to be among the best vocations that talented students can pursue. That may no longer be the case. All too many doctors report that they are unhappy, frustrated and even prepared...

Climate change is affecting crop yields and reducing global food supplies

Written by Deepak Ray, Senior scientist, University of Minnesota

Farm land near Holly Bluff, Miss., covered with backwater flooding, May 23, 2019. AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Farmers are used to dealing with weather, but climate change is making it harder by altering temperature and rainfall patterns, as in this year’s unusually cool and wet spring in the central U.S. In a recently published study, I...

Counterfeit alcohol, sometimes containing jet fuel or embalming fluid, is a growing concern for tourists abroad

Written by Monica H. Swahn, Professor, Epidemiology and Public Health, Georgia State University

Health experts advise that people drink unadulterated alcohol only in moderation, or not at all. Counterfeit alcohol, they warn, is especially dangerous.Olga Sapegina/shutterstock.com

The news about the tragic deaths of several American tourists in the Dominican Republic in May 2019 has created an outcry and a media frenzy. As of June 30, there...

New York's new rental protections won't end the outsize influence of big developers who pay the city's bills

Written by Cem S. Kayatekin, Assistant Professor of Architecture / Urbanism, IE School of Architecture and Design, IE University

New York has become a 'city for the rich' in recent decades, a shift in its real estate market that impacts policy-making, too.Alessandro Colle / Shutterstock

New York has passed sweeping new laws that will close some legal loopholes that allowed the city’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments to be deregulated and tenant protections bypassed....

New York's new rental protections won't end the outside influence of big developers who pay the city's bills

Written by Cem S. Kayatekin, Assistant Professor of Architecture / Urbanism, IE School of Architecture and Design, IE University

New York has become a 'city for the rich' in recent decades, a shift in its real estate market that impacts policy-making, too.Alessandro Colle / Shutterstock

New York has passed sweeping new laws that will close some legal loopholes that allowed the city’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments to be deregulated and tenant protections bypassed....

5 Moon-landing innovations that changed life on Earth

Written by Jean Creighton, Planetarium Director, NASA Airborne Astronomy Ambassador, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission.Neil Armstrong/NASA

Much of the technology common in daily life today originates from the drive to put a human being on the Moon. This effort reached its pinnacle when Neil Armstrong stepped off the Eagle landing module onto the lunar surface 50 years ago.

As a NASA airborne astronomy...