The Conversation

Market forces are driving a clean energy revolution in the US

Written by Bill Ritter, Jr., Director, Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University

Block Island Wind, the first offshore wind energy project in the U.S., started operation in 2016.Ionna22, CC BY-SA

Transforming U.S. energy systems away from coal and toward clean renewable energy was once a vision touted mainly by environmentalists. Now it is shared by market purists.

Today, renewable energy resources like wind and solar power...

Trump's exports-good, imports-bad trade policy, debunked by an economist

Written by Ian Sheldon, Chair in Agricultural Marketing, Trade and Policy, The Ohio State University

The White House frets about how the U.S. imports more stuff than it exports. AP Photo/Ben Margot

President Donald Trump’s trade policy leaves international economists like me scratching our heads.

His apparent desire to start a trade war with China is only one example on a long list of what I see as poor trade policy choices. Others include:...

Harvard sexual harassment case scars the institution as well as victims

Written by Jeffrey W. Rubin, Associate Professor of History, Boston University

Harvard faculty member accused of decades of sexual harassment. Gil C/Shutterstock

In the wake of recent #MeToo revelations, Harvard University has begun to take action against a tenured professor whom the university found guilty of sexual harassment in the 1980s and who now stands accused of harassing women undergraduates, graduate students,...

As marijuana goes mainstream, what's happening to the way we talk about weed?

Written by Frank Nuessel, Professor of Spanish, Italian and Linguistics, University of Louisville

Pharmacy or marijuana dispensary?Scott Sonner/AP Photo

For decades, the marijuana industry operated underground, outside the confines of the law.

But even though at the federal level, possession and the use and sale of marijuana remain illegal, 29 states and the District of Columbia now allow medicinal marijuana to be sold for the treatment of...

Why marijuana fans should not see approval for epilepsy drug as a win for weed

Written by Timothy Welty, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Drake University

Small vials of CBD, which some believe could be a cure for many ailments. Roxana Gonzalez/Shutterstock.com

A Food and Drug Administration panel recommended approval of a drug made of cannabidiol on April 19 to treat two types of epilepsy. The FDA is expected to decide in June whether to accept the panel’s 13-0 recommendation to approve...

Democratic Party's pluralism is both a strength and weakness

Written by Raymond La Raja, Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., accompanied by Democratic members of the House and Senate in late 2017. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

“Democrats never agree on anything, that’s why they’re Democrats. If they agreed with each other, they’d be Republicans.”

Much has changed since humorist Will Rogers said that in the 1930s, but...

Housing discrimination thrives 50 years after Fair Housing Act tried to end it

Written by Prentiss A. Dantzler, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies, Colorado College

Fair housing protest in Seattle, Washington, 1964.Jmabel/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-ND

In the midst of riots in 1968 after civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was slain, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act.

The federal legislation addressed one of the bitterest aspects of racism in the U.S.: segregated housing. It...

Our centuries-long quest for 'a quiet place'

Written by Matthew Jordan, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Pennsylvania State University

A lithograph by French caricaturist J. J. Grandville depicts the torture of too much noise.Bibliothèque nationale de France

The new film “A Quiet Place” is an edge-of-your-seat tale about a family struggling to avoid being heard by monsters with hypersensitive ears. Conditioned by fear, they know the slightest noise will provoke...

What's unconscious bias training, and does it work?

Written by Calvin K. Lai, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St Louis

A Starbucks manager in Philadelphia called the police on two black men on April 12, leading to their arrest. The two men, who had been waiting for a friend at the store, were released without being charged.

Starbucks has since apologized and announced it will close more than 8,000 of its stores in the United States to provide “racial...

I run 'facial recognition' on buildings to unlock architectural secrets

Written by Peter Christensen, Assistant Professor of Art History, University of Rochester

Is this a face or a building?David W, CC BY

About a decade ago, a modest update to Apple’s iPhoto software showed me a new way to study architectural history. The February 2009 update added facial recognition, allowing users to tag friends and loved ones in their photos. After a few faces were tagged, the software would begin to offer...