In criminal justice systems, credit markets, employment arenas, higher education admissions processes and even social media networks, data-driven algorithms now drive decision-making in ways that touch our economic, social and civic lives. These software systems rank,...

In contemporary health care, touch – contact between a doctor’s hand and a patient – appears to be on its way out. The expanding role of CT and MRI imaging is decreasing reliance on touch as a way of making diagnoses. Pressures to move patients through the system...

This week our collaborators at the PBS debate show Point Taken focus on gender rights.

New White House guidelines on sex discrimination have caused a backlash in a number of states and school districts. But, writing for The Conversation, Genny Beemyn of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Stonewall Center argues that this won’t...

President Obama’s visits this week to Vietnam and Japan are his latest high-profile demonstrations of America’s enhanced focus on the Asia Pacific.

As a scholar of East Asia and its politics, I have studied the relationship between the U.S. and the region for more than 40 years. I believe the president will emphasize the upbeat...

Ransomware – malicious software that sneaks onto your computer, encrypts your data so you can’t access it and demands payment for unlocking the information – has become an emerging cyberthreat. Several reports in the past few...

Can a few text messages, a timely email or a letter increase college enrollment and student achievement? Such “nudges,” designed carefully using behavioral economics, can be effective.

But when do they work – and when not?

Barriers to success

Consider students who have just graduated...

Dramatic images of out-of-control wildfires in western North American forests have appeared on our television and computer screens with increasing regularity in recent decades, while costs of fire suppression have soared. In...

Although 177 countries signed the Paris Agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in April...

Editor’s note: This article is part of our collaboration with Point Taken, a new program from WGBH that next airs on Tuesday, May 24 on PBS and online at pbs.org. The show features fact-based debate on major issues of the day, without the shouting.

There is a long way to go before transgender people throughout the United States are treated...

From Wall Street to politics, quantitative analysts (or quants) are revolutionizing much of the world. Nowadays, that even includes horse racing.

By using computers to identify hidden patterns in past racing data and arcane mathematics to optimize every aspect of their betting strategies, horse racing quants can confidently wager staggering...