The Conversation

You're not going to get accepted into a top university on merit alone

Written by Natasha Warikoo, Associate Professor of Education, Harvard University

More and more students at Harvard are examining their admission files to try to understand how they got in. The U.S. government is also plans to examine the files as part of a discrimination case filed by 63 Asian- American groups.Shutterstock.com

After weeks of negotiation, Harvard University recently agreed to provide the Department of Justice...

Designer proteins that package genetic material could help deliver gene therapy

Written by Ian Haydon, Doctoral Student in Biochemistry, University of Washington

Delivering genetic material is a key challenge in gene therapy.Invitation image created by Kstudio, CC BY

If you’ve ever bought a new iPhone, you’ve experienced good packaging.

The way the lid slowly separates from the box. The pull tab that helps you remove the device. Even the texture of the paper inserts matters to Apple. Every aspect...

How Republican missteps turned Alabama blue

Written by David Hughes, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Auburn University at Montgomery

Doug Jones supporters celebrate his stunning victory.AP Photo/John Bazemore

If there was one Republican in Alabama the Democratic Doug Jones could beat, Roy Moore was that Republican.

And in a Tuesday night nail-biter, Jones did just that, edging Moore by a mere 1.5 percentage points in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S....

You (and most of the millions of holiday travelers you encounter) are washing your hands wrong

Written by Michelle Sconce Massaquoi, Doctoral candidate, microbiology, University of Oregon

Not all bathrooms are clean, which poses a problem for holiday travelers trying to keep their hands clean. Seroma72/Shutterstock.com

For my fourth-grade science fair project, I tested different soaps to see which ones were the most effective at keeping my hands clean.

Now, nearly 20 years later as a microbiology doctoral candidate, I can’t...

California needs to rethink urban fire risk, starting with where it builds houses

Written by Max Moritz, Cooperative Extension Specialist, Wildland Fire, University of California, Santa Barbara

This fire season has been particularly damaging to urban areas.AP Photo/Reed Saxon

Wildfires raging across southern California are causing evacuations of many communities and have destroyed hundreds of structures this month.

These fires follow the wind-driven Tubbs fire earlier this fall that blasted through densely urbanized neighborhoods in...

Will China's crackdown on 'foreign garbage' force wealthy countries to recycle more of their own waste?

Written by Kate O'Neill, Associate Professor, Global Environmental Politics, University of California, Berkeley

Imported laptop housings, Guiyu, China.Basel Action Network, CC BY-ND

With holidays approaching, many of us are mindful of the need to collect and recycle all the additional plastic, paper and other waste that we are about to generate. This year, however, there are questions about where that waste will end up. China, the world’s largest...

What 'Last Tango in Paris' teaches my students about sexual ethics

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

Director Bernardo Bertolucci, left, discusses a scene from "Last Tango in Paris" with leading actor Marlon Brando and actress Maria Schneider.AP Photo

Today’s news is awash with accounts of behind-the-scenes sexual assaults involving such prominent figures as producer Harvey Weinstein, director Brett Ratner and actor Kevin Spacey. In some...

Study reveals racial inequality in Mexico, disproving its 'race-blind' rhetoric

Written by Daniel Zizumbo-Colunga, Assistant Professor of Drug Policy, Centro de Investigación y Docencia (CIDE) and Research Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University

For centuries, the United States has been engaged in a thorny, stop-and-go conversation about race and inequality in American society. And from Black Lives Matter demonstrations to NFL players protesting police violence, public discussions on racism continue in full force today.

That’s not the case in Mexico. Mexicans have divergent ancestry,...

Gold rush opportunists, hippie goat ladies, Latino newcomers: California entrepreneurs dream of cheese

Written by Heather Paxson, Professor of Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Humboldt Fog chèvre, born in a dream.T.Depaepe, CC BY-ND

The idea for Humboldt Fog goat’s milk cheese first came to Mary Keehn in a dream. She fell asleep on an airplane and awoke with a vivid picture in her mind of how the cheese looked. And then she set out to realize her vision – in the process, helping to launch a...

3 myths about the poor that Republicans are using to support slashing US safety net

Written by Michele Gilman, Venable Professor of Law, University of Baltimore

Sen. Chuck Grassley recently seemed to suggest some poor people spend all their money on "booze or women or movies."AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Republicans continue to use long-debunked myths about the poor as they defend lower taxes for the rich and deep cuts to the social safety net to pay for them. In so doing, they are essentially expressing...