The Conversation

Think Facebook can manipulate you? Look out for virtual reality

Written by Elissa Redmiles, Ph.D. Student in Computer Science, University of Maryland

What these people are seeing isn't real – but they might think it is.AP Photo/Francisco Seco

As Facebook users around the world are coming to understand, some of their favorite technologies can be used against them. It’s not just the scandal over psychological profiling firm Cambridge Analytica getting access to data from tens of...

Facebook is killing democracy with its personality profiling data

Written by Timothy Summers, Director of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Engagement, University of Maryland

Facebook's data know exactly what fits best in your mind.leolintang/Shutterstock.com

What state should you move to based on your personality? What character on “Downton Abbey” would you be? What breed of dog is best for you? Some enormous percentage of Facebook’s 2.13 billion users must have seen Facebook friends sharing results...

Tariffs won't save American steel jobs. But we can still help steelworkers

Written by Morten Wendelbo, Lecturer, Bush School of Government and Public Service; Research Fellow, Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs; and, Policy Sciences Lecturer, Texas A&M University Libraries, Texas A&M University

President Donald Trump has been promising to save American manufacturing, and the steel industry in particular, since the presidential campaign. His attempt to follow through on that promise was the March 8 tariff increase on foreign steel and aluminum, arguing that the tariffs were necessary to protect U.S. industries and workers.

Trump joins a...

Buried, altered, silenced: 4 ways government climate information has changed since Trump took office

Written by Morgan Currie, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Digital Civil Society Lab, Stanford University, Stanford University

After Donald Trump won the presidential election, hundreds of volunteers around the U.S. came together to “rescue” federal data on climate change, thought to be at risk under the new administration. “Guerilla archivists,” including ourselves, gathered to archive federal websites and preserve scientific data.

But what has...

Eager to dye your hair with 'nontoxic' graphene nanoparticles? Not so fast!

Written by Andrew Maynard, Director, Risk Innovation Lab, Arizona State University

Subbing new risks for the current dyes’ dangers?Evgeny Savchenko/Shutterstock.com

Graphene is something of a celebrity in the world of nanoscale materials. Isolated in 2004 by Nobel Prize winners Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, these ultrathin sheets of carbon atoms are already finding novel uses in areas like electronics, high-efficiency...

On his 250th birthday, Joseph Fourier's math still makes a difference

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

Fourier's name is inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.philmciver/flickr, CC BY-NC

March 21 marks the 250th birthday of one of the most influential mathematicians in history. He accompanied Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt, revolutionized science’s understanding of heat transfer, developed the mathematical tools used today to create CT and MRI...

Some officials want to ban school suspensions – here's how that could backfire

Written by K. Juree Capers, Assistant Professor of Public Management and Policy, Georgia State University

Efforts to ban school suspensions to reduce racial disparities are on the rise, but experts warn they could backfire.pixelheadphoto digitalskillet/Shutterstock

When it comes to school discipline, the fact that low-income and minority students are more likely to get suspended than students who are white or more well off is nothing new.

In an effort...

Merit matters in US immigration, but agreeing on what 'merit' means is complicated

Written by John Carson, Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan

A naturalization ceremony in Los Angeles. AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

Fierce debate over who deserves to be an immigrant to the United States has drawn on for decades.

Recently, President Donald Trump and hardliner Republicans have proposed overhauling the U.S. immigration system to focus principally on “merit-based” immigration. As they...

Silver nanoparticles in clothing wash out – and may threaten human health and the environment

Written by Sukalyan Sengupta, Professor of Wastewater Treatment, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

There are nanometals in your washing machine.Evgeny Atamanenko

Humans have known since ancient times that silver kills or stops the growth of many microorganisms. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, is said to have used silver preparations for treating ulcers and healing wounds. Until the introduction of antibiotics in the 1940s, colloidal silver...

Why Denmark dominates the World Happiness Report rankings year after year

Written by Marie Helweg-Larsen, Professor of Psychology, Dickinson College

Okay, we get it, you're happy – no need to rub it in.Very_Very/Shutterstock.com

The new World Happiness Report again ranks Denmark among the top three happiest of 155 countries surveyed – a distinction that the country has earned for seven consecutive years.

The U.S., on the other hand, ranked 18th in this year’s World Happiness...