The Conversation

Stop criticizing bizarrely shaped voting districts. They might not be gerrymandered after all

Written by Dustin G. Mixon, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University

Illinois's Fourth Congressional District is often called out for its 'earmuff' shape, but there's an ideal behind its strange appearance.SBTL1/flickr

How can you tell if a voting district has been gerrymandered?

Every 10 years, the U.S. Census informs lawmakers on how to redistribute 435 U.S. congressional seats among the 50 states. Each state must...

Who are the Baha'is and why are they so persecuted?

Written by Zackery M. Heern, Assistant Professor of History and Middle East Studies, Idaho State University

Entrance to the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh, burial place of the founder of the Bahá’í faith, near Acre, Israel.Bahá’í World News Service © Bahá'í International Community

The Baha'is are among the most persecuted religious minorities in the world.

In Iran, where the...

Charles Manson and the perversion of the American dream

Written by William McKeen, Professor and Chair, Department of Journalism, Boston University

Charles Manson leaves a Los Angeles courtroom in March 1970.George Brich/AP Photo

When Charles Manson died in November 2017, his name carried weight even among those who weren’t alive when he committed his crimes.

For decades, Manson was the symbol of evil, a real-life boogeyman who loomed as the American conception of wickedness incarnate....

In growing algae for biofuels, it matters who used the water last

Written by Sarah Loftus, Ph.D. Candidate, Duke University Program in Ecology, Duke University

Pools at an algae farm in Borculo, east Netherlands.AP Photo/Arthur Max

Health food enthusiasts routinely shell out over US$30 per pound for dried algae powder to whip up green smoothies to fuel their bodies. Algae can also power vehicles, but algae-based renewable fuels cost more than currently available gasoline or diesel fuel. Although biofuels...

Why Silicon Valley wants you to text and drive

Written by Jack Barkenbus, Visiting Scholar, Vanderbilt Institute for Energy & Environment, Vanderbilt University

Tech companies want to reduce conflict between texting and driving.Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock.com

As self-driving cars come closer to being common on American roads, much of the rhetoric promoting them has to do with safety. About 40,000 people die on U.S. roads every year, and driver errors are linked to more than 90 percent of crashes. But many...

Atomic age began 75 years ago with the first controlled nuclear chain reaction

Written by Artemis Spyrou, Associate Professor of Nuclear Astrophysics, Michigan State University

For the first time, human beings harnessed the power of atomic fission.Keith Ruffles, CC BY

Over Christmas vacation in 1938, physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch received puzzling scientific news in a private letter from nuclear chemist Otto Hahn. When bombarding uranium with neutrons, Hahn had made some surprising observations that went against...

Got a boss who denies reality? A behavioral scientist's guide to tactful truth telling

Written by Gleb Tsipursky, Assistant Professor of History of Behavioral Science, The Ohio State University

'He said what?'fizkes/Shutterstock.com

‘Tis the season for holiday parties at the office.

While they’re great for building workplace camaraderie and team spirit, when was the last time a colleague - perhaps fueled by too much alcohol - said something so ridiculous that it made your jaw drop? Perhaps a desk mate went into something...

Kurdistan earthquake: politics creates roadblocks to relief

Written by Haidar Khezri, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Central Eurasian Studies (CEUS), Indiana University

Many of the Iranian dead in the Nov. 12 Iran earthquake lived in the Mehr Housing, state-built affordable apartments that crumbled when other buildings stayed up.AP Photo/Vahid Salemi

Iran and Iraq are still struggling with the aftermath of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck along their shared border on Nov. 12. The recovery effort has been...

Kurdistan earthquake: Politics create roadblocks to relief

Written by Haidar Khezri, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Central Eurasian Studies (CEUS), Indiana University

Many of the Iranian dead in the Nov. 12 Iran earthquake lived in the Mehr Housing, state-built affordable apartments that crumbled when other buildings stayed up.AP Photo/Vahid Salemi

Iran and Iraq are still struggling with the aftermath of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck along their shared border on Nov. 12. The recovery effort has been...

A tax increase that's proven to save lives

Written by Jeffrey Drope, Professor in Residence of Global Health, Marquette University

Lung cancer remains the world’s largest cancer killer, but the world is not doing all it can to curb it.

Tobacco use is the largest risk factor for lung cancer. It is also a risk factor for at least 11 other cancers, and the reason that a mind-numbing 1.5 million tobacco-related cancer deaths occur every year worldwide.

This is much more than...