The Conversation

Microprocessor designers realize security must be a primary concern

Written by Mark Hempstead, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tufts University

Are microchips as secure as you think they should be?Yevhenii Kuchynskyi/Shutterstock.com

Computers’ amazing abilities to entertain people, help them work, and even respond to voice commands are, at their heart, the results of decades of technological development and innovation in microprocessor design. Under constant pressure to extract more...

The rescued Thai boys are considering becoming monks — here's why

Written by Andrew Alan Johnson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University

Thai monks pray during a cleansing ceremony and memorial service for Saman Gunan, the Thai SEAL diver who died while trying to rescue the boys trapped in the cave. AP Photo/Vincent Thian

After their dramatic rescue from Nang Non cave, 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach are mourning the loss of a Thai Navy SEAL, Saman Gunan, who died during the...

Harvesting rain could help Caribbean countries keep the water on after hurricanes

Written by Cecilia A. Green, Associate Professor of Sociology, Syracuse University

After hurricanes Maria and Irma hit last September, it took Puerto Rico until this June to restore water to most residents. Those living in rural and hard-to-reach mountainous areas waited the longest.

In Dominica, where 80 percent of the population was hit hard by Hurricane Maria, water service was not restored to the most remote areas until...

Multilingual learners doing better in US schools than previously thought

Written by Karen D. Thompson, Assistant Professor of Education, Oregon State University

Multilingual students have made steady progress in recent years, new research shows.Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

Between 2003 to 2015, multilingual students showed two to three times more progress in reading and math than students who speak English only. With this progress, the achievement gaps between multilingual students and their peers...

When corporations take credit for green deeds their lobbying may tell another story

Written by Tom Lyon, Dow Professor of Sustainable Science, Technology and Commerce; Professor of Business Economics; Public Policy Professor of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

Former EPA chief Scott Pruitt, second from left, conferring with auto industry leadersAP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Today most large companies like Exxon Mobil, Ford and GM issue slick reports extolling their efforts to conserve resources, use renewable energy or fund clean water supplies in developing countries. This emphasis on efforts to curb...

How a positive outlook on the future may protect teens from violence

Written by Alison Culyba, UPMC Children's Hospital; Assistant professor of pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh

Hope and goals for the future, such as graduating from college, can help protect teens from turning to violence.Georgia State University, CC BY-SA

Youth violence is pervasive and has serious consequences for teens’ health and well-being. Based on a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of ninth to 12th graders in the U.S.,...

How man and machine can work together to diagnose diseases in medical scans

Written by Anant Madabhushi, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University

What does AI see in this picture?NIH Image Gallery, CC BY-NC

With artificial intelligence, machines can now examine thousands of medical images – and billions of pixels within these images – to identify patterns too subtle for a radiologist or pathologist to identify.

The machine then uses this information to identify the presence of a...

Pigments from microbes provide clue to evolution in ancient oceans – but weren't pink a billion years ago

Written by Patricia L. Foster, Professor Emerita of Biology, Indiana University

Cyanobacteria filled the ancient oceans and used chlorophyll to harvest the sun's energy.Specious Reasons, CC BY-NC

Possibly the most significant event in the evolution of life on Earth occurred 2.4 billion years ago. That was when the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere and ocean surface waters rapidly increased – setting the stage for a new...

Thing-makers, tool freaks and prototypers: How the Whole Earth Catalog's optimistic message reinvented the environmental movement in 1968

Written by Andy Kirk, Professor of History, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

'Earthrise,' which appeared on the cover of the second and third Whole Earth Catalog, was taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders during lunar orbit, Dec. 24, 1968.NASA

In the fall of 1968 a Stanford-trained biologist, organizer of the legendary Trips Festival and Merry Prankster named Stewart Brand published the first Whole Earth Catalog. Between...

If the 12 indicted Russians never face trial in the US, can anything be gained?

Written by Joel Samuels, Professor of Law, University of South Carolina

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announcing the indictmentsAP/Evan Vucci

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States regularly exchanged accusations of espionage. The prototypical image of Cold War spies is etched in the minds of anyone who lived through that period or watched its movies – trenchcoat-wearing, “Spy...