The Conversation

Three common arguments for preserving the Electoral College – and why they're wrong

Written by Robert Speel, Associate Professor of Political Science, Erie campus, Pennsylvania State University

In November 2000, newly elected New York Senator Hillary Clinton promised that when she took office in 2001, she would introduce a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College, the 18th-century, state-by-state, winner-take-all system for selecting the president.

She never pursued her promise – a decision that must haunt her...

Why Trump's vow to kill Obama's sustainability agenda will lead business to step in and save it

Written by Joe Arvai, Max McGraw Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, and Director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, University of Michigan

During the campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump called climate change a hoax, threatened to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, committed to easing restrictions on drilling and mining on federal lands, and promised to push for oil pipelines and other controversial energy infrastructure.

Perhaps most troubling to the sustainability...

Why there is no healing without grief

Written by Timothy Beal, Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, Case Western Reserve University

Accepting grief is important for moving toward hope.Shanon Wise, CC BY-ND

For many women, people of color, LGBTQ people, Muslims and immigrants, the victory of Donald Trump seems to have endorsed discrimination against them. Acts of hatred against minorities are surfacing even more brazenly.

College campuses are reporting increasing numbers of...

Trump's plan to end climate funding thrusts responsibility to other countries

Written by Stephen Macekura, Assistant Professor of International Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington

Global climate change politics are at a critical juncture.

On the one hand, there is promising momentum around the climate change pact negotiated last December in Paris, which officially entered into force on Nov. 4. And representatives from countries around the world are meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, to discuss the next steps to implement the...

Peer review is in crisis, but should be fixed, not abolished

Written by Tricia Serio, Professor and Department Head in Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona

More is less in the world of research publications.Desktop image via www.shutterstock.com.

This year three Nobel Prize-winning biologists broke with tradition and published their research directly on the internet as so-called preprints. Their motivation? Saving time.

Traditionally, scientific studies are published in peer-reviewed journals, which...

Understanding the four types of AI, from reactive robots to self-aware beings

Written by Arend Hintze, Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology & Computer Science and Engineering, Michigan State University

Robots will need to teach themselves.Robot reading via shutterstock.com

The common, and recurring, view of the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence research is that sentient and intelligent machines are just on the horizon. Machines understand verbal commands, distinguish pictures, drive cars and play games better than we do. How much...

Supreme Court case could expose Indian tribes to new legal risks

Written by Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Professor of Law & Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center, Michigan State University

The Mohegan Tribe Community Center and Government Building in Uncasville, Connecticut.U.S. Department of Agriculture, CC BY

Accidents happen. And sometimes those accidents involve the employees of Indian tribes. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case that will rule on the the limits of legal immunity of tribes and their employees. Although...

Testing of backlogged rape evidence leads to hundreds of convictions

Written by Rachel Lovell, Senior Research Associate, Case Western Reserve University

Hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits, also known as sexual assault kits (SAKs), languish in evidence storage facilities across the U.S. This backlog denies justice to victims and allows rapists the opportunity to continue to harm others.

Based on research from Case Western Reserve University on Cuyahoga County’s (Ohio) backlogged rape...

What could the rest of the world do if Trump pulls the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change?

Written by Henrik Selin, Associate Professor in the Frederick S Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University

News of Trump's election has had a deep impact on global climate talks now going on.IISD/ENB | Liz Rubin

Climate change negotiators from around the world – now meeting at the COP22 conference in Marrakech, Morocco – continue steadfastly with the task of putting meaning and action into the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement to bring down...

Climate change is affecting all life on Earth – and that's not good news for humanity

Written by Brett Scheffers, Assistant Professor, University of Florida

Researchers have found that dragonflies have become on average lighter-colored over the past half-century in response to higher temperatures. norio-nakayama/flickr, CC BY-SA

More than a dozen authors from different universities and nongovernmental organizations around the world have concluded, based on an analysis of hundreds of studies, that...