The Conversation

Lithium ion Nobel Prize shows how individual brainstorms add up to world-transforming innovations

Written by Amy Prieto, Professor of Chemistry, Colorado State University

Lithium ion batteries store large amounts of power in small battery cells that can be recharged.Mile Atanasov

Nobel Prizes in Chemistry seem to rotate between novel compounds, revolutionary measurement techniques, and insights into how atoms can be combined to form new molecules and solids. This year, however, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was...

Why don't more women win science Nobels?

Written by Mary K. Feeney, Professor and Lincoln Professor of Ethics in Public Affairs and Associate Director of the Center for Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Studies, Arizona State University

All of the 2019 Nobel Prizes in science were awarded to men.

That’s a return to business as usual, after biochemical engineer Frances Arnold won in 2018, for chemistry, and Donna Strickland received the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics.

Strickland was only the third female physicist to get a Nobel, following Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria...

Turkish attack on Syria endangers a remarkable democratic experiment by the Kurds

Written by James L. Gelvin, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of California, Los Angeles

Kurdish fighters in Syria say the U.S. is abandoning its allies and potentially empowering the Islamic State by withdrawing from northeastern Syria and allowing a Turkish assault, Oct. 7, 2019.AP Photo

Turkey’s attack on Kurdish-run territory in northern Syria will likely snuff out a radical experiment in self-government that is unlike...

US will send migrants to El Salvador, a country that can't protect its own people

Written by Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emerson College

The Trump administration is continuing its efforts to keep Central American asylum seekers away from the United States’ border.

On Sept. 20 the U.S. signed an agreement with El Salvador to accept asylum seekers sent out of the United States. U.S. officials have avoided specifics in discussing the deal and implied that only Salvadoran...

Why more places are abandoning Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples' Day

Written by Malinda Maynor Lowery, Professor of History and Director, Center for the Study of the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Marchers celebrate the first Indigenous Peoples Day in Berkeley, Calif. on Oct. 10, 1992.AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

Increasingly, Columbus Day is giving people pause.

More and more towns and cities across the country are electing to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an alternative to – or in addition to – the day intended to honor...

Could helmetless tackling training reduce football head injuries?

Written by Erik Swartz, Profesor, Kinesiology , University of Massachusetts Lowell

A young football player holds his mouth guard.Suzanne Tucker/Shutterstock.com

With football season well underway, there already have been instances of helmet-to-helmet hits, concussions and yet another round of conversations about strategies to reduce head impact exposure in players.

This is an urgent matter for all football players, but...

Why ending the secrecy of 'confession' is so controversial for the Catholic Church

Written by Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross

In Catholic understanding, Jesus gave his disciples the power to forgive sins.Hernán Piñera, CC BY-SA

Following sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, there is a worldwide push to end the guarantee of secrecy of confession – called “the seal of the confessional.”

On Sept. 11, 2019, two Australian states,...

Panama celebrates its black Christ, part of protest against colonialism and slavery

Written by S. Kyle Johnson, Doctoral Student in Systematic Theology, Boston College

The life-sized wooden statue of the Black Christ in St. Philip Church in Panama.Dan Lundberg/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Panama’s “Festival del Cristo Negro,” the festival of the “Black Christ,” is an important religious holiday for local Catholics. It honors a dark, life-sized wooden statue of Jesus, “Cristo Negro”...

Conservation policies threaten indigenous reindeer herders in Mongolia

Written by Nancy Langston, Distinguished Professor of Environmental History, Michigan Technological University

Rules put into place to protect endangered species have harmed people who depend on nature.Nancy Langston, CC BY-SA

Deep in the sub-Arctic boreal forest of far northern Mongolia lives an indigenous tribe who are among the world’s smallest ethnic minorities and last reindeer herding nomads. The Tsaatan, as they’re known, have been...

Computer science now counts as math credit in most states – is this a good idea?

Written by Chris Orban, Assistant Professor of Physics, The Ohio State University

Forty-seven states let computer science count in place of math or science classes required for high school graduation.Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com

In 2013, a who’s who of the tech world came together to launch a new nonprofit called Code.org. The purpose of the organization was to get more computer science into schools.

Billionaires...