The Conversation

'Public goods' made America great and can do so again

Written by Marina v. N. Whitman, Professor of Business Administration and Public Policy, University of Michigan

Public goods come in many forms, from highways to magnificent mountains. Road sign via www.shutterstock.com

All Americans are lucky to live in a country brimming with public resources that everyone can share.

Many are provided by government and funded with our tax dollars, such as the highways that crisscross the country, the 84 million acres of...

Introducing 'Operator 4.0,' a tech-augmented human worker

Written by Thorsten Wuest, Assistant Professor & J. Wayne and Kathy Richards Faculty Fellow in Engineering, West Virginia University

Technology can help workers in many ways.Romero, Stahre, Wuest, et al., CC BY-ND

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has arrived. The first was the steam engine-driven Industrial Revolution; the second involved the innovations from Henry Ford’s assembly line. Third, microelectronics and computer power appeared on factory floors. Now,...

Now who will push ahead on validating forensic science disciplines?

Written by Suzanne Bell, Professor of Chemistry and Forensic and Investigative Science, West Virginia University

When lawyers submit forensic evidence in court, is there legit science to back it up?AP Photo/Pat Sullivan

Science and the law are not natural partners. Science seeks to advance our understanding of the natural world. The law is tasked with ensuring public safety and making sure justice is properly served. Over time, science became another tool...

Will Trump's global family planning cuts cause side effects?

Written by Rachel Sullivan Robinson, Associate Professor, American University School of International Service

Actress and U.N. Population Fund Goodwill Ambassador Ashley Judd visited a refugee camp in Mafraq, Jordan in 2016. AP Photo/Raad Adayleh

President Donald Trump is leading an assault on family planning around the world.

Most recently, his administration cut off U.S. contributions to the United Nations Population Fund, which provides and funds...

Medieval medical books could hold the recipe for new antibiotics

Written by Erin Connelly, CLIR-Mellon Fellow for Data Curation in Medieval Studies, University of Pennsylvania

A recipe for an eyesalve from 'Bald's Leechbook.'© The British Library Board (Royal MS 12 D xvii)

For a long time, medieval medicine has been dismissed as irrelevant. This time period is popularly referred to as the “Dark Ages,” which erroneously suggests that it was unenlightened by science or reason. However, some medievalists...

The three ‘B's’ of cybersecurity for small businesses

Written by Scott Shackelford, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics; Director, Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance; Cybersecurity Program Chair, IU-Bloomington, Indiana University

Small outfits need cyberprotection too.kirill_makarov via shutterstock.com

Large-scale cyberattacks with eye-watering statistics, like the breach of a billion Yahoo accounts in 2016, grab most of the headlines. But what often gets lost in the noise is how often small and medium-sized organizations find themselves under attack.

In the last year, half...

Why can't cats resist thinking inside the box?

Written by Nicholas Dodman, Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Pharmacology and Animal Behavior, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University

Next best thing to a hidey-hole box?Maggie Villiger, CC BY-ND

Twitter’s been on fire with people amazed by cats that seem compelled to park themselves in squares of tape marked out on the floor. These felines appear powerless to resist the call of the #CatSquare.

This social media fascination is a variation on a question I heard over and over...

How will the federal government protect nuclear safety in an anti-regulatory climate?

Written by William J. Kinsella, Professor, Department of Communication, North Carolina State University

Highly radioactive used nuclear fuel stored underwater at Unit 2, Brunswick Nuclear Power Plant, Southport, North Carolina.NRC/Flickr, CC BY

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have undertaken a wide-ranging effort to shrink the federal government’s regulatory footprint. Much attention has focused on high-profile targets,...

Who are the Coptic Christians?

Written by Paul Rowe, Professor and Coordinator of Political and International Studies, Trinity Western University

On Palm Sunday, April 9, the Islamic State targeted two Coptic churches in coordinated bombings in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria. The explosions killed dozens of Egyptians and injured many more in the worst of a number of such attacks that have taken place in the last decade.

The interrelated challenges of violence, economics and...

What's behind TV bingeing's bad rap?

Written by Elizabeth Cohen, Assistant Professor of Communication, West Virginia University

Get immersed enough in a good show, and you'll enter a 'flow state.''Screen' via www.shutterstock.com

Call it Netflix’s spring binge.

At the end of March, Netflix released the critically acclaimed “13 Reasons Why.” April features new shows “Girl Boss” and “Bill Nye Saves the World,” while May’s lineup...