The Conversation

Can schools require COVID-19 vaccines for students now that Pfizer's shot is authorized for kids 12 and up?

Written by Kristine Bowman, Professor of Law and Education Policy, Michigan State University

The Food and Drug Administration on May 10, 2021, granted the first emergency use authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents. FG Trade via Getty Images

With the first COVID-19 vaccine now authorized for adolescents, ages 12 and up, a big question looms: Will students be required to get the vaccine before returning to their classrooms in...

COVID-19 upended Americans' sense of individualism and invited us to embrace interconnectedness – an idea from Greek philosopher Epicurus

Written by Kristin Girten, Associate Professor of English, University of Nebraska Omaha

Nothing demonstrates our reliance on each other like a highly contagious disease.Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The ability to lift oneself up by their own bootstraps has long been celebrated in the United States. This admiration of self-reliance derives from the 17th-century English philosopher John Locke, who argued that individuals...

The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and the SolarWinds hack were all but inevitable – why national cyber defense is a 'wicked' problem

Written by Terry Thompson, Adjunct Instructor in Cybersecurity, Johns Hopkins University

Military units like the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade shown here are just one component of U.S. national cyber defense.Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office/Flickr

Takeaways:

· There are no easy solutions to shoring up U.S. national cyber defenses.

· Software supply chains and private sector infrastructure companies are...

US support for waiving COVID-19 vaccine patent rights puts pressure on drugmakers – but what would a waiver actually look like?

Written by Dalindyebo Shabalala, Associate Professor, University of Dayton

A COVID-19 surge has pushed hospitals in India beyond their capacity. A stadium in New Delhi was being used as a makeshift ward on May 2, 2021.Getty Images

The U.S. and Europe are debating waiving patent rights for COVID-19 vaccines, a move that could allow more companies to produce the vaccine around the world. But it’s not as simple as it...

Women-dominated child and home care work is critical infrastructure that has long been devalued

Written by Mignon Duffy, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Many mothers struggled without child care during the pandemic.AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

A fiery debate has erupted over the definition of “infrastructure.”

Does it mean roads, broadband and other physical structures included in the traditional meaning of infrastructure? Or should it have a broader definition that includes other important...

How much sleep do you really need?

Written by Dana McMakin, Associate Professor of Psychology, Florida International University

The need for shut-eye is universal.Justin Lewis/Stone via Getty Images

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Why do I need to sleep for a long time at night? – Sly M., 6, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Just like eating, drinking or...

States pick judges very differently from US Supreme Court appointments

Written by Joshua Holzer, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Westminster College

Political pressure is focusing on the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court.Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

The future of the U.S. Supreme Court is politically fraught.

The court’s partisan balance has long been a hot-button issue, and both Democrats and Republicans can correctly claim that the other party bears at least some blame for the politiciza...

Haitians protest their president in English as well as Creole, indicting US for its role in country's political crisis

Written by Tamanisha John, Ph.D. Candidate of International Relations, Florida International University

Protest signs on the ground before a march on March 28, 2021, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to denounce President Jovenel Moïse's efforts to stay in office past his term.Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP via Getty Images

Haitian protesters on the nation’s streets have a laundry list of reasons they believe President Jovenel Moïse should resign.

They...

DNA 'Lite-Brite' is a promising way to archive data for decades or longer

Written by Will Hughes, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, Boise State University

A simple two-dimensional grid can convey a lot of information – whether making pictures with Lite-Brite or storing data in DNA.Justin Day/Flickr, CC BY-SA

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

We and our colleagues have developed a way to store data using pegs and pegboards made out of DNA and...

Why business school efforts to recruit more diverse faculties are failing

Written by Sonya A. Grier, Professor of Marketing, American University Kogod School of Business

Black and Hispanic business school professors are few in number.nortonrsx/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Despite the increasing diversity among America’s college students, business school professors remain overwhelmingly white.

In U.S. business schools, Black and Hispanic individuals make up 23.2% of students, yet only 6.7% of the faculty.

As a re...