The Conversation

How corruption in forensic science is harming the criminal justice system

Written by Jessica S. Henry, Associate Professor, Department of Justice Studies, Montclair State University

Television crime dramas like “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and its many spin-offs have fostered the popular belief that forensic science, or the use of science to solve crimes, is infallible.

Yet, as forensic scandal after forensic scandal sweeps the nation, a competing truth has emerged. Forensic science is only as reliable as the...

In Haiti, climate aid comes with strings attached

Written by Keston K. Perry, Postdoctoral researcher, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University

Haiti had not yet recovered from its devastating 2010 earthquake when it was hit hard by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. It is one of the world's most vulnerable nations to climate change.AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

Perhaps no people know better than Haitians just how dangerous, destructive and destabilizing climate change can be.

Haiti – which had...

Live cargo: How scientists pack butterflies, frogs and sea turtles for safe travels

Written by Jaret Daniels, Associate Professor of Entomology; Associate Curator and Program Director, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida

Scientists are raising Miami blue butterflies in captivity and reintroducing them in south Florida. Jeff Gage/Florida Museum of Natural History, CC BY-ND

Scientists who work with live organisms often have to move them between locations. This requires knowing what conditions creatures can tolerate well, and also can involve some unusual packing...

3 ways to make your voice heard besides protesting

Written by Kristina Lambright, Associate Dean of the College of Community and Public Affairs, and an Associate Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Destiny Watford and other Baltimore youth leaders derailed plans to build a big incinerator in their neighborhood.The Goldman Environmental Prize, CC BY-NC-ND

More Americans are trying to make their voices heard these days.

Approximately one in five Americans participated in a protest or rally between early 2016 and early 2018, according to a...

Why the Davos elites are still relevant

Written by Christopher Michaelson, Professor of Ethics and Business Law, University of St. Thomas

A police officer stands guard over the global elites who decided to make the trek to Davos this year.AP Photo/Markus Schreiber

Has Davos lost its mojo?

After U.S. President Donald Trump, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and other world leaders nixed plans to attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Switzerland, some began to claim “Davo...

I studied buttons for 7 years and learned these 5 lessons about how and why people push them

Written by Rachel Plotnick, Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, Indiana University

Press here – to do what, exactly?Pornthip Pongpakpatporn/Shutterstock.com

All day every day, throughout the United States, people push buttons – on coffee makers, TV remote controls and even social media posts they “like.” For more than seven years, I’ve been trying to understand why, looking into where buttons came...

University scientists feel the pain of the government shutdown, too

Written by Nicholas Bond, Washington State Climatologist and Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington

Federal and university employees normally work side by side on many big science projects.ITAE, CC BY-ND

I am very fortunate. My work involves research on topics of interest and importance (OK maybe I’m biased) related to the climate and oceanography of the North Pacific, and the weather of the Pacific Northwest.

My primary office is at the...

Are federal workers being forced into involuntary servitude?

Written by Michael H. LeRoy, Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A TSA employee visits a food pantry.AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

Many federal employees are being ordered by the federal government to work without pay until a spending bill is enacted.

Some workers object, arguing that they are being pressured to show up for work with no clear prospect of a payday. Some individuals have sued claiming that this...

There's a wider scandal suggested by the Trump investigations

Written by Ofer Raban, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Oregon

The New York district attorney dropped a financial fraud investigation of Ivanka Trump, left, and her brother, Donald Jr., right.AP/Seth Wenig

The scope of financial crimes unearthed so far by state and federal authorities investigating President Trump and his associates is remarkable.

Paul Manafort was found guilty of bank and tax fraud, and faces...

You can't control what you can't find: Detecting invasive species while they're still scarce

Written by Jake Walsh, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Wisconsin-Madison

There are 130 billion gallons of water in Wisconsin's Lake Mendota, and now, trillions of spiny water fleas.Corey Coyle/Wikimedia, CC BY

Most of the 10,000 ships lost to the bottom of the Great Lakes in wrecks over the past 400 years are still lost – hidden somewhere in 6 quadrillion gallons of water. Finding anything in a lake is a lesson in...