The Conversation

Maryam Mirzakhani was a role model for more than just her mathematics

Written by Mehrdokht Pournader, Lecturer in Operations Management and Organizational Behavior, Macquarie Graduate School of Management

On July 14, Maryam Mirzakhani, Stanford professor of mathematics and the only female winner of the prestigious Fields Medal in Mathematics, died at the age of 40.

In just a few hours, her name, both in her native Farsi (#مریم میرزاخانی) and English (#maryammirzakhani),...

Why police reforms rarely succeed: Lessons from Latin America

Written by Yanilda González, Assistant Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago

Riot police in Buenos Aires, Argentina.AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano

President Donald Trump’s appointment of Attorney General Jeff Sessions has led people to speculate about the fate of recent police reform efforts.

Early into his tenure, Sessions said he intended to “pull back on” the Justice Department’s investigations of...

Digital database captures voices from inside America's prisons

Written by Doran Larson, Wolcott-Bartlett Professor of Literature & Creative Writing; Director of the Program in Jurisprudence, Law, and Justice Studies, Hamilton College

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced a return to a pre-Obama policy of seeking maximum penalties for all drug crimes, including low-level, nonviolent offenses. Criticism from politicians, criminologists, lawyers and others was swift and unambiguous.

Based on a discredited belief in a zero-sum relationship between crime and...

Women still carry most of the world's water

Written by Bethany Caruso, Postdoctoral (FIRST) Fellow, Department of Environmental Health, Emory University

Ethiopian girls carrying water.Waterdotorg, CC BY-NC-SA

Imagine going through your day without access to clean, safe water in your home for drinking, cooking, washing or bathing whenever you need it. According to a new report from UNICEF and the World Health Organization, 2.1 billion people around the world face that challenge every day. And the...

As academic hospitals lower mortality rates, should insurers reconsider excluding them?

Written by Marschall Runge, Dean, School of Medicine, University of Michigan

Health care personnel in all hospitals work hard to provide first-rate care, but academic hospitals carry an added responsibility. Some have questioned whether that dilutes clinical care. gpointstudios/Shutterstock.com

A comprehensive new study has found that major teaching hospitals in the United States outperformed non-teaching hospitals in the...

Hinduism and its complicated history with cows (and people who eat them)

Written by Wendy Doniger, Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago

Are cows sacred to all Hindus?PRODaniel Incandela, CC BY-NC

Just this past June, at a national meeting of various Hindu organizations in India, a popular preacher, Sadhvi Saraswati, suggested that those who consumed beef should be publicly hanged. Later, at the same conclave, an animal rights activist, Chetan Sharma, said,

“Cow is also the...

Why do human beings speak so many languages?

Written by Michael Gavin, Associate Professor of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University

People currently speak 7,000 languages around the globe.Michael Gavin, CC BY-ND

The thatched roof held back the sun’s rays, but it could not keep the tropical heat at bay. As everyone at the research workshop headed outside for a break, small groups splintered off to gather in the shade of coconut trees and enjoy a breeze. I wandered from...

Is America's digital leadership on the wane?

Written by Bhaskar Chakravorti, Senior Associate Dean, International Business & Finance, Tufts University

Is America's digital economy facing a stormy future?Filipe Frazao/Shutterstock.com

American leadership in technology innovation and economic competitiveness is at risk if U.S. policymakers don’t take crucial steps to protect the country’s digital future. The country that gave the world the internet and the very concept of the disruptive...

What an artificial intelligence researcher fears about AI

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

Will the robots come to control us?Peshkova

As an artificial intelligence researcher, I often come across the idea that many people are afraid of what AI might bring. It’s perhaps unsurprising, given both history and the entertainment industry, that we might be afraid of a cybernetic takeover that forces us to live locked away,...

EU's antitrust 'war' on Google and Facebook uses abandoned American playbook

Written by Ramsi Woodcock, Professor of Legal Studies, Georgia State University

European Union Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager has followed an antitrust enforcement strategy pioneered in the U.S.AP Photo/Virginia Mayo

The casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that European antitrust regulators have declared war on American tech giants.

On June 27, the European Union imposed a €2.4 billion (US$2.75...