The Conversation

4 reasons the practice of canceling weakens higher education

Written by Mordechai Gordon, Professor of Education, Quinnipiac University

Canceling people can harm democracy.David Malan/Getty Images

Last month, Danny Mamlok, a friend of mine and an Israeli professor from Tel Aviv University, was scheduled to give a talk at Concordia University in Montreal on the topic of education for tolerance. Four days before the presentation was supposed to take place, the organizers of this...

Human brains and fruit fly brains are built similarly – visualizing how helps researchers better understand how both work

Written by Kristin Scaplen, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, Bryant University

Stepping through the brain reveals essential information about its structure and function.Scaplen et al. 2021/eLife, CC BY

The human brain contains approximately 87 billion neurons. On average, each of these cells make thousands of different connections to facilitate communication across the brain. Neural communication is thought to underlie all...

Marijuana tax revenues fall short of projections in many states, including Colorado

Written by Boyoung Seo, Assistant Professor of Business, Indiana University

Nearly half of Americans live in a state that allows legal access to recreational marijuana. Eleven more states, including Wisconsin and Florida, are considering legalization in 2024.

One of the most common rationales for legalizing marijuana is increasing state tax revenue. How much revenue comes in depends on decisions states make about...

Does ‘virtue signaling’ pay off for entrepreneurs? We studied 81,799 Airbnb listings to find out

Written by Jacob A. Waddingham, Assistant Professor of Management, Texas State University

The next time you’re searching through Airbnb listings, you may find there’s more to consider than just amenities and price.

To stand out from the competition, some Airbnb hosts tout their personal values – such as integrity, empathy and conscientiousness – in listings for their properties. This sort of display has been...

From thousands to millions to billions to trillions to quadrillions and beyond: Do numbers ever end?

Written by Manil Suri, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

The number zero was a relatively recent and crucial addition − it allows numbers to extend in both directions forever.pixel_dreams/iStock via Getty Images Plus

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 don’t numbers...

Shadow war no more: Hostilities between Israel and Iran have strayed into direct warfare – is there any going back?

Written by Javed Ali, Associate Professor of Practice of Public Policy, University of Michigan

Israel's air defense system intercepted nearly all missiles fired from Iran on April 13, 2024.AP Photo/Tomer Neuberg

For decades, Iran and Israel have been engaged in a “shadow war.”

Falling short of direct military confrontation, this conflict has been characterized by war through other means – through proxies, cyber attacks, econ...

‘I’m not black, I’m O.J.’: What O.J. Simpson’s life showed about transcending race and being trapped by it

Written by Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami University

O.J. Simpson listens to testimony during his 1995 trial, in which he was acquitted of murder charges. David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

It’s still unclear when – or if – O.J. Simpson actually said the words that rapper Jay-Z attributed to him in his 2017 Grammy-nominated song “The Story of O.J.”

But the words stuck and...

Has the media learned anything since the O.J. Simpson trial?

Written by Frankie Bailey, Professor of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University of New York

O.J. Simpson shows the jury a pair of gloves, similar to those found near the crime scene, during his trial in Los Angeles in 1995.POO/AFP via Getty Images

With the death of O.J. Simpson, I can’t help but wonder whether the media has learned any lessons from its coverage of his trial, in which the ex-football star was acquitted of murdering...

The hidden risk of letting AI decide – losing the skills to choose for ourselves

Written by Joe Árvai, Dana and David Dornsife Professor of Psychology and Director of the Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

As artificial intelligence creeps further into people’s daily lives, so do worries about it. At the most alarmist are concerns about AI going rogue and terminating its human masters.

But behind the calls for a pause on the development of AI is a suite of more tangible social ills. Among them are the risks AI poses to people’s privacy...

The South’s aging water infrastructure is getting pounded by climate change – fixing it is also a struggle

Written by Jonathan Fisk, Associate Professor of Political Science, Auburn University

Workers attempt to repair a water main break in Jackson, Miss.Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Climate change is threatening America’s water infrastructure as intensifying storms deluge communities and droughts dry up freshwater supplies in regions that aren’t prepared.

The severe storms that swept through the South April...