The Conversation

Labeling dissent as terrorism: New US domestic terrorism priorities raise constitutional alarms

Written by Melinda Haas, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh

A new Trump administration policy threatens to undermine foundational American commitments to free speech and association.D-Keine, Getty Images

A largely overlooked directive issued by the Trump administration marks a major shift in U.S. counterterrorism policy, one that threatens bedrock free speech rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

National...

Empathy and reasoning aren’t rivals – new research shows they work together to drive people to help more

Written by Kyle Fiore Law, Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Sustainability, Arizona State University

What motivates people to donate their time or money to make the world better?Alistair Berg/DigitalVision via Getty Images

For years, philosophers and psychologists have debated whether empathy helps or hinders the ways people decide how to help others. Critics of empathy argue that it makes people care too narrowly – focusing on individual...

Flat Earth, spirits and conspiracy theories – experience can shape even extraordinary beliefs

Written by Eli Elster, Doctoral Candidate in Evolutionary Anthropology, University of California, Davis

A belief in ghosts could be a way to explain a strange experience while asleep.'The Nightmare' by Johann Heinrich Füssli/Wikimedia Commons

On Feb. 22, 2020, “Mad” Mike Hughes towed a homemade rocket to the Mojave Desert and launched himself into the sky. His goal? To view the flatness of the Earth from space. This was his third...

Planning life after high school isn’t easy – 4 tips to help students and families navigate the process

Written by Shannon Pickett, Professor of Psychology and Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Purdue Global, Purdue University

While many high school students think mostly about four-year college opportunities, some students might be less certain about what is best.iStock/Getty Images Plus

Many high school seniors are now focusing on what they will do once they graduate – or how they don’t at all know what is to come.

Families trying to guide and support these...

Why do family companies even exist? They know how to ‘win without fighting’

Written by Vitaliy Skorodziyevskiy, Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, University of Louisville

When you hear the phrase “family business,” you might think of the backstabbing Roys of “Succession” or the dysfunctional Duttons of “Yellowstone.” But while TV’s family companies are entertaining, their real-life counterparts may be even more compelling.

Around the world, family businesses produce about...

Larry Summers’ sexism is jeopardizing his power and privilege, but the entire economics profession hinders progress for women

Written by Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, Professor of Labor Studies, Rutgers University

Larry Summers attends a prestigious conference in July 2025 in Sun Valley, Idaho.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

House lawmakers released damning correspondence between economist Larry Summers and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Nov. 12, 2025. The exchanges, which were among more than 20,000 newly released public documents, documented...

Sugar starts corroding your teeth within seconds – here’s how to protect your pearly whites from decay

Written by José Lemos, Professor of Oral Biology, University of Florida

Sugar feeds the colonies of bacteria living in your mouth and surrounding your teeth.Andrii Zastrozhnov/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Between Halloween candy, Thanksgiving pies and holiday cookies, the end of the year is often packed with opportunities to consume sugar. But what happens in your mouth during those first minutes and hours after eating...

Google plans to power a new data center with fossil fuels, yet release almost no emissions – here’s how its carbon capture tech works

Written by Ramesh Agarwal, Professor of Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis

Carbon capture and storage projects capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial facilities and power plants and pipe them underground to geological formations.Nopphinan/iStock/Getty Images Plus

As AI data centers spring up across the country, their energy demand and resulting greenhouse gas emissions are raising concerns. With servers and...

High-speed rail moves millions throughout the world every day – but in the US, high cost and low use make its future bumpy

Written by Stephen Mattingly, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington

The Amtrak NextGen Acela is a new high-speed train that runs between Washington, D.C. and Boston.Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

High-speed rail systems are found all over the globe. Japan’s bullet train began operating in 1964. China will have 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) of high-speed track by the end of 2025. The fastest train in Europe...

Ranked choice voting outperforms the winner-take-all system used to elect nearly every US politician

Written by Ismar Volić, Professor of Mathematics, Director of Institute for Mathematics and Democracy, Wellesley College

Ranked choice voting makes use of more information from the voters than plurality voting.stefanamer/Getty Images

American democracy is straining under countless pressures, many of them rooted in structural problems that go back to the nation’s founding. Chief among them is the “pick one” plurality voting system – also called...