The Conversation

Smoking rates in US have fallen to all-time low, but how did they ever get so high?

Written by Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University

This ad featuring then-actor Ronald Reagan is an example of industry advertising that made smoking so popular.University of California San Francisco Tobacco Archives, CC BY-SA

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls cigarette smoking “the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S., accounting for over 480,000...

Social Security helped slash elderly poverty to 9.2 percent in the 20th century – that triumph is now in jeopardy

Written by David W. Rasmussen, James H. Gapinski Professor of Economics, Florida State University

More elderly people may soon be pinching pennies.docent/Shutterstock.com

In 1959, more than a third of all elderly Americans lived in poverty. Slashing that number to under 10 percent by the late 1990s was among the great U.S. triumphs of the 20th century. Social Security deserves a large share of the credit.

I believe eliminating old-age poverty...

US complicity in the Saudi-led genocide in Yemen spans Obama, Trump administrations

Written by Jeff Bachman, Professorial Lecturer in Human Rights; Director, Ethics, Peace, and Human Rights MA Program, American University School of International Service

A Saudi-led coalition of states has been aggressively bombing Yemen and imposing an air and naval blockade of its ports for more than three years, leading U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to describe Yemen as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”

Guterres put the crisis in stark perspective, emphasizing the near complete...

Climate change is driving wildfires, and not just in California

Written by Jonathan Overpeck, Samual A. Graham Dean, and William B. Stapp Collegiate Professor of Environmental Education, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

Smoke billows from the High Park wildfire west of Fort Collins, Colo., on June 11, 2012, a year of historic drought across much of the western United States.AP Photo/Ed Andrieski

Rains in northern California have helped firefighters contain the Camp Fire, which now ranks as the state’s most deadly wildfire. But unfortunately, all signs point...

When you're grateful, your brain becomes more charitable

Written by Christina Karns, Research Associate in Psychology and the Center for Brain Injury Research and Training; Director of Emotions and Neuroplasticity Project, University of Oregon

Volunteering at a food bank is one way people feel rewarded by giving.AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

‘Tis the season when the conversation shifts to what you’re thankful for. Gathered with family and friends around a holiday feast, for instance, people may recount some of the biggies – like their health or their children – or...

Inspired by sci-fi, an airplane with no moving parts and a blue ionic glow

Written by Steven Barrett, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A time-lapse image showing the plane flying across a gymnasium.Steven Barrett, MIT, CC BY-ND

Since their invention more than 100 years ago, airplanes have been moved through the air by the spinning surfaces of propellers or turbines. But watching science fiction movies like the “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and “Back to the...

La publicidad diseñó el Día de Acción de Gracias tal y como se conoce hoy

Written by Samantha N. N. Cross, Associate Professor of Marketing, Iowa State University

Para las marcas que venden pastel de calabaza, como Borden’s, Snowfrift y Mrs. Smith, el Día de Acción de Gracias es un mercado importante.Jean Beaufort

Siempre he sentido curiosidad por el Día de Acción de Gracias: por las tradiciones, la comida y la idea de un día festivo en Estados Unidos que trata...

Virtual reality tours give rural students a glimpse of college life

Written by Carol Cutler White, Assistant Professor, Community College Leadership, Mississippi State University

Students at Person High School use cardboard goggles to take a virtual tour of University of North Carolina campuses. Person County Schools, Author provided

The first time that Nyah visited the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for a campus tour, there wasn’t much of a chance to see what takes place inside the classrooms.

“We...

The government aims to boost ethanol without evidence that it saves money or helps the environment

Written by André Boehman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Director, W.E. Lay Automotive Laboratory, University of Michigan

A fan of fuel blends that contain as much as 85 percent ethanol.AP Photo/Jim Mone

President Donald Trump has promised his supporters in Iowa that the federal government will take a step that may increase corn ethanol sales.

This plant-derived fuel, which comprises about 10 percent of the 143 billion gallons of gasoline Americans buy each year,...

Why bigotry is a public health problem

Written by Ronald W. Pies, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Lecturer on Bioethics & Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University; and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine, Tufts University

Mourners wait to attend the funeral of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia, Aug. 16, 2017 after Heyer was killed attending a rally to protest white nationalism. Julia Rendleman/AP Photo

Over a decade ago, I wrote a piece for a psychiatric journal entitled “Is Bigotry a Mental Illness?” At the time, some psychiatrists were...