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The Conversation

A new platform lets you buy shares of blue-chip paintings – but is art a wise investment?

  • Written by Kathryn Graddy, Dean, Brandeis International Business School and Fred and Rita Richman Distinguished Professor in Economics, Brandeis University
imageFor as little as $20, you can now own a tiny piece of a valuable work of art.Yasuko Inoue/iStock via Getty Images

In the fall of 2018, a Banksy work, “Love is in the Bin,” sold for US$1.4 million.

Now the original buyer has put the work up for sale, and it’s expected to fetch over $5 million – that would amount to a return of...

Read more: A new platform lets you buy shares of blue-chip paintings – but is art a wise investment?

Apple's plan to scan your phone raises the stakes on a key question: Can you trust Big Tech?

  • Written by Laurin Weissinger, Lecturer in Cybersecurity, Tufts University
imageApple has developed the means to scan images on your phone. Can you trust the company to protect your privacy?Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Apple’s plan to scan customers’ phones and other devices for images depicting child sexual abuse generated a backlash over privacy concerns, which led the company to announc...

Read more: Apple's plan to scan your phone raises the stakes on a key question: Can you trust Big Tech?

Perilous situation for Afghan allies left behind shows a refugee system that's not up to the job

  • Written by Shelley Inglis, Executive Director, University of Dayton Human Rights Center, University of Dayton
imageHundreds of people who want to flee the country gathered outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021AP photo

President Joe Biden has hailed the end of the U.S. engagement in Afghanistan as a historic achievement, with 120,000 people evacuated by air. Behind the widely viewed scenes of chaos at the Hamid Karzai...

Read more: Perilous situation for Afghan allies left behind shows a refugee system that's not up to the job

Food production generates more than a third of manmade greenhouse gas emissions – a new framework tells us how much comes from crops, countries and regions

  • Written by Xiaoming Xu, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
imageA farmer walks through a rice paddy in India's northeastern state of Assam. Buu Boro /AFP via Getty Images

Producing enough food for a growing world population is an urgent global challenge. And it’s complicated by the fact that climate change is warming the Earth and making farming harder in many places.

Food production is a big contributor...

Read more: Food production generates more than a third of manmade greenhouse gas emissions – a new framework...

Black, Hispanic and Asian American donors give more to social and racial justice causes as well as strangers in need – new survey

  • Written by Wendy Chen, Assistant Professor of Public Administration, Texas Tech University
imagePeople of color tend to give differently than white donors.FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images

More than a year after protesters around the world responded to the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and other people of color, U.S. donors of all backgrounds are still responding to calls for an end to deep-rooted racial inequities.

T...

Read more: Black, Hispanic and Asian American donors give more to social and racial justice causes as well as...

Who are the Hazara of Afghanistan? An expert on Islam explains

  • Written by Iqbal Akhtar, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Florida International University
imageThe Hazara have long been targeted in Afghanistan, and many fear violence will intensify with the Taliban in power.Dimitris Lampropoulos/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The land we now call Afghanistan has been a place of constant migration through its mountainous passes. Its linguistic, cultural and religious diversity is a result of millennia of trade...

Read more: Who are the Hazara of Afghanistan? An expert on Islam explains

What happens when your foot falls asleep?

  • Written by Zachary Gillen, Assistant Professor of Exercise Physiology, Mississippi State University
imageThat pins-and-needles feeling can come from sitting in the same position for a while.Westend61 via Getty Imagesimage

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.

What happens when your foot falls asleep? – Helen E., age 8, Somerville,...

Read more: What happens when your foot falls asleep?

6 big changes in standardized tests – including less focus on grading students and more on learning

  • Written by Stephen Sireci, Professor of Psychometrics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
imageToday's tests have more potential to facilitate student learning, rather than just monitor it.Paul Bersebach/Orange County Register via Getty Images

The standardized tests given to children in schools today are a lot different from those their parents might remember.

For example, students today might take a standardized test at home on a laptop or...

Read more: 6 big changes in standardized tests – including less focus on grading students and more on learning

Western fires are burning higher in the mountains and at unprecedented rates as the climate warms

  • Written by Mojtaba Sadegh, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, Boise State University
imageHeat and dryness are leaving high mountain areas more vulnerable to forest fires. David McNew/Getty Images

The Western U.S. is experiencing another severe fire season, and a recent study shows that even high mountain areas once considered too wet to burn are at increasing risk as the climate warms.

With more than 5 million acres already burned by...

Read more: Western fires are burning higher in the mountains and at unprecedented rates as the climate warms

Jim Crow tactics reborn in Texas abortion law, deputizing citizens to enforce legally suspect provisions

  • Written by Stefanie Lindquist, Foundation Professor of Law and Political Science, Arizona State University
imageTexas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that effectively bans abortion in the state. AP Photo/Eric Gay

The new Texas law that bans most abortions uses a method employed by Texas and other states to enforce racist Jim Crow laws in the 19th and 20th centuries that aimed to disenfranchise African Americans.

Rather than giving state officials,...

Read more: Jim Crow tactics reborn in Texas abortion law, deputizing citizens to enforce legally suspect...

More Articles ...

  1. 'Imagine' at 50: Why John Lennon's ode to humanism still resonates
  2. Biden's pandemic plan overlooks mask mandates and vulnerable populations
  3. Over-the-counter rapid antigen tests can help slow the spread of COVID-19 -- here's how to use them effectively
  4. How 'engagement' makes you vulnerable to manipulation and misinformation on social media
  5. How 'sissy men' became the latest front in China’s campaign against big tech
  6. American Muslims are at high risk of suicide -- 20 years post-9/11, the links between Islamophobia and suicide remain unexplored
  7. 9/11 survivors' exposure to toxic dust and the chronic health conditions that followed offer lessons that are still too often unheeded
  8. How bans on mask mandates affect students with disabilities – 4 questions answered
  9. Biden's proposed tenfold increase in solar power would remake the US electricity system
  10. California recall: There's a method to what looks like madness
  11. SpaceX Inspiration4 mission will send 4 people with minimal training into orbit – and bring space tourism closer to reality
  12. Student loan debt is crushing Americans – 4 essential reads
  13. SpaceX Inspiration4 mission sent 4 people with minimal training into orbit – and brought space tourism closer to reality
  14. Firebrands: How to protect your home from wildfires' windblown flaming debris
  15. 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic – a retrospective in 7 charts
  16. Firebrands and protecting homes from wildfires: What everyone needs to know about flaming windblown debris
  17. Massive numbers of new COVID–19 infections, not vaccines, are the main driver of new coronavirus variants
  18. For engineers, asking for help at work is influenced by gender
  19. Minerals, drugs and China: How the Taliban might finance their new Afghan government
  20. How social media – aided by bots – amplifies Islamophobia online
  21. Buying groceries isn't a problem just for the poor – middle-class millennials like me with student debt have trouble too
  22. How to design a public play space where kids practice reading and STEM skills
  23. On 50th anniversary of Attica uprising, 4 essential reads on prisoners' rights today
  24. ¿Por qué se fortaleció la tormenta Ida en el Noreste tan rápido después de haberse debilitado?
  25. Government and charitable actions likely kept millions of Americans out of food insecurity during the pandemic
  26. Black Lives Matter: How far has the movement come?
  27. Packaging generates a lot of waste – now Maine and Oregon want manufacturers to foot the bill for getting rid of it
  28. What schools teach about 9/11 and the war on terror
  29. The science of product placements – and why some work better than others
  30. Data science education lacks a much-needed focus on ethics
  31. How threats of hellfire helped keep 'immodest' women in their place – from the ancient world to 'My Unorthodox Life'
  32. Who is Mullah Hasan Akhund? What does the Taliban's choice of interim prime minister mean for Afghanistan?
  33. Wildfire burn scars can intensify and even create thunderstorms that lead to catastrophic flooding – here's how it works
  34. How someone becomes a torturer
  35. Wildfire burn scars can intensify and even trigger thunderstorms, leading to catastrophic flooding – here's how
  36. Removing urban highways can improve neighborhoods blighted by decades of racist policies
  37. Why are planets round?
  38. Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot raises serious concerns – but probably not the ones you think
  39. Women face motherhood penalty in STEM careers long before they actually become mothers
  40. Netflix’s 'My Unorthodox Life' spurred ultra-Orthodox Jewish women to talk publicly about their lives
  41. When does life begin? There’s more than one religious view
  42. Medicine is an imperfect science – but you can still trust its process
  43. What young kids say worked -- and didn't work -- for them during virtual learning
  44. The women who appear in Dante's 'Divine Comedy' are finally getting their due, 700 years later
  45. The next attack on the Affordable Care Act may cost you free preventive health care
  46. Pandemic hardship is about to get a lot worse for millions of out-of-work Americans
  47. Can burying power lines protect storm-wracked electric grids? Not always
  48. At the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, ancient Greece and Rome can tell us a lot about the links between collective trauma and going to war
  49. How memories of Japanese American imprisonment during WWII guided the US response to 9/11
  50. Tattoos have a long history going back to the ancient world – and also to colonialism