The Conversation

Text messages to parents can help boost children's reading skills

Written by Kalena E. Cortes, Associate Professor of Public Policy, The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University

Sending text-message reminders and tips to parents can help boost their children's reading skills. ESB Professional/www.shutterstock.com

Boosting preschoolers’ literacy can be as simple as sending their parents a few texts – but it’s important not to overdo it.

That was the key finding of a recent study we conducted of a text-messag...

Google News serves conservatives and liberals similar results, but favors mainstream media

Written by Seth Lewis, Shirley Papé Chair in Emerging Media, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon

Hey Google: How's your news?BigTunaOnline/Shutterstock.com

Google News does not deliver different news to users based on their position on the political spectrum, despite accusations from conservative commentators and even President Donald Trump. Rather than contributing to the sort of “echo chamber” problem that critics fear have...

Injecting wastewater underground can cause earthquakes up to 10 kilometers away

Written by Emily Brodsky, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz

Storage site for wastewater from hydraulic fracturing operations just outside Reno, Texas.AP Photo/LM Otero

Earthquakes in the central and eastern United States have increased dramatically in the last decade as a result of human activities. Enhanced oil recovery techniques, including dewatering and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have made...

Who wants to join a union? A growing number of Americans

Written by Thomas Kochan, George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management Professor, Work and Organization Studies Co-Director, MIT Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research, MIT Sloan School of Management

Fighting for a $15 an hour wage in PittsburghAP Photo/Keith Srakocic

Only 10.7 percent of American workers belong to a union today, approximately half as many as in 1983. That’s a level not seen since the 1930s, just before passage of the labor law that was supposed to protect workers’ right to organize.

Yet American workers have not...

Time-restricted eating can overcome the bad effects of faulty genes and unhealthy diet

Written by Satchin Panda, Professor of Regulatory Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Adjunct Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at UCSD, University of California San Diego

sukrit3d/Shutterstock.com

Timing our meals can fend off diseases caused by bad genes or bad diet. Everything in our body is programmed to run on a 24-hour or circadian time table that repeats every day. Nearly a dozen different genes work together to produce this 24-hour circadian cycle. These clocks are present in all of our organs, tissues and...

¿Puede un cristiano apoyar la pena de muerte?

Written by Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy Cross

El Papa Francisco dijo que la pena de muerte no puede ser aprobada porque ‘ataca’ la dignidad inherente de todo ser humano.AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, file

A principios de agosto, el Papa Francisco ha declarado la pena de muerte “inadmisible”. Esto significa que la pena de muerte no debe realizarse bajo ninguna circunstancia...

Cohen plea should focus attention on the failure of the US constitutional system

Written by Chris Edelson, Assistant Professor of Government, American University School of Public Affairs

Michael Cohen’s guilty plea on Aug. 21 has some observers wondering whether Donald Trump’s presidency can survive.

As part of his plea, Cohen stated under oath that Trump directed him to make illegal hush payments intended to influence the 2016 election by hiding stories that could have been damaging to then-candidate Trump....

Meet Haiti's founding father, whose black revolution was too radical for Thomas Jefferson

Written by Julia Gaffield, Assistant Professor of History, Georgia State University

A statue in Port-au-Pirnce honors Jean-Jacques Dessalines' legacy as a Haitian revolutionary. Now, a renamed Brooklyn street does, too.AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery

Crowds cheered as local lawmakers on August 18 unveiled a street sign showing that Rogers Avenue in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn would now be called Jean-Jacques Dessalines Boulevard,...

Math shows how DNA twists, turns and unzips

Written by Mariel Vazquez, Professor of Mathematics, University of California, Davis

DNA knot as seen under the electron microscope.Javier Arsuaga, CC BY-ND

If you’ve ever seen a picture of a DNA molecule, you probably saw it in its famous B-form: two strands coiling around each other in a right-handed fashion to form a double helix. But did you know that DNA can change its shape?

DNA molecules, which carry the genetic code of...

Anorexia more stubborn to treat than previously believed, analysis shows

Written by Stuart Murray, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco

People with anorexia nervosa often see themselves as overweight when in fact they are not. This image depicts a young, thin woman who sees herself as larger than she is.Tatyana Dzemileva/Shutterstock.com

Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric illness that primarily effects young people during their adolescence. While anorexia is relatively uncommon,...