The Conversation

How a disgruntled scientist looking to prove his food wasn't fresh discovered radioactive tracers and won a Nobel Prize 80 years ago

Written by Artemis Spyrou, Professor of Nuclear Physics, Michigan State University

George De Hevesy working in his lab at Stockholm University in 1944. Keystone Features/Hulton Archive via Getty Images

Each October, the Nobel Prizes celebrate a handful of groundbreaking scientific achievements. And while many of the awarded discoveries revolutionize the field of science, some originate in unconventional places. For George de...

The Green Revolution is a warning, not a blueprint for feeding a hungry planet

Written by Glenn Davis Stone, Research Professor of Environmental Science, Sweet Briar College

A farmer spreads fertilizer in a wheat field outside Amritsar, India.Narinder Nanu/AFP via Getty Images

Feeding a growing world population has been a serious concern for decades, but today there are new causes for alarm. Floods, heat waves and other weather extremes are making agriculture increasingly precarious, especially in the Global South.

The...

Cell death is essential to your health − an immunologist explains when cells decide to die with a bang or take their quiet leave

Written by Zoie Magri, Ph.D. Candidate in Immunology, Tufts University

Programmed cell death such as apoptosis is a common stage of cellular life.Nanoclustering/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Living cells work better than dying cells, right? However, this is not always the case: your cells often sacrifice themselves to keep you healthy. The unsung hero of life is death.

While death may seem passive, an...

China's WeChat is all-encompassing but low-key − a Chinese media scholar explains the Taoist philosophy behind the everything app's design

Written by Jianqing Chen, Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and of Film and Media Studies, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

WeChat aims to be everything to everyone but remain mostly in the background.Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Elon Musk’s vision of Twitter, now rebranded as X, as an “everything app” is no secret. When the X logo replaced Twitter’s blue bird, the internet buzzed with heated discussions about just what it would mean for X to be an...

Making 'movies' at the attosecond scale helps researchers better understand electrons − and could one day lead to super-fast electronics

Written by Niranjan Shivaram, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University

Attosecond light pulses help researchers understand the movement of electrons. Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, CC BY-SA

Electrons moving around in a molecule might not seem like the plot of an interesting movie. But a group of scientists will receive the 2023 Nobel Prize in physics for research that essentially follows the...

LGBTQ+ Americans feel they are just getting by in retirement and face greater financial risks

Written by Marc Cohen, Clinical Professor of Gerontology and Co-Director LeadingAge LTSS Center, UMass Boston

Even financially comfortable LGBTQ+ Americans may find themselves vulnerable to economic shocks.MoMo Productions/DigitalVision via Getty Images

While preparing for retirement can be difficult for anyone, LGBTQ+ Americans face unique challenges that can cast a shadow over their golden years. For example, LGBTQ+ people over age 60 leave the workforce...

Do 'sputnik moments' spur educational reform? A rhetoric scholar weighs in

Written by Mark Hlavacik, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, University of North Texas

The quest for space dominance has long sparked discussions about the quality of American education.Adastra/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Ever since the USSR surprised the United States with the Oct. 4, 1957, launch of the world’s first artificial satellite – Sputnik 1 – U.S. politicians and other public figures have used the...

Death of the Armenian dream in Nagorno-Karabakh was predictable but not inevitable

Written by Ronald Suny, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan

Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh.Middle East Images /AFP via Getty Images)

Thirty-five years ago, more than 100,000 Armenian protesters took to the streets to convince Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that Nagorno-Karabakh – an ethnically Armenian enclave stuck geographically in the neighboring republic of Soviet Azerbaijan – ought to be...

Birds, worms, rabbits: Francis of Assisi was said to have loved them all – but today's pet blessings on his feast day might have seemed strange to the 13th century saint

Written by Mary Dzon, Associate Professor of English, University of Tennessee

Each year, services on St. Francis' feast day draw humans and animals alike to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Each year, if you happen to be in New York around Oct. 4, you may catch sight of something unusual: a whole menagerie of animals being welcomed into the Cathedral of St....

Tenacious curiosity in the lab can lead to a Nobel Prize – mRNA research exemplifies the unpredictable value of basic scientific research

Written by André O. Hudson, Dean of the College of Science, Professor of Biochemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology

Basic research often involves lab work that won't be appreciated until decades down the line.Sebastian Condrea/Moment via Getty Images

The 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine will go to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discovery that modifying mRNA – a form of genetic material your body uses to produce proteins –...