The Conversation

Blood tests for Alzheimer’s: Two experts on why new studies are encouraging

Written by Todd Golde, Director, Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute Director, 1Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Professor, Department of Neuroscience, College of Medicine University of Florida, University of Florida

Many older people and their families worry about a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.Nadya Chetah/Shutterstock.com

Many people who have problems with their memory, especially if they are elderly, worry that they have Alzheimer’s disease, which afflicts at least 5.5 million people in the U.S. and brings tremendous burdens to families as well....

The US-China trade war: 5 essential reads

Written by Nicole Zelniker, Editorial Researcher, The Conversation

The U.S. has placed tariffs on more than US$250 billion worth of Chinese goods and has threatened tariffs on another $300 billion.

China has retaliated, placing tariffs of their own on billions of dollars worth of U.S. goods, including alcohol, fruit and pork.

Experts call it a trade war.

These five stories from The Conversation archives will help...

How to grow human mini-livers in the lab to help solve liver disease

Written by Alejandro Soto-Gutiérrez, Associate Professor of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh

Obesity is one of the risk factors for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock.com

Creating a human liver in the lab may sound a little like the work of Dr. Frankenstein. But actually, it is far from it. In my lab we’ve figured out how to control the genes and functions of that lab-grown organ and are using this tool to...

Drilling deeper wells is a band-aid solution to US groundwater woes

Written by Debra Perrone, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Micha Berry of the city of Fresno, Calif., which relies heavily on groundwater for its drinking water supply, repairs a groundwater well pump in 2013. AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka

With memories of the wettest U.S. spring on record still fresh, it seems strange to hear that in many parts of the nation, groundwater supplies – the water stored...

Everything in Mecca gets 5 stars — and online reviews of other holy sites are wildly inflated, too

Written by Tom van Laer, Associate Professor of Narratology, University of Sydney

Like any other travelers, Muslim pilgrims review their hajj trips on sites like TripAdvisor — usually with extreme enthusiasm.AP Photo/Khalil Hamra

For the millions of Muslims preparing to gather in Saudi Arabia on Aug. 9 for the hajj, an obligatory pilgrimage to the Grand Mosque in Mecca, planning is a major part of the process.

Back in...

The facts on the US children and teens killed by firearms

Written by Marc A Zimmerman, Professor of Public Health, University of Michigan

Injuries from firearms are a leading cause of death for American children and teens.Whytock/Shutterstock.com

Injury is the leading cause of death for U.S. children and adolescents, accounting for over 60% of all deaths in this group.

Many of these deaths occur during fun, everyday activities, like swimming in the backyard pool or during a family car...

The 'warspeak' permeating everyday language puts us all in the trenches

Written by Robert Myers, Professor of Anthropology & Public Health, Alfred University

It's a linguistic battlefield out there.Complot/Shutterstock.com

In a manifesto posted online shortly before he went on to massacre 22 people at an El Paso Walmart, Patrick Crusius cited the “invasion” of Texas by Hispanics. In doing so, he echoed President Trump’s rhetoric of an illegal immigrant “invasion.”

Think...

Guns and mental illness: A psychiatrist explains the complexities

Written by Arash Javanbakht, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University

Pres. Trump speaking on Aug. 5, 2019 about the mass shootings in El Paso, Tex. and Dayton, Ohio.Evan Vucci/AP Photo

President Donald Trump called for reform of mental health laws on the heels of two deadly shootings that claimed the lives of at least 31 people and left a grief-stricken country in disbelief.

The president, saying that “hatred...

From across the globe to El Paso, changes in the language of the far-right explain its current violence

Written by Arie Perliger, Director of Security Studies and Professor, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Law enforcement officers walking to the scene of a shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019. AP/Rudy Gutierrez

The recent shooting attack in which a young white man is accused of killing 22 people in a Walmart in El Paso fits a new trend among perpetrators of far-right violence: They want the world to know why they...

Space travel might fry your brain, causing permanent learning and memory problems

Written by Janet E. Baulch, Project Scientist in Radiation Oncology, University of California, Irvine

Outside Earth's protective atmosphere, there is nothing to shield astronauts from the dangerous cosmic radiation of space. NASA

During the course of a deep space mission, astronauts are routinely in various degrees of peril. Depending on which Hollywood sci-fi thrillers you choose, these intrepid explorers are at the mercy of malicious aliens,...