The Conversation

The FDA's big gamble on the new Alzheimer's drug

Written by C. Michael White, Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut

Do the benefits of approving a drug before confirming it works outweigh the potential costs?monkeybusinessimages/iStock via Getty Images Plus

The Food and Drug Administration set off a firestorm of debate when it approved a new drug, aducanumab, for Alzheimer’s disease via an accelerated approval pathway. This decision ignored the...

Here's what I tell teachers about how to teach young students about slavery

Written by Raphael E. Rogers, Associate Professor of Practice, Clark University

U.S. teachers often struggle to depict the realities of slavery in America. Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Nervous. Concerned. Worried. Wary. Unprepared.

This is how middle and high school teachers have told me they have felt over the past few years when it comes to teaching the troublesome topic of slavery.

Although I work with...

Is tax avoidance ethical? Asking on behalf of a few billionaire friends

Written by Erin Bass, Associate Professor of Management, University of Nebraska Omaha

Should America's billionaires be paying more tax?J. Countess/Getty Images, Joe Raedle/Getty Images, Arif Hudaverdi Yaman/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Some of the U.S.‘s wealthiest individuals reportedly pay just a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars added annually to their fortunes in federal income tax – sometimes they pay...

Senator Warren's wealth tax might prevent billionaires from paying nearly nothing in taxes – but it's probably not constitutional

Written by Beverly Moran, Professor Emerita of Law, Vanderbilt University

Jeff Bezos paid no taxes in some years despite gaining billions in wealth.AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

A new report that shows America’s biggest billionaires paid barely any income tax from 2014 to 2018 has revived talk of a wealth tax – such as the one proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

The report from ProPublica – which based its...

535 new fast radio bursts help answer deep questions about the universe and shed light on these mysterious cosmic events

Written by Emmanuel Fonseca, Assistant Professor of Astronomy, West Virginia University

Mysterious blasts of radio waves from across the universe called fast radio bursts are getting more attention from astronomers.ESO/M. Kornmesser, CC BY-SA

On June 9, 2021, my colleagues and I announced the discovery of 535 fast radio bursts that we detected using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment telescope (CHIME). Detected in 2018...

Lack of burial space is changing age-old funeral practices, and in Japan 'tree burials' are gaining in popularity

Written by Natasha Mikles, Lecturer in Philosophy, Texas State University

Many of the tombs in Japan are elaborately decorated. Nearby visitors can buy flowers, buckets. brooms and other gardening tools to tidy up the graves.John S Lander/LightRocket via Getty Images

As the global population continues to grow, space for putting the dead to rest is at a premium. In the U.S., some of the biggest cities are already short on...

COVID-19 messages make emergency alerts just another text in the crowd on your home screen

Written by Elizabeth Ellcessor, Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia

People of a certain age remember radio and television broadcasts interrupted by tests of the Emergency Broadcast System.filo/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

On a spring day in 2020, residents of El Paso, Texas, saw their phones light up with a text message: “Avoid parks/family gatherings this Easter. Stay home, stay safe. Do it for...

How Joe Biden could increase pressure on Vladimir Putin if their June 16 meeting fails to deter Russia's 'harmful' behavior

Written by Scott L. Montgomery, Lecturer, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Your move, Mr. President. AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin

When U.S. President Joe Biden meets with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in June 2021, cybersecurity is certain to be a key topic of discussion.

The U.S. accuses Russia of meddling in American elections and launching repeated cyberattacks, which, among what it called other...

A volcanic eruption 39 million years ago buried a forest in Peru – now the petrified trees are revealing South America's primeval history

Written by Deborah Woodcock, Research Scientist, Clark University

With the evidence uncovered by paleontologists, an artist sketched El Bosque Petrificado Piedra Chamana as it might have looked long before humans.Mariah Slovacek/NPS-GIP

In the hills outside the small village of Sexi, Peru, a fossil forest holds secrets about South America’s past millions of years ago.

When we first visited these petrified...

Protesters marching in Elizabeth City, N.C., over Andrew Brown's killing are walking in the footsteps of centuries of fighters for Black rights

Written by Melissa N. Stuckey, Assistant Professor of History, Elizabeth City State University

A march along historic South Road Street in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, protesting the police shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. AP Photo/Steve Helber

Protests have been taking place in a small North Carolina city for the past two months, sparked by the early morning report on April 21, 2021, that Andrew Brown Jr., a local African American man, had...