The Conversation

A year into the pandemic, the coronavirus is messing with our minds as well as our bodies

Written by Athena Aktipis, Associate Professor of Psychology, Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University

It's not a stretch to say asymptomatic spreaders unwittingly engage in zombielike behaviors. gremlin via Getty Images

COVID-19 has hijacked people’s lives, families and work. And, it has hijacked their bodies and minds in ways that they may not even be aware of.

As we see it, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a sort of zombie...

Economists: Biden's $1,400 COVID-19 checks may be great politics, but it's questionable economics

Written by Robert H. Scott III, Professor of Economics & Finance, Monmouth University

Most people used the first coronavirus check to pad their savings or pay down debt. AP Photo/Eric Gay

The US$1,400 direct checks to people are the most expensive and perhaps most popular part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package racing its way through Congress right now.

President Joe Biden is expected to soon sign the bill after the Hou...

States drop COVID-19 mask mandates but still expect people to mask up – will they?

Written by Murray J. Côté, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management, Texas A&M University

Texas' announced it is ending its COVID-19 restrictions. Its vaccination rate is among the lowest in the U.S., and its case numbers are still high.Montinique Monroe/Getty Images

The governors of Texas and Mississippi announced that they were rescinding their statewide mask mandates and allowing restaurants and other businesses to return to 100%...

Women in Afghanistan worry peace accord with Taliban extremists could cost them hard-won rights

Written by Mona Tajali, Assistant Professor in IR and WGSS, Agnes Scott College

Audience members listen to Afghan parliamentarian Fawzia Koofi speak in 2014. Women's access to politics increased greatly after the Taliban's 2001 ouster.Sha Marai/AFP via Getty Images

Three Afghan women who worked at a media company were gunned down in Jalalabad in early March. In January, unidentified gunmen killed two female Supreme Court...

10 years after Fukushima, safety is still nuclear power's greatest challenge

Written by Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo

An International Atomic Energy Agency investigator examines Reactor Unit 3 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, May 27, 2011.Greg Webb, IAEA/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Ten years ago, on March 11, 2011, the biggest recorded earthquake in Japanese history hit the country’s northeast coast. It was followed by a tsunami that traveled up to 6 miles (10...

The oil industry says it might support a carbon tax – here's why that could be good for producers and the public alike

Written by Richard Schmalensee, Professor Emeritus, Member of National Bureau of Economic Research Board of Directors, MIT Sloan School of Management

Regulations have an accountability problem.AP Photo/Gregory Bull

The oil industry’s lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute, suggested in a new draft statement that it might support Congress putting a price on carbon emissions to combat climate change, even though oil and gas are major sources of those greenhouse gas emissions.

An...

Backlash against Johnson Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine is real and risky – here's how to make its rollout a success

Written by Tinglong Dai, Associate Professor of Operations Management & Business Analytics, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing

The concern is about more than one shot vs. two.Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

More than 50 million Americans have received at least one dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. So far, Americans have been largely brand-agnostic, but that’s about to change as a new vaccine rolls out.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been hailed...

Support for QAnon is hard to measure – and polls may overestimate it

Written by James Shanahan, Dean of the Media School, Indiana University

It's not clear exactly how many people believe or follow QAnon.AP Photo/Matt Rourke

It’s hard to know how many people actually believe the key tenets of QAnon’s claims, including that devil-worshipping, cannibalistic pedophiles are somehow running the world. Its adherents have caused violence and insurrection, as happened at the U.S....

Support for Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package may not be as broad as it seems – it's all a matter of perspective

Written by Aaron Saiewitz, Associate Professor of Accounting, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Government spending bills that cost billions or trillions of dollars can seem abstract.Siri Stafford/DigitalVision via Getty Images

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Congress is on the verge of spending US$1.9 trillion to provide additional coronavirus relief to Americans, including $1,400 direct payments and extended unemployment benefits. Opinion polls show the bill...

Women used to dominate the beer industry – until the witch accusations started pouring in

Written by Laken Brooks, Doctoral Student of English, University of Florida

Three women dressed in Middle-Age period garb as alewives.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images

What do witches have to do with your favorite beer?

When I pose this question to students in my American literature and culture classes, I receive stunned silence or nervous laughs. The Sanderson sisters didn’t chug down bottles of Sam...