The Conversation

Working with dangerous viruses sounds like trouble – but here's what scientists learn from studying pathogens in secure labs

Written by Jerry Malayer, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education and Professor of Physiological Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, Oklahoma State University

Microbes are everywhere – and they aren't all friendly. spawns/E+ via Getty Images

There are about 1,400 known human pathogens – viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa and helminths that can cause a person’s injury or death. But in a world with a trillion individual species of microorganisms, where scientists have counted only one...

Parking reform could reenergize downtowns – here's what happened when Buffalo changed its zoning rules

Written by Daniel Baldwin Hess, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University at Buffalo

Surface parking in downtown San Jose, California.Sergio Ruiz, SPUR/Flickr, CC BY

For urban planners, parking rules established decades ago have become a contentious 21st-century challenge. Parking takes up about one-third of land area in U.S. cities; nationwide, there are an estimated eight parking spaces for every car.

In 2017 Buffalo, New York,...

Alcohol companies make $17.5 billion a year off of underage drinking, while prevention efforts are starved for cash

Written by David H. Jernigan, Professor of Health Law, Policy & Management, Boston University

New research estimates that underage drinkers consume $2.2 billion of Anheuser-Busch InBev drinks – like Budweiser – per year.AP Photo/Reed Saxon

CC–BY–ND.

Alcohol is still the most commonly used drug among high school students. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year approximately 3,500...

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...