The Conversation

Young people are eager to have sex, but will post-pandemic hookups bring happiness or despair?

Written by Nicole K. McNichols, Associate Teaching Professor in Psychology, University of Washington

Anecdotal evidence suggests that young adults are more than eager for sex after long months of socially isolating. filadendren/Getty Images

As an associate teaching professor who teaches a very large human sexuality class at the University of Washington, I benefit from frequent access to young people’s inner thoughts and desires surrounding...

A mix-and-match approach to COVID-19 vaccines could provide logistical and immunological benefits

Written by Maureen Ferran, Associate Professor of Biology, Rochester Institute of Technology

One of this and one of that might be a good strategy to coronavirus vaccination.SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

While it’s now pretty easy to get a COVID-19 shot in most places in the U.S., the vaccine rollout in other parts of the world has been slow or inconsistent due to shortages, uneven access and concerns about safety.

Researcher...

Being a pop star once meant baring skin – now, for artists like Billie Eilish and Demi Lovato, it's all about emotional stripping

Written by Kristin J. Lieb, Associate Professor, Emerson College

Demi Lovato and other pop stars are increasingly opening up about their trauma.Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP Photo

In Billie Eilish’s 2019 video for “Bury A Friend,” the then-17-year-old singer blurs the lines between being in a nightmare and being committed to a psychiatric hospital.

“I want to end me,” she repeats six times...

Millions are rejecting one of humanity's best weapons for saving lives: Vaccines

Written by S. Jay Olshansky, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Illinois at Chicago

Vaccination has saved millions of lives throughout the course of history.Phynart Studio/E+ from Getty Images

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by employees at a Houston hospital who did not want to be vaccinated for COVID-19, claiming that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe. In the June 12, 2021 ruling, U.S. district Judge Lynn Hughes...

Postal banking could provide free accounts to 21 million Americans who don't have access to a credit union or community bank

Written by Terri Friedline, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Michigan

The Postal Service has over 30,000 retail locations in the U.S, including off the Appalachian Trail in Caratunk, Me.AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

About a quarter of census tracts with a post office don’t have a community bank or credit union branch, suggesting postal...

What's a 100-year flood? A hydrologist explains

Written by Robert Mace, Executive Director of the Meadows Center for Water and Environment, Texas State University

A '100-year flood' doesn't mean you'll be flood-free for the next 99 years.Win McNamee/Getty Images

A 100-year flood, like a 100-year storm, is one so severe it has only a 1% chance of hitting in any given year.

Unfortunately, many people believe that if they experienced a 100-year flood this year, they will not see another one like it for 99 years.

I...

What's the charitable deduction? An economist explains

Written by Patrick Rooney, Executive Associate Dean for Academic Programs, Glenn Family Chair, and Professor of Economics and Philanthropic Studies, IUPUI

Donors who itemize their tax returns can get a discount.porcorex/ E+ via Getty Images

The charitable deduction is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in taxable income that lowers what someone owes the Internal Revenue Service. Only donations to tax-exempt charities count.

This giving incentive is available only for the 10% of American taxpayers who...

How Israel's missing constitution deepens divisions between Jews and with Arabs

Written by Brendan Szendro, PhD Candidate, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Without a formal constitution, Israelis disagree on such basic issues as whether Israel is a Jewish state.Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

Renewed fighting has erupted again between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, endangering a ceasefire instituted after an 11-day war in May.

The conflict in Gaza is an early test of Israel’s new...

Nurturing dads raise emotionally intelligent kids – helping make society more respectful and equitable

Written by Kevin Shafer, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Canadian Studies, Brigham Young University

Boys often mirror the habits, interests and values of their own fathers. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

When my oldest son, now nearly 13, was born in July of 2008, I thought I could easily balance my career and my desire to be far more engaged at home than my father and his generation were. I was wrong.

Almost immediately, I...

The first mobile phone call was 75 years ago – what it takes for technologies to go from breakthrough to big time

Written by Daniel Bliss, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University

An engineer demonstrates a car phone five months before the historic first call on a competing company's commercial mobile telephone service in 1946.Bettmann via Getty Images

I have a cellphone built into my watch. People now take this type of technology for granted, but not so long ago it was firmly in the realm of science fiction. The transition...