The Conversation

Achieving COVID-19 herd immunity through infection is dangerous, deadly and might not even work

Written by Steven Albert, Professor and Chair of Behavioral and Community Health, University of Pittsburgh

Under relaxed public health restrictions, deaths will spike far before herd immunity is achieved.AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

White House advisers have made the case recently for a “natural” approach to herd immunity as a way to reduce the need for public health measures to control the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic while still keeping people safe. This...

Scientists at work: Sloshing through marshes to see how birds survive hurricanes

Written by Scott Rush, Assistant Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management, Mississippi State University

A clapper rail with a fiddler crab in its bill.Michael Gray, CC BY-ND

When storms like Huricane Zeta menace the Gulf Coast, residents know the drill: Board up windows, clear storm drains, gas up the car and stock up on water, batteries and canned goods.

But how does wildlife ride out a hurricane? Animals that live along coastlines have evolved to...

Americans living and serving overseas could tilt the 2020 election – if only they voted

Written by Monica Duffy Toft, Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Military voters can register to vote using their permanent U.S. address or, in some states, their parents' address.Official Army Photo/Dustin Senger

U.S. citizens who live abroad are a largely untapped voter pool big enough to decide the presidency.

In the 2000 contested presidential election, Republican candidate George W. Bush’s campaign...

No, President Trump, suburbia is no longer all white — and Black suburbanites are more politically active than their neighbors

Written by Ernest B. McGowen III, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond

Trump's view of suburbia reflects a 1950s exclusively white place.Debrocke/ClassicStock/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has tweeted up a storm about how his Democratic challenger Joe Biden wants to “abolish suburbs” and institute programs that would bring impoverished criminals into the suburbs, where they will destroy the “sub...

Where’s the sea ice? 3 reasons the Arctic freeze is unseasonably late and why it matters

Written by Mark Serreze, Research Professor of Geography and Director, National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado Boulder

Arctic sea ice levels have been falling for several decades.GraphicaArtis/Getty Images

With the setting of the sun and the onset of polar darkness, the Arctic Ocean would normally be crusted with sea ice along the Siberian coast by now. But this year, the water is still open.

I’ve watched the region’s transformations since the 1980s as...

An Italian teen is set to become the first millennial saint, but canonizing children is nothing new in the Catholic Church

Written by Joanne M. Pierce, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross

The ceremony for the beatification of Carlo Acutis, an Italian boy who died in 2006 of leukemia, is held Oct. 10 in front of the St. Francis Basilica in Assisi, Italy.AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia

On Oct. 10, 2020, a young Italian named Carlo Acutis was beatified at a special Mass in the city of Assisi, putting the late teenager just one step away from...

Refugees don't undermine the US economy – they energize it

Written by Ramya Vijaya, Professor of Economics, Stockton University

Demonstrators at Philadelphia International Airport protest President Trump's executive order clamping down on refugee admissions on Jan. 29, 2017.Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images

The Trump administration last month announced plans to to cut the number of refugees allowed to enter the United States to the lowest level in 40 years. This year’s...

Fox News viewers write about 'BLM' the same way CNN viewers write about 'KKK'

Written by Mark Kamlet, University Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Talking politics increasingly seems like an exercise in talking past one another.GeorgePeters/Getty Images

It’s no secret that U.S. politics has become highly polarized.

Even so, there are probably few living Americans who ever witnessed anything that quite compares with this fall’s first presidential debate.

Was it really the case...

Trump's ultra-low tax bills are what happens when government tries to make policy through the tax code

Written by Gary Winslett, Assistant Professor, Middlebury

The tax code can feel like a labyrinth. Marcel Germain/Moment via Getty Images

People tend to have one of two reactions to the revelation that President Donald Trump has paid little to no taxes in recent years: He’s either an amoral tax cheat or he’s smart.

To me, it reveals just how much is wrong with the U.S. tax code, which...

3 things I learned from teaching students about horror pioneer George Romero's movies during these scary times

Written by Carl Kurlander, Senior Lecturer, University of Pittsburgh

Filmmaker George Romero at the premiere of 'Survival of the Dead' in 2010. Ben Hider/Getty Images

I’m no fan of horror movies. At least I wasn’t until I moved from Hollywood back to my hometown of Pittsburgh, where I met the legendary independent filmmaker George Romero, best known as the inventor of the modern-day zombie and movies...