The Conversation

'Frugal design' brings medical innovations to communities that lack resources during the pandemic

Written by Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Professor of Bioengineering, Rice University

Maker spaces give engineers and designers the tools to build low-cost medical equipment using locally available materials.Brandon Martin, Rice University, CC BY-NC-ND

Dr. Msandeni Chiume Kayuni found herself in the middle of a supply crisis as COVID-19 spread to Africa in April 2020. As head of Pediatrics at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe,...

What's at stake in Amazon's Bessemer, Alabama, union vote: 5 questions answered

Written by Raymond Hogler, Professor of Management, Colorado State University

Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, are hoping to become the retailer's first unionized employees in the U.S.AP Photo/Jay Reeves

Several thousand Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, are currently voting on whether to form the retailer’s first-ever union. The election has been contentious, with workers complaining that Amazon is using...

Africa's 2 elephant species are both endangered, due to poaching and habitat loss

Written by George Wittemyer, Associate professor of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University

An African forest elephant (_Loxodonta cyclotis_) in Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Republic of the Congo.Nicolas Deloche/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

CC BY-ND

Humans have been over-exploiting African elephants for centuries. More than 2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire’s demand for ivory led to the extinction of genetically...

Two stereotypes that diminish the humanity of the Atlanta shooting victims – and all Asian Americans

Written by Angie Chuang, Associate Professor of Journalism, University of Colorado Boulder

A rally against violence toward Asian Americans, after the March 16 attack in Atlanta, Georgia, that killed eight people, including six Chinese and Korean women. Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Since the Atlanta spa shootings, the U.S. media has been working harder than usual to describe and understand Asian Americans.

Asian Americans represent a...

¿Por qué estar en casa y no en cafés y bares está 'desgastando' nuestra creatividad?

Written by Korydon Smith, Professor of Architecture and Co-Founder of Global Health Equity, University at Buffalo

Cada breve encuentro social planta una pequeña semilla que puede convertirse en una nueva idea o inspiración.Hulton Archive/Stringer via Getty Images

Si bien la pandemia ha provocado que miles de pequeñas empresas cierren temporalmente o para siempre, la desaparición de la cafetería de la esquina significa...

Ending testing for New York City's gifted program may be another blow to Black and Latino students

Written by Joni Lakin, Associate Professor of Educational Studies, University of Alabama

New York City public school students attend a meeting with school board officials in January 2020.Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

After years of relying on a single controversial test at age 4 for admission to their gifted programs, New York City schools are about to embark upon a new way to identify gifted students.

The city’s...

Montenegro was a success story in troubled Balkan region – now its democracy is in danger

Written by Marc L. Greenberg, Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures, University of Kansas

Celebrating Montenegrin independence on May 21, 2006. Diminar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images

Tiny Montenegro has long been different from its neighbors in the former Yugoslavia.

After a decade of bloody civil wars that included ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide, Yugoslavia in the 1990s split violently along ethnic lines into six different...

Service dogs can help veterans with PTSD – growing evidence shows they may reduce anxiety in practical ways

Written by Leanne Nieforth, Ph.D. Student, Purdue University

Training for service dogs starts very early.AP Photo/Allen G. Breed

As many as 1 in 5 of the roughly 2.7 million Americans deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.

PTSD, a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening traumatic event, is a...

Mass shootings leave emotional and mental scars on survivors, first responders and millions of others

Written by Arash Javanbakht, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University

Police officers after the March 22 deadly shootings in Boulder, Colorado. AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post

The deadly shootings of eight people in Atlanta on March 16 and 10 people in Boulder, Colorado, on March 22 brought heartache and grief to the families and friends of the victims.

These events also take a toll on others, including those who...

Domestic air travel does not appear to have been an important vector for the spread of COVID-19 in the US, study suggests

Written by Jeff Prince, Professor and Chair of Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana University

Passengers board a plane in New York City on May 3, 2020. Air travel from such hot spots did not lead to surges to other cities, a study suggests.Eleonore Sens/AFP via Getty Images)

Fear of flying and catching COVID-19 led to a massive decline in air travel in 2020. But an interesting question emerges: How much did air travel contribute to the...