The Conversation

CRISPR can help combat the troubling immune response against gene therapy

Written by Samira Kiani, Associate Professor of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh

Introducing healthy genes to replace defective ones is the essence of gene therapy.KTSFotos/Getty Images

One of the major challenges facing gene therapy - a way to treat disease by replacing a patient’s defective genes with healthy ones - is that it is difficult to safely deliver therapeutic genes to patients without the immune system...

Plants might be able to tell us about the location of dead bodies, helping families find missing people

Written by Neal Stewart, Professor of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee

Can plants signal to us when they are sick or detect radiation?Sebastian Kopp/EyeEm via Getty Images

The notion of plants talking to us about dead people sounds like a bad horror movie. But that’s the theme of a recent scientific paper I co-authored.

Each day, over 160,000 people die in the world. Most people die with family members present...

What the CDC eviction ban means for tenants and landlords: 6 questions answered

Written by Katy Ramsey Mason, Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic, University of Memphis

The CDC order may offer some tenants breathing room.Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Editor’s note: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order on Sept. 1 banning evictions of people who lost work as a result of the pandemic. To benefit, renters must sign a declaration that they don’t make more than US$99,000 a year...

School bus safety during the COVID-19 pandemic: 8 recommendations

Written by Jesse Capecelatro, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan

Mask mandates, open windows and empty seats can help reduce the spread of the coronavirus.AP Photo/Brynn Anderson

Short trips. Masks for everyone. Far fewer passengers than before.

Those are my top recommendations for how America’s school buses should take kids to and from school during the pandemic.

I am a professor of mechanical and aerospace...

Video: How ancient ice cores show ‘black swan’ events in history – even pandemics

Written by Lonnie Thompson, Distinguished University Professor, Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University

Lonnie Thompson and Ellen Mosley-Thompson at The Ohio State University have been studying ice cores from around the world for over 30 years. They collect, store and study ice cores to understand the history of the Earth’s climate and preserve them for future scientists. In this interview, they explain how ice cores preserve evidence of rare...

Does publishing tuition prices influence college choice?

Written by Dominique Baker, Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Southern Methodist University

Families and students need a clear understanding of what makes a college affordable for their enrollment decisions.Peter Dazeley/Photodisc via Getty Images

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

The big idea

A federal effort to identify less affordable colleges makes little difference in students’ decisions of which...

Mail-in voting lessons from Oregon, the state with the longest history of voting by mail

Written by Priscilla Southwell, Professor Emerita of Political Science, University of Oregon

A county election worker gets mailed-in ballots ready to be counted, in this file photo from 2016.AP Photo/Don Ryan

Oregon voters have long cast their ballots by mail in many types of elections, including for local, state and federal offices. They started doing so in 1987 – and have voted exclusively by mail in all elections since 1998.

For...

Citizenship delays imperil voting for hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the 2020 election

Written by Ming Hsu Chen, Professor of Law and Political Science, University of Colorado Boulder

Citizenship means the ability to vote, as naturalized citizen Cici Carpio declared in April 2019 in El Paso, Texas.Paul Ratje / AFP/Getty Images

Citizenship unlocks voting rights for immigrants in America. The long wait for naturalized citizenship imperils those rights for a growing number of immigrants.

A backlog is defined as the “number of...

Indian Americans can be an influential voting bloc – despite their small numbers

Written by Sumit Ganguly, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana University

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris.AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Senator Kamala Harris being picked by Joe Biden as his running mate has put a spotlight on the Indian American community in the United States.

The interest, in part, stems from her origins: Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a biologist from the Indian city of Chennai....

Addiction treatment shrinks during the pandemic, leaving people with nowhere to turn

Written by Elizabeth Chiarello, Associate Professor of Sociology, Saint Louis University

Josh Ledesma displays safe injection supplies with outreach specialist Rachel Bolton outside the Access Drug User Health Program drop-in center in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 31, 2020. Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

COVID-19 has overshadowed the U.S. opioid crisis, but that doesn’t mean opioid addiction has gone away....