The Conversation

As the NBA and MLB resume, how might empty seats influence player performances?

Written by Mark Otten, Professor of Psychology, California State University, Northridge

Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager warms up as cutouts of fans 'look on.'AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Baseball and basketball might be returning, but the boo birds and thunder sticks will have to wait ‘til next year.

Save for the Toronto Blue Jays, baseball teams have begun playing in their regular stadiums without fans. Meanwhile, all NBA...

African American teens face mental health crisis but are less likely than whites to get treatment

Written by Rebecca Klisz-Hulbert, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University

Black youth are less likely to seek treatment for mental health issues than white adolescents.Getty Images / Jasmin Merdan

Black youth in the U.S. experience more illness, poverty, and discrimination than their white counterparts. These issues put them at higher risk for depression and other mental health problems. Yet Black youth are less likely...

Landlord-leaning eviction courts are about to make the coronavirus housing crisis a lot worse

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

Eviction moratoriums have already begun to expire. Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

The United States is on the verge of a potentially devastating eviction crisis right in the middle of a deadly pandemic.

Federal, state and local eviction moratoriums had put most of the pending cases on hold. But as the moratoriums expire and eviction hearings...

The gender pay gap that no one is paying attention to

Written by Felice Klein, Assistant Professor of Management, Boise State University

Men are still sitting pretty when it comes to pay in the workplace. iStock/Getty Images

That women are paid less than male colleagues is a stubborn fact in the U.S. workplace.

As of July, women earned 84 cents for every dollar a man earned. It is a discrepancy that has garnered significant attention from scholars, the media and sex discrimination...

Bloodthirsty tsetse flies nurse their young, one live birth at a time – understanding this unusual strategy could help fight the disease they spread

Written by Geoff Attardo, Assistant Professor of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis

When they suck your blood they can leave behind the parasite that causes sleeping sickness.Patrick Robert/Sygma via Getty Images

Tsetse flies are bloodthirsty. Natives of sub-Saharan Africa, tsetse flies can transmit the microbe Trypanosoma when they take a blood meal. That’s the protozoan that causes African sleeping sickness in people;...

What is the Islamic weekend?

Written by Chad Haines, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Arizona State University

Weekend in the Islamic world usually means Friday and Saturday.Jasmin Merdan/Moment Archive via Getty Images

Weekends just aren’t what they used to be, as the COVID-19 pandemic blurs the line between work weeks and leisure time. But the two-day weekend that many around the world consider to be a normal part of life is actually a very recent...

Routine gas flaring is wasteful, polluting and undermeasured

Written by Gunnar W. Schade, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University

Flaring gas at an oil production site outside Williston, North Dakota.Andrew Burton/Getty Images

If you’ve driven through an area where companies extract oil and gas from shale formations, you’ve probably seen flames dancing at the tops of vertical pipes. That’s flaring – the mostly uncontrolled practice of burning off a...

Kids need to wear masks when they go to school in person, and parents can help them get the hang of that

Written by Meg Sorg, Clinical Assistant Professor of Nursing, Purdue University

Like mother, like daughterPaul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

I’m a pediatric nursing professor with four young children. The youngest is 9 months old and the oldest is 9. My oldest will soon enter third grade, and his brother will be in second. My family plans to send them both back to their school for in-person...

Lawmakers keen to break up 'big tech' like Amazon and Google need to realize the world has changed a lot since Microsoft and Standard Oil

Written by Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

House lawmakers grilled these four CEOs on July 29.AP Photo

Big tech is back in the spotlight.

The chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google testified before Congress on July 29 to defend their market dominance from accusations they’re stifling rivals. Lawmakers and regulators are increasingly talking about antitrust action and...

¿Te imaginas la vida sin aguacate? Estos son los momentos en la historia en que pudo desaparecer

Written by Jeffrey Miller, Associate Professor, Hospitality Management, Colorado State University

Los aguacates necesitan ayuda para prosperar.https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/avocado-groves-san-diego-california-usa-c1900s-published-by-news-photo/463970581?adppopup=true

Dada la popularidad actual del aguacate, es difícil creer que estuvimos cerca de no tenerlos en nuestra vida.

En mi nuevo libro “El aguacate: una...