The Conversation

There are many leaders of today's protest movement – just like the civil rights movement

Written by Sarah Silkey, Professor of History and Social and Economic Justice, Lycoming College

Demonstrators march in the Black Mamas March to protest police brutality, June 27, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images

The recent wave of protests against police brutality and systemic racism has inspired numerous comparisons with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Commentators frequently depict the charismatic...

Supreme Court reforms, strengthens Electoral College

Written by Morgan Marietta, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell

On Dec. 19, 2016, Colorado elector Micheal Baca, in T-shirt second from left, cast his electoral ballot for John Kasich, though Hillary Clinton had won his state's popular vote.AP Photo/Brennan Linsley

The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that states can require members of the Electoral College to cast their presidential ballots according to the...

Social isolation: The COVID-19 pandemic's hidden health risk for older adults, and how to manage it

Written by Marcia G. Ory, Regents and Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, Texas A&M University

The same stay-at-home recommendations meant to protect older adults from COVID-19 can also leave them feeling isolated and lonely. Sladic via Getty Images

As coronavirus cases rise again, it can be hard for older adults to see any end to the need for social isolation and the loneliness that can come with it.

For months now, they have been following...

What makes a 'wave' of disease? An epidemiologist explains

Written by Abram L. Wagner, Research Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Michigan

Daily deaths from COVID-19 have rarely been below 600 in the U.S. since March.Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Panic about a second wave of coronavirus cases is “overblown,” Vice President Mike Pence wrote in June, implying the U.S. has COVID-19 under control. On the other hand, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of...

How did 'white' become a metaphor for all things good?

Written by Aradhna Krishna, Dwight F. Benton Professor of Marketing, University of Michigan

'Jacob's Dream' by Salvador Rosa (c. 1665).artuk.org

Shortly after George Floyd’s death, one of my friends texted me that Floyd wasn’t necessarily a bad person, but, pointing to his prior stints in prison, added that “he wasn’t lily-white either.”

Soon thereafter, I read an article in The New York Times written by Chad...

Digital contact tracing's mixed record abroad spells trouble for US efforts to rein in COVID-19

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

South Korea's success in containing COVID-19 came at the price of sacrificing privacy.AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

Two public health measures – testing, to identify those infected, and contact tracing, to identify those who may have encountered an infected person – have become essential as countries around the world reopen their economies...

Lessons from the 1918 pandemic: A U.S. city's past may hold clues

Written by J. Alexander Navarro, Professor of History of Medicine, University of Michigan

A list of rules from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1918 to reduce the chances of contracting or spreading the devastating flu pandemic. Getty Images / Fototeca Storica Nazionale

Coronavirus infection rates continue to rise, with the number of new cases climbing in dozens of states and the U.S. reporting record numbers of cases on individual...

Decades of failed reforms allow continued police brutality and racism

Written by Stephen M. Underhill, Associate Professor of Communication, Marshall University

Black Lives Matters murals on boarded-up businesses in New York City.AP Photo/STRF/STAR MAX/IPx

Police brutality has a long history of being protected, reinforced and even redoubled for more than a century in the U.S. through a combination of political expediency and racism.

President Donald Trump’s executive order and the stalled bills in...

Retractions and controversies over coronavirus research show that the process of science is working as it should

Written by Mark R. O'Brian, Professor and Chair of Biochemistry, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

A high-profile paper on the risks of hyrdoxychloroquine was recently and rightfully retracted.AP Photo/John Locher,

Several high-profile papers on COVID-19 research have come under fire from people in the scientific community in recent weeks. Two articles addressing the safety of certain drugs when taken by COVID-19 patients were retracted, and...

'Renewable' natural gas may sound green, but it's not an antidote for climate change

Written by Emily Grubert, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Methane bubbles form in a pit digester on a dairy farm as bacteria break down cow manure. The methane can be collected and used as an energy source.Edwin Remsburg/VW Pics via Getty Images

Natural gas is a versatile fossil fuel that accounts for about a third of U.S. energy use. Although it produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions and other...