The Conversation

Experiencing physical pain can cause you to overspend

Written by Eugene Y. Chan, Associate Professor, Purdue University

Spending money can seem a bit easier when you're in physical pain.Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash, CC BY-SA

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

The big idea

Suffering from pain causes consumers to spend more money than they otherwise would – perhaps 20% more – according to new research I conducted. This is based on...

Trump and McConnell's mostly white male judges buck 30-year trend of increasing diversity on the courts

Written by Rorie Solberg, Associate Professor of Political Science, Oregon State University

Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, is one of relatively few women appointed to the federal judiciary by the current administration. Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images

In nominating Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Donald Trump fulfilled his pledge to put another woman on the U.S. Supreme...

Do sports teams’ sustainability efforts matter to fans?

Written by Brian P. McCullough, Associate Professor of Sport Management and Director of the Sport Ecology Laboratory, Texas A&M University

Several sports events have been disrupted by extreme weather events, such as wildfires in 2020.AP Photo/Tony Avelar

While the sport sector’s environmental impact is not fully understood, it has a social platform and reach to influence a significant number of people worldwide to choose more sustainable behaviors. Brian McCullough, associate...

Harris and Pence dodge tough questions in VP debate – experts react

Written by Cynthia A. Young, Department Head and Associate Professor of African American Studies, Pennsylvania State University

Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence face off in a debate on Oct. 7, 2020. AP Photo/Morry Gash, Pool

Vice presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Mike Pence sat far apart and separated by plexiglass for the only 2020 vice presidential debate, held in Utah on Oct. 7. Their exchanges were more civil than the presidential debate a week...

Nobel Prize for chemistry honors exquisitely precise gene-editing technique, CRISPR – a gene engineer explains how it works

Written by Piyush K. Jain, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, UF Health Cancer Center, University of Florida

American biochemist Jennifer A. Doudna, left, and French microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier were awarded this year's Nobel Prize for chemistry.Alexander Heinl/picture alliance via Getty Images

Researchers have been able to manipulate large chunks of genetic code for almost 50 years. But it is only within the past decade that they have been able...

Nobel Prize for CRISPR honors two great scientists – and leaves out many others

Written by Marc Zimmer, Professor of Chemistry, Connecticut College

CRISPR enables editing DNA with unprecedented precision.wildpixel/iStock via Getty Images

The gene-editing technique CRISPR earned the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Recognition of this amazing breakthrough technology is well deserved.

But each Nobel Prize can be awarded to no more than three people, and that’s where this year’s prize...

La migración de las mariposas monarca está en riesgo, pero hay un plan para salvarla

Written by D. André Green II, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan

Mariposas monarch en el Santuario El Rosario en Michoacán, Mexico.Charlie Marchant/Flickr, CC BY

Uno de los eventos épicos de la naturaleza está en marcha: la migración otoñal de las mariposas monarca. Partiendo de todo Estados Unidos y Canadá, las mariposas viajan hasta 4.000 kilómetros para...

'What goes around comes around,' or what Greek mythology says about Donald Trump

Written by Rachel Hadas, Professor of English, Rutgers University Newark

Donald Trump's helicopter landing at the White House, Oct. 5, as he returns from being hospitalized at Walter Reed.Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty Images

It’s hard to process the news of the president’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis without having recourse to some kind of mythological system, some larger frame of reference.

Karma, wrote one...

From recording videos in a closet to Zoom meditating, 2020's political campaigns adjust to the pandemic

Written by Barbara A. Trish, Professor of Political Science, Grinnell College

Eugene DePasquale, left, Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District, in Harrisburg, Penn., Sept. 19, shows that even the traditional handshake with voters has changed in pandemic-era campaigns.om Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

President Donald Trump may have eschewed masks and distancing in this pandemic year...

VIP patients can be a headache for their doctors

Written by Nancy Nielsen, Clinical Professor of Medicine and Senior Associate Dean for Health Policy, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

White House physician Sean Conley gives an update on the patient-in-chief on Oct. 3.Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

The medical drama playing out daily since President Donald Trump contracted COVID-19 is alarming – but not surprising. Any physician who’s ever rendered medical advice or hospital care to a prominent person...