The Conversation

Climate, not conflict, drove many Syrian refugees to Lebanon

Written by Hussein A. Amery, Professor of International Studies, Colorado School of Mines

Refugees in the city of Qab Illyas in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley dig their own water wells.Hussein A. Amery, CC BY-ND

People who fled Syria in recent years are often viewed as war refugees because of the violence that has engulfed much of the country since 2011.

But those from the northern and northeastern parts of Syria may more accurately be viewed...

Faith made Harriet Tubman fearless as she rescued slaves

Written by Robert Gudmestad, Professor and Chair of History Department, Colorado State University

A portrait from 1868 of abolitionist Harriet Tubman.AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz

Millions of people voted in an online poll in 2015 to have the face of Harriet Tubman on the US$20 bill. But many might not have known the story of her life as chronicled in a recent film, “Harriet.”

Harriet Tubman worked as a slave, spy and eventually as an...

A quantum computing future is unlikely, due to random hardware errors

Written by Subhash Kak, Regents Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oklahoma State University

Will quantum computers ever reliably best classical computers?Amin Van/Shutterstock.comArtist’s rendition of the Google processor.Forest Stearns, Google AI Quantum Artist in Residence, CC BY-ND

Google announced this fall to much fanfare that it had demonstrated “quantum supremacy” – that is, it performed a specific quantum...

Haitian migrants face deportation and stigma in hurricane-ravaged Bahamas

Written by Bertin M. Louis, Jr., Associate Professor of Anthropology and African American & Africana Studies, University of Kentucky

A man stands on the rubble of his home in the Haitian Quarter, after the passage of the Hurricane Dorian in Abaco, Bahamas, Sept. 16, 2019. AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa

Haiti wasn’t on Hurricane Dorian’s slow-moving path of destruction across the Caribbean in early September, but Haitians are suffering in the storm’s aftermath anyway.

In...

The tricky ethics of Google's Project Nightingale, an effort to learn from millions of health records

Written by Cason Schmit, Assistant Professor of Public Health, Texas A&M University

Sharing electronic medical records broadly could identify trends as well as mistakes, but it also poses privacy concerns.Metamorworks/Shutterstock.com

The nation’s second-largest health system, Ascension, has agreed to allow the software behemoth Google access to tens of millions of patient records. The partnership, called Project...

Invasive grasses are fueling wildfires across the US

Written by Emily Fusco, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Burning invasive, nonnative grasses on federal land at Lower Table Rock, Oregon. BLM, CC BY

The Santa Ana winds that help drive fall and winter wildfires in California have died down, providing welcome relief for residents. But other ecological factors contribute to fires in ways that scientists are still discovering.

I study how human actions...

Pregnant women have a higher risk of delivering early on unseasonably hot days

Written by Alan Barreca, Associate Professor of Environmental Economics, University of California, Los Angeles

Around 10 states in the U.S. have hit over 120 degrees Fahrenheit on their hottest days this year.VladisChern/Shutterstock.com

About a quarter of children in the United States are born two to three weeks before their due date, which qualifies them as “early term.” Pregnancies typically last 40 weeks, so you might think that being born...

Eliminating food deserts won't help poorer Americans eat healthier

Written by Hunt Allcott, Associate Professor of Economics, New York University

We love junk food. Mumemories/Shutterstock.com

In the U.S., rich people tend to eat a lot healthier than poor people.

Because poor diets cause obesity, Type II diabetes and other diseases, this nutritional inequality contributes to unequal health outcomes. The richest Americans can expect to live 10-15 years longer than the poorest.

Many think that...

What's the value of your dog's life, and why it matters

Written by Simon F. Haeder, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Pennsylvania State University

Your lovable dog has a value of about $10,000, researchers suggest.Javier Brosch/Shutterstock.comr

Americans love their pets, spending more than US$70 billion last year on their beloved companions. This far exceeds the $7 billion spent on legal marijuana, and $32 billion on pizza, just for two examples.

Of the $70 billion, close to $20 billion pays...

Christmas tree shopping is harder than ever, thanks to climate change and demographics

Written by James Robert Farmer, Associate Professor, Indiana University

Christmas trees at Twin H Tree Farms in Bloomington, Indiana.Indiana University/James Brosher, CC BY-ND

If you’re shopping for a live Christmas tree this year, you may have to search harder than in the past. Over the last five years Christmas tree shortages have been reported in many parts of the U.S.

One factor is that growers sold off land...