The Conversation

Study: Racism shortens lives and hurts health of blacks by promoting genes that lead to inflammation and illness

Written by April Thames, Associate Professor, Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

African Americans have worse health outcomes and die earlier than whites. Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com

Negative social attitudes, such as racism and discrimination, damage the health of those who are targeted by triggering a cascade of aberrant biological responses, including abnormal gene activity. It is not surprising that reports...

Keeping students safe is a growth industry struggling to fulfill its mission

Written by John S. Carlson, Professor of School Psychology, Licensed Psychologist, Health Service Psychologist, Nationally Certified School Psychologist, Michigan State University

Public schools around the nation, like this one in Beverly Hills, California, are spending more on security.AP Photo/Richard Vogel

In the 25 years I’ve spent working as a school psychologist and professor of school psychology, I’ve never seen so much federal, state and local money spent to “harden” school buildings and...

I study teen suicide and believe clinical science can predict who is at risk

Written by Adam Bryant Miller, Research Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Suicide is a growing health problem.KieferPix/Shutterstock.com

People often ask me what I do for a living. In the past, I would start with something vague, saying things like “I’m a researcher; I work at the university. I work with teenagers.” Inevitably, people wanted to know more. And then I told them, “Actually, I...

How gambling built baseball – and then almost destroyed it

Written by Rebecca Edwards, Professor of History, Rochester Institute of Technology

A team photograph of the 1919 Chicago White Sox squad, many of whom would be implicated in throwing that year's World Series.Heritage Auctions

Imagine if, after watching the thrilling victory of the Chicago Cubs in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series over the Cleveland Indians – a game in which the Cubs won their first championship in over a...

Los Angeles is far from ending homelessness – but other American cities can still learn a lot from it

Written by Brenda Wiewel, Director of the Initiative to Eliminate Homelessness, University of Southern California

Los Angeles became ground zero for America’s homelessness crisis after President Donald Trump visited the city on Sept. 17.

“We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what’s happening,” Trump said. They’re ruining the “best highways, our best streets,...

Why a computer will never be truly conscious

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

What makes a brain tick is very different from how computers operate.Yurchanka Siarhei/Shutterstock.com

Many advanced artificial intelligence projects say they are working toward building a conscious machine, based on the idea that brain functions merely encode and process multisensory information. The assumption goes, then, that once brain...

Iowa's farmers – and American eaters – need a national discussion on transforming US agriculture

Written by Lisa Schulte Moore, Professor of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University

Strips of native prairie grasses planted on Larry and Margaret Stone's Iowa farm protect soil, water and wildlife.Iowa State University/Omar de Kok-Mercado, CC BY-ND

Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses bring the state a lot of political attention during presidential election cycles. But in my view, even though some candidates have outlined pos...

Why the guillotine may be less cruel than execution by slow poisoning

Written by Janine Lanza, Associate Professor of History, Wayne State University

Could using the guillotine be more humane than execution by lethal injection?AlexLMX/Shutterstock

Concerns about the drugs used for executions are being raised again after the federal government announced it will once again execute inmates convicted of capital crimes almost 16 years after the last execution was carried out.

International drug...

Stimulants: Using them to cram for exams ruins sleep and doesn't help test scores

Written by Sara C. Mednick, Associate Professor, Cognitive Science, University of California, Irvine

A student cramming for exams. Some college students take stimulants to cram for exams, but studies suggest that has little positive effect. Geo Martinez/Shutterstock.com

Along with a steeper financial burden and an increasingly competitive academic environment, this year’s incoming freshman university class will likely be confronted with the...

Andrew Yang's 'freedom dividend' echoes a 1930s basic income proposal that reshaped Social Security

Written by Edwin Amenta, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine

Andrew Yang wants to give Americans $1,000 a month.AP Photo/Nati Harnik

Entrepreneur and political novice Andrew Yang is hoping a wild gambit will help him win the Democratic presidential nomination: give 10 American families US$1,000 a month.

The announcement of a test run of his signature universal basic income proposal, which Yang argues is...