The Conversation

Trump's excess and extravagance turned the State of the Union into an action movie

Written by Vanessa B. Beasley, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Vanderbilt University

President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address at the Capitol on Feb. 4, 2020. OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

State of the Union addresses are supposed to be boring speeches.

Actually, they are not required to be speeches at all. The U.S. Constitution requires only that the president “from time to time give to the...

A plasma reactor zaps airborne viruses – and could help slow the spread of infectious diseases

Written by Herek Clack, Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan

Researchers Tian Xia and Zijie Lin test a plasma prototype for preventing airborne transmission of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus at a Michigan pig farm.Robert Coelius/Michigan Engineering, Communications & Marketing, CC BY-ND

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

The big idea: It’s the...

Is the coronavirus a pandemic, and does that matter? 4 questions answered

Written by Brian Labus, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Flight attendants check temperatures of passengers aboard an Air China flight from Melbourne to Beijing on Feb. 4, 2020. AP Photo/Andy Wong

Editor’s note: The new coronavirus has now affected more than 20,000 people in China and claimed more lives as of Feb. 4 than the SARS epidemic from 2002 to 2004. Hong Kong has reported its first death....

'American Dirt' fiasco exposes publishing industry that's too consolidated, too white and too selective

Written by Christine Larson, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Colorado Boulder

Copies of 'American Dirt' sit on a rack at a bookstore in New York.Laura Bonilla CAL/AFP via Getty Images

In an early chapter of “American Dirt,” the much-hyped novel now at the center of a racial controversy, the protagonist, Lydia, fills her Acapulco, Mexico, bookstore with her favorite literary classics. Because these don’t...

Is online education right for you? 5 questions answered

Written by Vanessa Dennen, Professor of of Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies, Florida State University

Online education presents many conveniences but requires serious time management skills.fizkes/Shutterstock.com

Editor’s Note: When U.S. News & World Report released its best online education program rankings this year, many schools that fared well in the rankings were quick to call attention to their success. Here, Vanessa Dennen, a resea...

How the US repeatedly failed to support reform movements in Iran

Written by Pardis Mahdavi, Director, School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University

A demonstrator protesting a disputed election wearing a headband in support of the Green Movement, Tehran, June 15, 2009. Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images

After decades of conflict, recently escalated to near-war, it appears there’s little chance that U.S. relations with Iran will ever improve.

For 40 years, the relationship between the U.S. and Iran...

R0: How scientists quantify the intensity of an outbreak like coronavirus and its pandemic potential

Written by Joseph Eisenberg, Professor and Chair of Epidemiology, University of Michigan

To how many others will one infected person spread the infection?Bim/Getty Images

If you saw the 2011 movie “Contagion,” about a worldwide pandemic of a new virus, then you’ve heard the term R0.

Pronounced “R naught,” this isn’t just jargon made up in Hollywood. It represents an important concept in epidemiology...

Iowa caucuses did one thing right: Require paper ballots

Written by Herbert Lin, Senior Research Scholar for Cyber Policy and Security, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University

Paper ballots – the key to reconstructing what happened in Iowa.AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

As the confusion that was the Iowa caucuses unfolds, there will be a lot of questions about what happened and how to avoid it in the future.

But the results, ultimately, will be clear and undisputed because, amid everything they did wrong, the Iowa...

US could learn how to improve election protection from other nations

Written by Scott Shackelford, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics; Director, Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance; Cybersecurity Program Chair, IU-Bloomington, Indiana University

Are these people's votes accurately recorded and properly counted?Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

Hacking into voting machines remains far too easy.

It is too soon to say for sure what role cybersecurity played in the 2020 Iowa caucuses, but the problems, which are still unfolding and being investigated, show how easily systemic failures can lead to delays...

Learn to trust immigrants by role-playing in their shoes

Written by Brandon Bouchillon, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Arkansas

A university class included a game that simulated aspects of the experience people like these would-be immigrants can expect in the U.S.AP Photo/Elliot Spagat

People fear and mistrust what they don’t know – including people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. That lack of trust causes social and political divisions in the U.S. and arou...