The Conversation

University of California's showdown with the biggest academic publisher aims to change scholarly publishing for good

Written by MacKenzie Smith, University Librarian and Vice Provost for Digital Scholarship, University of California, Davis

For now, it's going to be trickier for the University of California community to access some academic journals.Michelle/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

This month, academic publisher Elsevier shuttered the University of California’s online access to current journal articles. It’s the latest move in the high stakes standoff between Elsevier, the worl...

How do lithium-ion batteries work?

Written by Robert Masse, Ph.D. Student in Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington

Lithium-ion batteries power lots of different kinds of devices.Transport Canada

The smartphone era is only just over a decade old, but the pocket-sized computers at the heart of that societal transformation are only really possible because of another technology: lithium-ion batteries.

First sold commercially in 1991 by Sony for its camcorders, these...

The real midlife crisis confronting many Americans

Written by Frank J. Infurna, Associate Professor of Psychology, Arizona State University

Midlife is one of the least understood, appreciated and studied life stages.Sarah2/Shutterstock.com

The way my mom imagined it, midlife was going to be great: counting down days until retirement, spending winters in Florida and checking off destinations on her bucket list. But it hasn’t turned out that way.

Instead of more time spent in...

In divided Alaska, the choice is between paying for government or giving residents bigger oil wealth checks

Written by Paola Banchero, Associate Professor Journalism and Public Communications, University of Alaska Anchorage

Students protest Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy's budget cuts at the University of Alaska, Anchorage campus.The Alaska Landmine, CC BY-SA

Alaskans will soon confront the dramatic effects of Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s vetoes of US$444 million from the state operating budget of $8.3 billion, which went into effect July 1.

The Alaska legislature...

The ‘giant sucking sound’ of NAFTA: Ross Perot was ridiculed as alarmist in 1992 but his warning turned out to be prescient

Written by Harley Shaiken, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies and Professor of Letters and Science, University of California, Berkeley

Perot become a household name after making an independent run for president in 1992.AP Photo/Doug Mills

H. Ross Perot famously had a way with words that galvanized ordinary Americans and helped him become the most successful third-party candidate since 1912.

He hurled one of his most well-known lines during a 1992 debate with Bill Clinton and...

Trump's order for more action on kidney disease may shrink organ transplant waitlists

Written by Amit Tevar, Associate Professor of Surgery; Director, Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program, Starzl Transplant Institute, University of Pittsburgh

Every year, thousands of Americans with kidney failure who could benefit from life-saving transplants can’t get the organs they need.

A record number of people are dying while waiting for an organ to become available that might have saved their lives. An executive order President Donald Trump signed on July 10, 2019 could help some of them.

It...

Erdoğan's control over Turkey is ending – what comes next?

Written by Gary M. Grossman, Associate Director, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University

Mayoral elections in Turkish cities do not usually grab the world’s attention.

But the defeat of the ruling party’s candidate for Istanbul mayor – once during its March election and then again, even more definitively in a June rematch – is a sign that Turkey’s most powerful political party is losing its influence...

Ticks spread plenty more for you to worry about beyond Lyme disease

Written by Jerome Goddard, Extension Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology and Plant Pathology, Mississippi State University

There's a short window between when a tick bites and when it passes on bacteria or virus.MSU Ag Communications, Courtesy Dr. Tina Nations, CC BY-ND

When it comes to problems caused by ticks, Lyme disease hogs a lot of the limelight. But various tick species carry and transmit a collection of other pathogens, some of which cause serious, even fatal,...

Could black philanthropy help solve the black student debt crisis?

Written by Mako Fitts Ward, Clinical Assistant Professor, African and African American Studies & Women and Gender Studies, School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University

Left: Robert Smith. Right (clockwise from left): Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Jay-Z, LeBron James and Nicki Minaj. Reuters, USA Today

When billionaire Robert E. Smith decided to pay off the student loans of the graduating class of 2019 at Morehouse College, he suggested that others follow his lead.

“Let’s make sure every class has the same...

The Trump administration wants to dismantle the agency overseeing 2 million federal workers – and weaken safeguards against partisanship

Written by Matthew May, Senior Research Associate, Boise State University

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter spoke at a Northern Virginia high school about civil service changes underway.AP Photo/Jeff Taylor

The U.S. government has put expertise and competence ahead of political considerations when it hires people for more than 135 years.

As a result of changes made during President Chester Arthur’s administration,...