The Conversation

An analysis of nearly 4 million pitches shows just how many mistakes umpires make

Written by Mark T. Williams, James E. Freeman Lecturer in Management, Boston University

Umpire Quinn Wolcott signals a strike out during an at-bat by Toronto Blue Jays' Josh Thole.AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Baseball is back, and fans can anticipate another season of amazing catches, overpowering pitching, tape-measure home runs – and, yes, controversial calls that lead to blow-ups between umpires and players.

Home plate umpires are...

For the 'political-infotainment-media complex,' the Mueller investigation was a gold mine

Written by Matthew Jordan, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Pennsylvania State University

In the first year of 'Russiagate' coverage, the combined profits from Fox News, MSNBC and CNN increased by 13 percent.Nick Lehr/The Conversation

Almost 60 years ago, President Dwight Eisenhower warned of a new force that fed off and profited from Cold War paranoia: the military-industrial complex.

Over the past couple of years, with Russia...

The replication crisis is good for science

Written by Eric Loken, Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Connecticut

Some studies don't hold up to added scrutiny. PORTRAIT IMAGES ASIA BY NONWARIT/shutterstock.com

Science is in the midst of a crisis: A surprising fraction of published studies fail to replicate when the procedures are repeated.

For example, take the study, published in 2007, that claimed that tricky math problems requiring careful thought are...

Don't blame Sharia for Islamic extremism -- blame colonialism

Written by Mark Fathi Massoud, Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz

Warning that Islamic extremists want to impose fundamentalist religious rule in American communities, right-wing lawmakers in dozens of U.S. states have tried banning Sharia, an Arabic term often understood to mean Islamic law.

These political debates – which cite terrorism and political violence in the Middle East to argue that Islam is...

Catholic missionaries are evangelizing on college campuses and trying to bring back the 'nones'

Written by Katherine Dugan, Assistant Professor of Religion, Springfield College

A group of millennials are working to bring Catholic religious practice to American college campuses.Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston , CC BY

More than 20% of all adults and over a third of millennials in the United States are not affiliated with a religion. For at least a decade, this number has been on the rise.

Sexual abuse by clergy and a...

Too many airplane systems rely on too few sensors

Written by Carlos Varela, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Planes have many sensors, supplying all kinds of useful data.vaalaa/Shutterstock.com

The apparent connection between fatal airplane crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia centers around the failure of a single sensor. I know what that’s like: A few years ago, while I was flying a Cessna 182-RG from Albany, New York, to Fort Meade, Maryland, my...

In the name of 'amateurism,' college athletes make money for everyone except themselves

Written by Jasmine Harris, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Ursinus College

College athletes are prohibited from profiting from their performance.Jessica Hill/AP

As millions of people tune in to watch the Final Four, much of their focus will be on the numbers on the scoreboard. But a March 2019 report from U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, calls attention to numbers of a different sort.

The report –...

Nixon and Reagan tried closing the border to pressure Mexico – here's what happened

Written by Aileen Teague, Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University

Nixon's Operation Intercept in 1969 led to massive traffic jams. AP Photo

Just a week ago, President Donald Trump appeared poised to take the drastic step of closing the U.S.-Mexico border to both trade and travel. He said he wanted to stop the flood of Central American migrants entering the United States but also punish Mexico for failing to do so....

Climate research needs to change to help communities plan for the future

Written by Robert Kopp, Professor, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, and Director, Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Rutgers University

How can we design projects, such as tunnels, to last decades yet still account for the uncertain effects of climate change?AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

Climate change is a chronic challenge – it is here now, and will be with us throughout this century and beyond. As the U.S. government’s National Climate Assessment report made clear,...

Putin's plagiarism, fake Ukrainian degrees and other tales of world leaders accused of academic fraud

Written by Ararat Osipian, Visiting Professor, George Mason University

In some countries, politicians are routinely exposed for having lied about their academic achievement.Shutterstock

A recent college admissions scandal in the United States, which revealed that wealthy parents had bribed officials at elite universities, exposed the price some people are willing to pay to say, “I went to an Ivy League school.&rd...