The Conversation

Why believing in ghosts can make you a better person

Written by Tok Thompson, Associate Professor of Teaching, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

A Halloween ghost.Werner Reischel/Flickr.com, CC BY

Halloween is a time when ghosts and spooky decorations are on public display, reminding us of the realm of the dead. But could they also be instructing us in important lessons on how to lead moral lives?

Roots of Halloween

The origins of modern-day Halloween go back to “samhain,” a...

Got the winning lottery ticket? An economist explains what to do with all that money

Written by Jay L. Zagorsky, Adjunct associate professor, Boston University

A yet-to-be-identified person in South Carolina recently won the Mega Millions jackpot of almost US$1.537 billion. Meanwhile, the Powerball’s prize continues to grow and is currently at $750 million.

This begs a question: What should you do if such a windfall falls into your lap, whether a jackpot, a large inheritance or huge profit from...

Migrants travel in groups for a simple reason: safety

Written by Karen Jacobsen, Henry J. Leir Chair in Global Migration, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University

Central American migrants face extortion, robbery, assault, kidnapping, rape and murder on their weeks-long journey through Mexico. Some find safety in numbers.AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

A caravan of Central American migrants traveling to the United States to seek asylum is now halfway through Mexico.

The caravan began on Oct. 13 in Honduras with 200...

First-generation college students earn less than graduates whose parents went to college

Written by Anna Manzoni, Associate professor, North Carolina State University

First-generation college students face uneven prospects well after college.Nirat.pix/www.shutterstock.com

When discussions take place about first-generation college students, often the focus is on how disadvantaged they are in comparison to their peers whose parents went to college.

Research we recently conducted shows that first-generation college...

Overhype and 'research laundering' are a self-inflicted wound for social science

Written by Christopher J. Ferguson, Professor of Psychology, Stetson University

Overselling slim results can get research findings into the hands of news consumers.durantelallera/Shutterstock.com

Earlier this fall, Dartmouth College researchers released a study claiming to link violent video games to aggression in kids. The logic of a meta-analytic study like this one is that by combining many individual studies, scientists...

Get a flu shot now – for your benefit and your neighbors'

Written by Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, Commissioner of Health and Hospitals of Rockland County, Fellows Ambassador New York Academy of Medicine, Adjunct Professor in the Institute of Public Health, New York Medical College, Certified Physician Executive, Assistan

A nurse in Atlanta reaches for a vial of vaccine to prepare for an injection. David Goldman/AP Photo

If you do nothing else the next few days, get a flu shot.

The best time to get a flu shot is by the end of October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises. Considering the severity of last year’s flu, it is especially important...

Yes, eating meat affects the environment, but cows are not killing the climate

Written by Frank M. Mitloehner, Professor of Animal Science and Air Quality Extension Specialist, University of California, Davis

Cattle grazing on public lands near Steens Mountain, Oregon.BLM/Greg Shine, CC BY

As the scale and impacts of climate change become increasingly alarming, meat is a popular target for action. Advocates urge the public to eat less meat to save the environment. Some activists have called for taxing meat to reduce consumption of it.

A key claim...

Spread of self-driving cars could cause more pollution – unless the electric grid transforms radically

Written by Peter Fox-Penner, Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy, and Professor of Practice, Questrom School of Business, Boston University

A cleaner future with autonomous vehicles is not a sure thing.AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

The world is on the cusp of dramatic changes in the ways people own, operate and power their means of transportation.

Known as the “three revolutions,” a term coined by UC Davis transportation professor Daniel Sperling, the new trends are: electric...

Foundations are making climate change a bigger priority

Written by Morten Wendelbo, Research Fellow, American University

When subsistence farmers become climate refugees, who will help them pay the cost of relocation? gregorioa/Shutterstock.com

Twenty-nine mostly U.S.-based philanthropic institutions, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation plan to spend an unpre...

Tanzanian president bluntly attacks contraception, saying high birth rates are good for economy

Written by Kristen Carey, PhD Candidate in History, Boston University

Tanzania was one of the first sub-Saharan African nations to embrace family planning as a national development priority.US Air Force, CC BY-SA

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has suspended advertising by family planning organizations until further review, raising outcry among human rights groups and causing unrest within Tanzania’s health...