The Conversation

How bankruptcy can help USA Gymnastics and the Boy Scouts compensate more survivors

Written by Pamela Foohey, Associate Professor of Law, Indiana University

Tom Stewart fought to bring the sexual abuse that he endured as a Boy Scout to light. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

USA Gymnastics and the Boy Scouts of America sex abuse scandals have rocked communities nationwide. Revelations regarding decades of the sexual abuse of children and long-running institutional failures to stop it are raising questions about...

Florence Knoll Bassett's mid-century design diplomacy

Written by Margaret Re, Associate Professor of Graphic Design, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Architect and designer Florence Knoll Bassett poses with her dog, Cartree, in this photograph circa 1950.Courtesy Knoll Archive

The look, feel and functionality of the modern American office can be traced back to the work of one woman.

Florence Knoll Bassett, whom Architectural Record called the “single most powerful figure in modern...

A revolution in a sentence – the future of human spaceflight in America

Written by John M. Horack, Neil Armstrong Chair and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University

“This year, American astronauts will go back to space in American rockets.”

This one sentence from the 2019 State of the Union address may have escaped your notice. It ended a paragraph in which the president paid tribute to astronaut Buzz Aldrin of the Apollo 11 mission to mark the the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. From...

US astronauts will soon fly again in American spacecraft - but not NASA's

Written by John M. Horack, Neil Armstrong Chair and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University

“This year, American astronauts will go back to space in American rockets.”

López Obrador clashes with courts after vowing 'poverty' for Mexican government

Written by Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong

López Obrader wants to cut salaries for all government workers in Mexico, including himself.AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

It’s rare for presidents to advocate for poverty, but that’s just what Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is doing.

At a press conference on Feb. 1, López Obrador said his...

What is the Great Commission and why is it so controversial?

Written by Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy Cross

Missionary nuns in a Congolese military camp in 1960.AP Photo/Horst Faas

A majority of church-going American Christians are unfamiliar with the term, the “Great Commission,” a recent survey found.

Even among those familiar with it, 25 percent recognized the phrase but could not explain what it was. Only 17 percent were familiar with the...

How your genes could affect the quality of your marriage

Written by Richard Mattson, Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies in Psychology, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Does a good marriage depend on having the right genes? Tiffany Bryant/Shutterstock.com

How important is it to consider a romantic partner’s genetic profile before getting married?

It is logical to think that genetic factors may underlie many traits already used by matching sites - like personality and empathy - which many assume could promote...

School shooters usually show these signs of distress long before they open fire, our database shows

Written by Jillian Peterson, Professor of Criminal Justice, Hamline University

School shooters tend to have a death wish, new research shows.Constantine Pankin from www.shutterstock.com

Two years before he lined his schoolmates up against a classroom wall and executed them one by one, the student, who would become the gunman, tried to show his English teacher something important.

He had quietly slid up his sleeves to reveal...

Bike-friendly cities should be designed for everyone, not just for wealthy white cyclists

Written by Anne Lusk, Research Scientist, Harvard University

This narrow street, lined with parked cars but devoid of people, is both unwelcoming and unsafe for cyclists.Anne Lusk, CC BY-ND

Designing for bikes has become a hallmark of forward-looking modern cities worldwide. Bike-friendly city ratings abound, and advocates promote cycling as a way to reduce problems ranging from air pollution to traffic...

Lise Meitner — the forgotten woman of nuclear physics who deserved a Nobel Prize

Written by Timothy J. Jorgensen, Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program and Associate Professor of Radiation Medicine, Georgetown University

Lise Meitner was left off the publication that eventually led to a Nobel Prize for her colleague.

Nuclear fission – the physical process by which very large atoms like uranium split into pairs of smaller atoms – is what makes nuclear bombs and nuclear power plants possible. But for many years, physicists believed it energetically...