The Conversation

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...

Collaboration, not fighting, is what the rural West is really about

Written by Steven C. Beda, Instructor of History, University of Oregon

Harney County, Ore., sign.Wikimedia/Ken Lund, CC BY-SA

Dick Jenkins is a fourth-generation rancher living in Oregon’s most remote county. I wanted to know why he continues living in a rural community, even though life elsewhere might be easier.

“Taking care of [the land] is worth more than all the money in the world,” he told me....

My thoughts are my password, because my brain reactions are unique

Written by Wenyao Xu, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

A test subject entering a brain password.Wenyao Xu, et al., CC BY-ND

Your brain is an inexhaustible source of secure passwords – but you might not have to remember anything. Passwords and PINs with letters and numbers are relatively easily hacked, hard to remember and generally insecure. Biometrics are starting to take their place, with...

Republican women are just fine, thank you, with being Republican

Written by Christine A. Kray, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Rochester Institute of Technology

'Women for Trump' listening to President Donald Trump speak at a campaign rally in Wheeling, WV, in September.AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Republican women have faced a conundrum repeatedly in the last two years.

In the cases of Donald Trump, Roy Moore and Brett Kavanaugh, the question facing them has been whether to support a male Republican leader...

Hambre mundial aumenta por tercer año consecutivo debido al cambio climático

Written by Jessica Eise, Ross Fellow in the Brian Lamb School of Communication Doctoral Program, Purdue University

Un hombre camina por un invernadero al noreste de Uganda, donde se enseñan técnicas de agricultura sostenible, como cultivos resistentes a las sequías y plantación de árboles. Fotografía del 19 de octubre de 2017.AP Photo/Adelle Kalakouti

El hambre en el mundo ha aumentado por tercer año consecutivo,...

Democrats can't count on Latinos to swing the midterms

Written by Steffen W. Schmidt, Lucken Endowed Professor of Political Science, Iowa State University

Latinos make up 12 percent of all registered voters in the US, but less than half vote regularly.AP Photo/Isaac Brekken, File

Democrats are ready to turn out in record numbers for November’s midterm elections, surveys show, particularly women and older voters.

But not all members of the party are as motivated.

Democrats have “a Latino...

How American tax laws encourage inequality

Written by Anthony C. Infanti, Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh

People of color, women and the LGBTQ community are just some of the groups who often get slighted with tax reforms.Andrey_Popov/shutterstock.com

Talk of tax reform always seems to be in the air.

Last fall, Republicans in Congress hastily pushed through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, hailing it as “historic legislation” and “once-in-a-g...

Migrant caravan members have right to claim asylum – here's why getting it will be hard

Written by Abigail Stepnitz, PhD Candidate, University of California, Berkeley

Roughly 5,000 people, mostly from Central America’s violent and unstable “Northern Triangle” of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are reportedly making their way through Mexico with the intention of claiming asylum at the U.S. border. The so-called “migrant caravan” is attracting intense social and political...