The Conversation

Teaching the public more science likely won't boost support for funding, but sparking their curiosity might

Written by Matthew Motta, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Science of Science Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Kindling interest might be better than filling people with facts.Chris Nguyen/Unsplash, CC BY

After 19 months without a director, the Trump administration recently tapped meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier to lead the the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. Perhaps surprisingly, given the administration’s previous...

Making college more affordable

Written by Jill Tiefenthaler, President, Colorado College

Has the cost of higher education in the U.S. put college out of financial reach? DRogatnev/www.shutterstock.com

Editor’s note: When it comes to the cost of higher education in the U.S., signs of trouble abound.

For instance, states now rely more heavily on tuition to finance their public colleges and universities than on government funding.

Priv...

Los Angeles wants to use the Hoover Dam as a giant battery. The hurdles could be more historical than technical

Written by Anthony F. Arrigo, Associate Professor, Writing Rhetoric and Communication, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

The shrinking supply of Colorado River water is evident at the Hoover Dam on the border of Arizona and Nevada.AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

Los Angeles is looking into whether it should spend an estimated US$3 billion on a massive, 20-mile underground pumped hydropower storage system that would be connected to the iconic Hoover Dam on the Colorado...

For the parents of gender-nonconforming kids, a new approach to care

Written by Tey Meadow, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Columbia University

Self-knowledge rarely comes packaged in a single coherent narrative. Yet this is the expectation we have of the children in our lives.Billion Photos

Ari had a difficult time talking about his gender.

He had always been feminine, insisting on wearing only androgynous clothing, flowing pants in bright colors, patterned shirts and scarves. His hair...

Why synthetic marijuana is so risky

Written by C. Michael White, Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut

This photo provided by New York Police Department shows packets of synthetic marijuana seized after a search warrant was served at a newsstand in Brooklyn, New York.New York Police Department/AP Photo

The Green, a gathering place in New Haven, Connecticut, near Yale University looked like a mass casualty zone, with 70 serious drug overdoses over a...

Detecting 'deepfake' videos in the blink of an eye

Written by Siwei Lyu, Associate Professor of Computer Science; Director, Computer Vision and Machine Learning Lab, University at Albany, State University of New York

It's actually very hard to find photos of people with their eyes closed.Bulin/Shutterstock.com

A new form of misinformation is poised to spread through online communities as the 2018 midterm election campaigns heat up. Called “deepfakes” after the pseudonymous online account that popularized the technique – which may have chosen...

Will John McCain be the last Republican leader in the Senate to address climate change?

Written by Tim Profeta, Director, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and Associate Professor of Practice, Duke University

“He was just doing his job.”

When I asked a longtime staffer to Sen. John McCain why the senator battled to address climate change in the early 2000s, that was his answer.

A simple answer, but one essential to understanding how McCain led those early efforts to combat the challenge when no one else would step forward.

Although others had...

¿Qué está causando la crisis de algas en Florida? 5 preguntas con respuesta

Written by Karl Havens, Professor, Director of Florida Sea Grant, University of Florida

Las algas cubren la superficie del río Caloosahatchee en el W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam, 12 de julio de 2018, en Alva, Florida.AP Photo/Lynne Sladky

Nota del editor: Dos brotes de algas a gran escala están matando peces y amenazando la salud pública en Florida. A lo largo de la costa suroeste, uno de los brotes de marea roja...

Tentative deal to replace NAFTA puts pressure on Canada in win for Trump

Written by Tim Meyer, FedEx Research Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University

President Donald Trump on Aug. 27 announced an agreement that he said would replace NAFTA, an almost 25-year-old deal that allows most goods produced in North America to move duty-free across the continent.

Pointedly, the deal excludes Canada, one of the three original North American Free Trade Agreement signatories. All three had been working on...

Elon Musk was right to drop his bungled plan to take Tesla private

Written by Erik Gordon, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Michigan

Elon Musk changed his mind about privatizing Tesla.AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

Elon Musk shocked the world – including his own car company’s board – on Aug. 7 when he tweeted that he had the “funding secured” to take Tesla private. A little more than two weeks of uncertainty, confusion and a wildly fluctuating stock price...