The Conversation

Many electric utilities are struggling – will more go bankrupt?

Written by Theodore J. Kury, Director of Energy Studies, University of Florida

On the hook: California utility PG&E declared bankruptcy due to liabilities linked to power lines and wildfires. AP Photo/Ben Margot

Over the past 12 months, consumers in the U.S. have experienced the disappearance of familiar retailers, such as Toys R Us and Sears, due in part to how online shopping has changed the way consumers shop for...

Dutch Memorial Day: Maintaining colonial innocence by excluding people of color

Written by Annemarie Toebosch, Director of Dutch and Flemish Studies, University of Michigan

On Dutch Memorial Day – May 4 – the Netherlands remembers its war dead from World War II and after.

A close look at the holiday reveals a culture that maintains its innocence about a history of colonial oppression.

Indonesia declared independence from the Netherlands on Aug. 17, 1945. This followed 350 years of Dutch East India Company...

Jimmy Carter's lasting Cold War legacy

Written by Robert C. Donnelly, Associate Professor of History, Gonzaga University

Former President Jimmy Carter.AP

Jimmy Carter was a dark horse Democratic presidential candidate with little national recognition when he beat Republican incumbent Gerald Ford in 1976.

The introspective former peanut farmer pledged a new era of honesty and forthrightness at home and abroad, a promise that resonated with voters eager for change...

Trump's dirty tricks: Unethical, even illegal campaign tactics are an American tradition

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

Donald Trump pulled some pretty unseemly stunts to win the 2016 United States presidential election.

He threatened to put his opponent, Hillary Clinton, in jail and publicly asked Russia to hack her emails. After Russian operatives did something similar – stealing emails from Democratic National Committee servers – the Trump campaign...

Modern shamans: Financial managers, political pundits and others who help tame life's uncertainty

Written by Manvir Singh, PhD Candidate in Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

Examining chicken intestines, reading the tea leaves, watching the markets – people turn to experts for insight into the mysteries that surround them.Manvir Singh, CC BY-ND

Aka Manai explains that there are two kinds of people in the world: simata and sikerei.

I am a simata. He is a sikerei. Sikerei have undergone transformative experiences...

University of North Carolina at Charlotte shooting has these things in common with other campus shootings

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

Police secure the main entrance to UNC Charlotte after a shooting at the school that left at least two people dead, Tuesday, April 30.Jason E. Miczek/AP

The April 30 shooting at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte follows a familiar pattern of mass shootings at college campuses in the United States.

If authorities better understood these...

3 moral reasons why parents need to get their children vaccinated against measles and other diseases

Written by Joel Michael Reynolds, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Several parents do not want their children vaccinated, for religious or other reasons.Tatevosian Yana/Shutterstock

The U.S. hit a terrible and entirely preventable milestone this week: Measles cases are at a 25-year high.

This alarming statistic is not due to changes in public health policy or medical practice, but the rise of the anti-vax...

As air pollution increases in some US cities, the Trump administration is weakening clean air regulations

Written by Jason West, Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Oil refineries and other industrial sources in and around Houston create some of the highest ozone levels in the nation. AP Photo/Pat Sullivan

Air pollution kills. In the United States, 1 of every 25 deaths occurs prematurely because of exposure to outdoor air pollution.

It kills more Americans than all transportation accidents and gun shootings co...

3 ways $2 trillion for infrastructure can fight inequality too

Written by Steven Pressman, Professor of Economics, Colorado State University

Imagine you have US$2 trillion to spend on patching up America’s crumbling roads, levees and other infrastructure. What would you fix first?

The nation’s needs are great. The American Society of Civilian Engineers’ latest report, from 2017, highlighted derailing trains, roads full of potholes, levees breaching, bridges...

Asteroid dust brought back to Earth may explain where our water came from with hydrogen clues

Written by Maitrayee Bose, Assistant Professor of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University

Planetary scientists believe that Earth was formed by the conglomeration of meteorites and comets -- which also brought water.Festa/SHutterstock.com

Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, and scientists argue that the planet’s interior also contains a lot of water. But where did all this water come from?

I and my postdoc Zili...