The Conversation

Extreme stress in childhood is toxic to your DNA

Written by Daniel R. Weinberger, Director of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and Professor, Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, Neuroscience and The Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University

Photo by Kat J on Unsplash, CC BY-SA

The real danger of separating children from parents is not the psychological stress – it’s the biological time bomb. The screaming and crying, the anguish and desolation is gut-wrenching. But the fallout pales in comparison to the less visible long-term effects that are more sinister and dangerous....

A brief history of the s'more, America's favorite campfire snack

Written by Jeffrey Miller, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator, Hospitality Management, Colorado State University

So gooey, so good.Chewonki Semester School, CC BY-NC-ND

This summer, 45 million pounds of marshmallows will be toasted over a fire in America. Many will be used as an ingredient in the quintessential summer snack: the s’more.

Huddling around a campfire and eating gooey marshmallows and warm chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers may...

Mandatory labels with simple disclosures reduced fears of GE foods in Vermont

Written by Jane Kolodinsky, Professor and Chair Community Development and Applied Economics, University of Vermont

Vermont has had food labels that indicate food has been 'partially produced with genetic engineering.'Sally McCay, UVM Photo, CC BY-NC-ND

There has been substantial debate over whether mandated labels for genetically engineered foods might increase or decrease consumer aversion toward genetic engineering.

This question is particularly relevant now...

Crop insurance is good for farmers, but not always for the environment

Written by Don Fullerton, Gutsgell Professor of Finance, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Crop insurance is designed to help farmers weather disasters such as Hurricane Irma, which devastated many Florida citrus farms in 2017.AP Photo/Tamara Lush

Congress is currently debating the 2018 Farm Bill, a massive piece of legislation enacted about every five years. One of its key elements is crop insurance, which helps protect farmer income in...

Inventing the future in Chinese labs: How does China do science today?

Written by Richard P. Suttmeier, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Oregon

China's political system sets the course for the science in universities, government labs and industry.Vmenkov, CC BY-SA

Genetic engineering, the search for dark matter, quantum computing and communications, artificial intelligence, brain science – the list of potentially disruptive research goes on. Each has significant implications for...

Why is suicide on the rise in the US – but falling in most of Europe?

Written by Steven Stack, Professor of Criminal Justice, Wayne State University

The US suicide rate rose 30.4 percent between 1999 and 2015. hikrcn/shutterstock

Suicide now ranks in the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S.

In 2015, 44,193 Americans died by their own hand. That was more than the number killed in motor vehicle accidents (37,757) and over twice the number who died through homicide (17,793).

The number of...

Blockchain-based property registries may help lift poor people out of poverty

Written by Nir Kshetri, Professor of Management, University of North Carolina – Greensboro

Many rural farmers in India lack clear ownership of the land they work and live on.AP Photo/Anupam Nath

Many developing countries don’t have a working system of tracking property rights, and what they do have can be fragile and incomplete. In Haiti, for instance, a large earthquake in 2010 destroyed all the municipal buildings that stored...

Teachers' activism will survive the Janus Supreme Court ruling

Written by Sherman Dorn, Professor of Education, Arizona State University

Plaintiff Mark Janus, right, speaks outside the Supreme Court AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Janus v. AFSCME 31 will hurt public employee unions in both membership and funding.

The majority opinion, written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, said that requiring public employees who are not union members to pay fees...

Janus decision extends First Amendment 'right of silence'

Written by Robert A. Sedler, Distinguished Professor of Law, Wayne State University

Plaintiff Mark Janus, right, leaves the the Supreme Court WednesdayAP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Forty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a state could require nonmembers of a public employee union to pay an “agency fee,” otherwise known as costs of collective bargaining, for their representation by the union.

The union could not use...

Approval of drug derived from cannabis not necessarily a win for weed

Written by Timothy Welty, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Drake University

Small vials of CBD, an ingredient in a drug just approved by the FDA to treat two types of epilepsy.. Roxana Gonzalez/Shutterstock.com

The Food and Drug Administration on June 25 approved for the first time a drug made from cannabidiol (CBD), a molecule derived from the cannabis plant. The drug, Epidiolex, was approved for the treatment of two...