The Conversation

VA nominee debacle may distract from the agency's 3 major problems

Written by Richard Lachmann, Professor of Sociology, University at Albany, State University of New York

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson is Trump's nominee to lead the VA.AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The White House has withdrawn the nomination of its physician, Adm. Ronny Jackson, to be secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Jackson is best known for his fulsome report on Trump’s health following an annual physical in January 2018.

His nomination came into...

Why cities are becoming reluctant to host the World Cup and other big events

Written by Mark Wilson, Professor and Program Director, Urban & Regional Planning, School of Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University

Riot police drill outside Saint Petersburg's new soccer stadium ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky

Getting ready to welcome millions of visitors – as Russia is now doing in Moscow, Sochi and other cities in advance of the 2018 World Cup soccer tournament – takes years of planning and lots of construction....

An addiction researcher shares 6 strategies to address the opioid epidemic

Written by Nabila El-Bassel, Professor of Social Work, Director of Social Intervention Group, Columbia University

Chris Burkett deposits old needles at a needle exchange program in Aberdeen, Wash., June 14, 2017. AP Photo/David Goldman

The devastating opioid epidemic is one of the largest public health problems facing the U.S. Over 2.5 million people in the U.S. suffer from opioid use disorder.

Four in five new heroin users started out misusing prescription...

How transshipment may undercut Trump's tariffs

Written by Patrick Conway, Professor of Economics, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

President Donald Trump is vowing to crack down on deceptive transshipment. That is the practice of moving cargo from one country to another by way of a third nation to evade trade restrictions.

As an international economist, I have researched the impact of imported textiles and apparel on those industries in North Carolina over the last 20 years....

Melting Arctic sends a message: Climate change is here in a big way

Written by Mark Serreze, Research Professor of Geography and director, National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado

Scientists on Arctic sea ice in the Chukchi Sea, surrounded by melt ponds, July 4, 2010.NASA/Kathryn Hansen

Scientists have known for a long time that as climate change started to heat up the Earth, its effects would be most pronounced in the Arctic. This has many reasons, but climate feedbacks are key. As the Arctic warms, snow and ice melt, and...

Mother's milk holds the key to unlocking an evolutionary mystery from the last ice age

Written by Leslea Hlusko, Associate Professor of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Sunrise at noon in the Arctic. Little exposure to sun was a piece of the genetic puzzle.Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, CC BY

As biologists explore the variation across the genomes of living people, they’ve found evidence of evolution at work. Particular variants of genes increase or decrease in populations through time. Sometimes this...

When college tuition goes up, campus diversity goes down

Written by Drew Allen, Executive Director, Initiative for Data Exploration and Analytics for Higher Ed, Princeton University

Tuition hikes can change the racial and ethnic makeup of a college campus.baipooh/shutterstock.com

As college tuition continues to rise at a staggering rate, people tend to worry about how much harder it becomes for students and families to pay for college.

As researchers who focus on higher education, we found a different reason to worry.

We...

Female firefighters defy old ideas of who can be an American hero

Written by Lorraine Dowler, Associate Professor of Geography and Women's Studies, Pennsylvania State University

Strong enough to do the job.Peretz Partensky/flickr, CC BY-SA

Five women graduated from New York City’s Fire Academy on April 18, bringing the number of women serving in the Fire Department of New York to 72 – the highest in its history.

The FDNY’s 2018 graduating class also includes the first son to follow his mother into the...

Invoking noble coal miners is a mainstay of American politics

Written by Lou Martin, Associate Professor of History, Chatham University

Coal miner photographed on the job near Richlands, Virginia, in 1974. Jack Corn/Environmental Protection Agency

President Donald Trump recently visited West Virginia for the fourth time since taking office. He’s more popular there than in any other state, partly because of his avowed passion for coal and coal miners.

As he put it at a campaig...

Beaches are becoming safer for baby sea turtles, but threats await them in the ocean

Written by Pamela T. Plotkin, Associate Research Professor and Director, Texas Sea Grant, Texas A&M University

A Kemp's ridley hatchling makes its way to the water on Padre Island, Texas.Terry Ross, CC BY-SA

On beaches from North Carolina to Texas and throughout the wider Caribbean, one of nature’s great seasonal events is underway. Adult female sea turtles are crawling out of the ocean, digging deep holes in the sand and laying eggs. After about 60...