The Conversation

Russians hacked into US electric utilities: 6 essential reads

Written by Jeff Inglis, Science + Technology Editor, The Conversation US

Who's in control of what's flowing in these wires?D Sharon Pruitt, CC BY

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has revealed that Russian government hackers have gained deep access to hundreds of U.S. electrical utility companies, gaining far more access to the operations of many more companies than previously disclosed by federal officials.

Securi...

Money, politics and Justice Anthony Kennedy: Revisiting Citizens United

Written by Michael T. Morley, Assistant Professor of Law, Florida State University

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is one of retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s most maligned rulings. Many condemn the opinion for treating corporations as people, money as speech, and elections as commodities to be sold to the highest bidder.

President Barack Obama lambasted Citizens United in a State of the...

FBI brought down foreign agents in the past

Written by Douglas M. Charles, Associate Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University

The public has recently gained an opportunity for deeper insight into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and the FBI’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

On July 21, the Trump administration released the FBI’s application for a warrant to begin electronic surveillance of former Donald Trump campaign...

What's the value of a clean beach? Here's how economists do the numbers

Written by Timothy Haab, Professor of Environmental Economics, The Ohio State University

How much would you pay to make this disappear?Emilian Robert Vicol, CC BY

Millions of Americans head outdoors in the summer, whether for a day at a nearby lake or a monthlong road trip. For environmental economists like me, decisions by vacationers and outdoor recreators offer clues to a challenging puzzle: estimating what environmental resources...

Mexican anti-poverty program targeting poor women may help men most, study finds

Written by Nora Haenn, Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Studies, North Carolina State University

Economic empowerment programs that target women may have an unintended effect: They help men instead.

A growing number of economic development programs worldwide provide cash specifically to women in poor communities. Giving women access to money empowers them, the theory goes.

And empowered women – especially mothers – can lift entire...

Why does my phone battery die so fast?

Written by Steve W. Martin, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University

Already out of charge – again?!fizkes/Shutterstock.com

Why do batteries die? And, why can they only be recharged so many times before they won’t hold a useful amount of charge? My young son asked me about that years ago when his battery-powered toy car stopped moving, wondering about what he called an “everlasting battery.”...

Lending a helping paw: Dogs will aid their crying human

Written by Julia Meyers-Manor, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Ripon College

I'll try to be there for you 100 percent.Chris Gladis, CC BY-ND

From Lassie to Balto, pop culture loves stories of a dog coming to a person’s rescue. Anecdotally, people experience their dogs coming to their aid every day, like when one of us found herself “trapped” by her children under a pile of pillows only to be...

3 questions about tequila, answered

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

An agave plant cutter, or 'jimador,' cuts the tips off from agave branches at a Jose Cuervo blue agave field.AP Photo/Guillermo Arias

In less than a decade, worldwide sales of tequila have doubled, while sales of premium and ultra-premium brands have shot up by 292 percent and 706 percent, respectively.

In recent years, you may have heard of tequila...

Sex education lessons from Mississippi and Nigeria

Written by Rachel Sullivan Robinson, Associate Professor, American University School of International Service

A poster on the wall of the International Centre for Sexual Reproductive Rights, an NGO based in Minna, NigeriaAuthor provided

Nigeria and Mississippi are a world apart physically, but the rural American state and the African country have much in common when it comes to the obstacles they had to overcome to implement sex education in their schools.

T...

Putin's interference in US elections undermines faith in American democracy

Written by Pippa Norris, ARC Laureate Fellow, Professor of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney and McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics, Harvard University

Is your faith in democracy waning?AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Questions about the legitimacy of the 2016 U.S. presidential election continue to reverberate and deepen partisan mistrust in America.

Doubts have been compounded by the indictment of 12 Russians following intelligence reports of Russian interference with the election. Reports allege the...