The Conversation

The promise of personalized medicine is not for everyone

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

African-Americans are underrepresented in large-scale genetic and neuroscience studies.Wadi Lissa/Unsplash

Could your medical treatment one day be tailored to your DNA? That’s the promise of “personalized medicine,” an individualized approach that has caught the imagination of doctors and researchers over the past few years. This...

Obesity and diabetes: 2 reasons why we should be worried about the plastics that surround us

Written by Bruce Blumberg, Professor, Developmental & Cell Biology , University of California, Irvine

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is used in a variety of applications from plumbing to health care to electronics.By SIRIKANLAYA KHLIBNGERN/shutterstock.com

Today, nearly 40 percent of U.S. adults and 21 percent of youth are obese. This trend is on the upswing and the worldwide population is becoming more obese – which is increasing the risk of other...

A socialist's primary win doesn't herald a workers revolution in the US

Written by Daniel Pout, Instructor School of Politics & Global Studies, Arizona State University

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a California fundraiser in AugustAP/Jae C. Hong

Anyone anticipating a golden dawn of Marxist-Leninist communism soon in the United States might have to wait a while longer – perhaps forever.

The surprise victory of socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over longtime Democratic New York Congressman John Crowley in a...

The start of high school doesn't have to be stressful

Written by David Yeager, Associate professor, University of Texas at Austin

Up to two-thirds of students experience 'ninth grade shock,' which can affect everything from grades to mental health.ABO Photography/www.shutterstock.com

This month, more than 4 million students across the nation will begin high school.

Many will do well.

But many will not.

Consider that nearly two-thirds of students will experience the “ninth...

America has 1.5 million nonprofits and room for more

Written by Robert Christensen, Associate Professor, Romney Institute of Public Management, Brigham Young University

Overcrowding is harder to define than it may appear.adike/Shutterstock.com

The nation’s 1.5 million nonprofits do everything from fielding Little League teams to funding orchestras.

Despite all the good these organizations do, some donors worry that the nation has more nonprofits than it can sustain. In America alone, more than 36,000 of them...

The ghost of Roy Orbison goes on tour – and some aren't happy about it

Written by Peter Lehman, Professor, Department of English and Director, Center for Film, Media and Popular Cutlure, Arizona State University

In January, the production company Base Hologram announced its forthcoming Roy Orbison hologram tour, “In Dreams,” with the U.S. leg of the tour set to kick off on Oct. 1 in Oakland. For the unitiated: A computer-generated hologram of Orbison will be performing alongside an orchestra and band.

Shortly after the announcement, a handful...

Walmart tried to make sustainability affordable. Here's what happened

Written by Andrew Spicer, Associate Professor of International Business, University of South Carolina

Can Walmart go green while maintaining its commitment to low prices?AP Photo/Tom Uhlman

What a difference the birth of a granddaughter can make.

For Lee Scott, who ran Walmart from 2000 to 2009, the arrival of his granddaughter not only convinced him the threat of global warming was real but set him on a course that altered the very DNA of the world...

Jury finds Monsanto liable in the first Roundup cancer trial – here's what could happen next

Written by Richard G. "Bugs" Stevens, Professor, School of Medicine, University of Connecticut

Plaintiff Dewayne Johnson reacts after hearing the verdict in his case against Monsanto at the Superior Court of California in San Francisco, Aug. 10, 2018. Josh Edelson/Pool Photo via AP

In the first of many pending lawsuits to go to trial, a jury in San Francisco concluded on Aug. 10 that the plaintiff had developed cancer from exposure to...

¿Por qué nuestro cerebro siempre encuentra problemas?

Written by David Levari, Postdoctoral Researcher in Psychology, Harvard University

¿Cómo puede alguien saber si está progresando en la resolución de un problema, si el cerebro humano está diseñado para continuamente redefinir las condiciones de esa resolución?ra2studio/www.shutterstock.com

¿Por qué en la vida se nos presentan tantos problemas que parecen aferrarse a...

How 'story maps' redraw the world using people's real-life experiences

Written by Lauren Drakopulos, PhD Candidate, Department of Georgaphy, University of Washington

Story maps like this one can help policymakers better understand and respond to the needs of recently resettled refugees. S. Juneja, Author provided

Maps are an important part of our everyday lives.

We use them for driving directions, to look up restaurants or stores and parse election data. We can even use smartphone maps to locate friends when...