The Conversation

Do people like government 'nudges'? Study says: Yes

Written by Cass Sunstein, University Professor, Harvard University

A product's calorie label is a common form of nudging behavior. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

On Oct. 9, Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago won the Nobel Prize for his extraordinary, world-transforming work in behavioral economics. In its press release, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences emphasized that Thaler demonstrated how nudging...

How Obamacare has helped poor cancer patients

Written by Fumiko Chino, Resident in Radiation Oncology, Duke University

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) flanked by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as they addressed the unpopularity of their replacement bill. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Two weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pulled the vote for the latest measure to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Ca...

Marie Curie and her X-ray vehicles' contribution to World War I battlefield medicine

Written by Timothy J. Jorgensen, Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program and Associate Professor of Radiation Medicine, Georgetown University

Marie Curie in one of her mobile X-ray units in October 1917.Eve Curie

Ask people to name the most famous historical woman of science and their answer will likely be: Madame Marie Curie. Push further and ask what she did, and they might say it was something related to radioactivity. (She actually discovered the radioisotopes radium and polonium.)...

Coastal protection on the edge: The challenge of preserving California's legacy

Written by Gary Griggs, Director, Institute of Marine Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz

Big Sur coastline.Ashley Spratt, USFWS, CC BY

The California coast is an edge. It’s the place where 1,100 miles of shoreline meets the largest ocean on the planet. Many different forces collide there, and a lot of exciting things happen. The coast is a geological edge, zippered to North America by 800 miles of the San Andreas Fault and...

Gentrification? Bring it

Written by Jonathan Wynn, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Cash-strapped Hartford is one of a number American cities that have missed out on the nation's urban renaissance.Jessica Hill/AP Photo

In July, a group of long-time, mostly Latino residents of Los Angeles’s Boyle Heights neighborhood staged protests outside a trendy new coffee shop called Weird Wave Coffee, holding signs that read...

In Latin America, is there a link between abortion rights and democracy?

Written by Larissa Arroyo Navarrete, Professor of Human Rights, University of Costa Rica

Three-quarters of all abortions in Latin America are performed illegally, putting the woman’s life at risk. Together with Africa and Asia, the region accounts for many of the 17.1 million unsafe abortions performed globally each year, according to a new report in The Lancet, published jointly with the Guttmacher Institute, a research and...

Trump's policies will harm coal-dependent communities instead of helping them

Written by Mark Partridge, Professor of Rural-Urban Policy, The Ohio State University

TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee, site of a 1.1 billion gallon spill of coal ash slurry in 2008, photographed on March 28, 2012.Appalachian Voices, CC BY

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is moving to repeal the Clean Power Plan as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to bring jobs and prosperity to communities that rely on the coal...

What hundreds of American public libraries owe to Carnegie's disdain for inherited wealth

Written by Arlene Weismantel, Senior Associate Director, Libraries, Michigan State University

The Girard, Kansas Carnegie library.National Park Service

The same ethos that turned Andrew Carnegie into one of the biggest philanthropists of all time made him a fervent proponent of taxing big inheritances. As the steel magnate wrote in his seminal 1899 essay, The Gospel of Wealth:

“Of all forms of taxation this seems the wisest. By taxing...

How the stoicism of Roman philosophers can help us deal with depression

Written by Robert S. Colter, Associate Lecturer, Philosophy, University of Wyoming

The statue of Marcus Aurelius Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome.Jeff, CC BY-NC-ND

Depression is on the rise. A study conducted by the World Health Organization found an increase of 20 percent in depression cases within just a decade.

I work on a university campus. One might expect such a place to feel vibrant and energetic, but lately there seems to...

Nobody reads privacy policies – here's how to fix that

Written by Florian Schaub, Assistant Professor of Information; Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan

Most people don't know what they're agreeing to.Micolas/Shutterstock.com

Have you ever actually read an app’s privacy policy before clicking to accept the terms? What about reading the privacy policy for the website you visit most often? Have you ever read or even noticed the privacy policy posted in your doctor’s waiting room or your...