The Conversation

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...

Immigration policies can make the difference between life and death for newborn US children

Written by Maria Rodriguez, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University

An immigrant woman shows the footprints of her daughter who was born in the in the U.S.AP Photo/Eric Gay

The health of children born to unauthorized immigrants – who are U.S. citizens – is affected by local and federal immigration policies. There are as many as 4 million children who have at least one parent who is undocumented.

Along...

Defending hospitals against life-threatening cyberattacks

Written by Mohammad S. Jalali, Research Faculty, MIT Sloan School of Management

Is this device safe for use in a hospital?Guitar photographer/Shutterstock.com

Like any large company, a modern hospital has hundreds – even thousands – of workers using countless computers, smartphones and other electronic devices that are vulnerable to security breaches, data thefts and ransomware attacks. But hospitals are unlike...

How the pretzel went from soft to hard – and other little-known facts about one of the world's favorite snacks

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

The pretzel has had a twisted path from Germany to global snack food.Craig Barhorst/Shutterstock.com

The pretzel, one of the fastest-growing snack foods in the world, recently crossed a billion dollars a year in sales.

It has its own emoji, comes in flavors like pumpkin spice, mocha and banana, and is now available as an aromatherapy scent. It...

How live liver transplants could save thousands of lives

Written by Abhi Humar, Chief, Transplantation Surgery, University of Pittsburgh

Jarrius Robertson, a liver transplant survivor, runs the football at the Jan. 27, 2018 Pro Bowl practice in Kissimmee, Florida.AP Photo/Gregory Payan

The success of liver transplantation represents one of the great miracles of modern medicine. Essentially an experimental procedure 35 years ago, it now represents the only definitive method to cure...

Why this conservative bastion chose a liberal evangelical icon for its commencement speech

Written by Adam Laats, Professor of Education and History (by courtesy), Binghamton University, State University of New York

Former President Jimmy Carter will give this year's commencement address at Liberty University.AP Photo/John Amis

In a move that might surprise some, the conservative evangelical Liberty University has chosen the liberal evangelical icon Jimmy Carter to give its commencement speech this year. Based on my research into the history of evangelical...