The Conversation

Why the Christian right opposes pornography but still supports Trump

Written by Kelsy Burke, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Stormy Daniels, an adult star, at a local restaurant in downtown New Orleans.AP Photo/Bill Haber

Many commentators have pointed out the hypocrisy of Christian leaders who claim a moral high ground while supporting President Donald Trump. The latest scandal involving an alleged extramarital affair with pornographic film star Stormy Daniels proves...

Look up – it's a satellite!

Written by Christopher Palma, Associate Teaching Professor and Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Programs in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University

The ISS sees us on Earth, but look up at night and you may see it, too.NASA , CC BY

I saw my first artificial satellite with my naked eyes during the summer of 1994. I was watching pieces of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact Jupiter from a small observatory with a college astronomy club when someone pointed up – away from the telescope –...

Read more: Look up – it's a satellite!

Why are fewer and fewer Americans fixing their noses?

Written by Laurie Essig, Director and Professor of Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies, Middlebury College

The nose isn't going under the knife like it once did.Lightspring/Shutterstock.com

Americans love cosmetic surgery.

Last year in the U.S., there were 1.8 million plastic surgeries and nearly 16 million nonsurgical procedures, like Botox – about one for every 20 Americans.

The US$8 billion industry now has entire beauty magazines devoted to...

Behind the scenes of Venezuela's deadly prison fire

Written by Rebecca Hanson, Assistant Professor Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law and Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida

Families clashed with security forces outside the police station in Valencia, Venezuela, where nearly 70 prisoners died in a March 28 fire.AP Photo/Juan Carlos Hernandez

A fire killed scores of inmates after a riot in a Venezuelan jail in the early morning hours of March 28. Sixty-six detainees died in the flames, as did two female visitors.

The...

Gaza's nonviolent protesters exploited by Hamas, but feared by Israel

Written by Dov Waxman, Professor of Political Science, International Affairs and Israel Studies, Northeastern University

Protesters pray in front of their tents during a demonstration along the Gaza Strip border with Israel, March 30, 2018AP/Adel Hana

Last Friday was an important day for Christians and Jews around the world. For Christians, it was Good Friday, the day that commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus; and for Jews, it was the beginning of the Passover...

When police use force: 3 essential reads

Written by Danielle Douez, Associate Editor, Politics + Society

A diagram of where police shooting victim Stephon Clark was struck by bullets.AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

Following the fatal police shooting of 22-year-old Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man in Sacramento, protesters have gathered to express anger over his death.

At issue is what is called police “use of force.” That’s when police...

Sure, cancer mutates, but it has other ways to resist treatment

Written by Fabian V. Filipp, Assistant Professor of Systems Biology and Cancer Metabolism, University of California, Merced

Professor Fabian V. Filipp with his team working on precision targeting of malignant melanoma.Systems Biology and Cancer Metabolism Laboratory, CC BY-SA

Because of advances in drug design and precision medicine, researchers have been able to target certain molecules within a cell at the root of a particular disease and to develop specific therapies...

Driverless cars are already here but the roads aren't ready for them

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

Jason Eichenholz, co-founder and chief technology officer of driverless vehicle industry startup Luminar TechnologiesAP Photo/Ben Margot

The recent deaths of a woman struck by a car Uber was testing in driverless mode and of a man whose Tesla Model X crashed when his hands were off the steering wheel because he was letting the car do some of the...

Today's youth reject capitalism, but what do they want to replace it?

Written by Joseph Blasi, J. Robert Beyster Distinguished Professor and Director of the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University

Today's youth are increasingly rejecting capitalism. AP Photo/Phil Sears

Today’s youth are increasingly unhappy with the way their elders are running the world.

Their ire was most recently expressed when thousands of teenagers and others across the country marched on March 24 demanding more gun control, a little over a month after more than a...

I’m suing Scott Pruitt’s broken EPA - here’s how to fix it

Written by Joe Arvai, Max McGraw Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, and Director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, University of Michigan

One of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's signature moves has been to put the brakes on stringent fuel economy rules. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

In 2017, just a few days after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, a freshman GOP lawmaker with only a few days on the job of his own, proposed House Resolution 861. Its language was ominous: “The...