The Conversation

Cherry blossoms – celebrated in Japan for centuries and gifted to Americans – are an appreciation of impermanence and spring

Written by Małgorzata (Gosia) K. Citko-DuPlantis, Assistant Professor in Japanese Literature and Culture, University of Tennessee

Families relax under lush cherry trees in the Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo.shankar s./Flickr, CC BY

Cherry blossoms mark the beginning of spring. Various festivals are regularly organized in California, Colorado, Georgia, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., to celebrate the bloom of cherry trees.

The blossoms, however, are short-lived and usually fall...

How Florida’s home insurance market became so dysfunctional, so fast

Written by Latisha Nixon-Jones, Associate Professor of Law, Jacksonville University

Imagine saving for years to buy your dream house, only to have surging property insurance costs keep homeownership forever out of reach.

This is a common problem in Florida, where average insurance premiums cost homeowners an eye-watering US$6,000 a year. That’s more than triple the national average and about three times what Floridians paid...

SEC approves first US climate disclosure rules: Why the requirements are much weaker than planned and what they mean for companies

Written by Sehoon Kim, Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Florida

Companies face new rules for disclosing their climate-related risks.halbergman/E+ via Getty Images

After two years of intense public debate, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the nation’s first national climate disclosure rules on March 6, 2024, setting out requirements for publicly listed companies to report their...

Sharks, turtles and other sea creatures face greater risk from industrial fishing than previously thought − we estimated added pressure from ‘dark’ fishing vessels

Written by Heather Welch, Researcher in Ecosystem Dynamics, University of California, Santa Cruz

Seabirds like this sooty shearwater can drown when they become tangled in drift nets and other fishing gear. Roy Lowe, USFWS/Flickr, CC BY

My colleagues and I mapped activity in the northeast Pacific of “dark” fishing vessels – boats that turn off their location devices or lose signal for technical reasons. In our new study, we...

Emotion-tracking AI on the job: Workers fear being watched – and misunderstood

Written by Nazanin Andalibi, Assistant Professor of Information, University of Michigan

How would you feel if your workplace was tracking how you feel?nadia_bormotova/iStock via Getty Images

Emotion artificial intelligence uses biological signals such as vocal tone, facial expressions and data from wearable devices as well as text and how people use their computers, promising to detect and predict how someone is feeling. It is used in...

Oppenheimer feared nuclear annihilation – and only a chance pause by a Soviet submariner kept it from happening in 1962

Written by Mark Robert Rank, Professor of Social Welfare, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

Onlookers at a Key West, Fla., beach where the Army's Hawk anti-aircraft missiles were positioned during the Cuban missile crisis. Underwood Archives/Getty Images

History has often been shaped by chance and luck.

One of the blockbuster films of the past year, “Oppenheimer,” tells the dramatic story of the development of the atomic bomb...

The Black history knowledge gap is widening – and GOP politicians are making it worse

Written by Paul Ringel, Professor of U.S. History, High Point University

Andra Day performs 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' prior to Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11, 2024.Perry Knotts/Getty Image

On the day of the Super Bowl, Matt Gaetz, a Republican member of Congress from Florida, publicly announced that he would not watch one of the most popular sporting events in America.

The reason for his boycott?

“They’re...

President Yoon is lauded in West for embracing Japan − in South Korea it fits a conservative agenda that is proving less popular

Written by Myunghee Lee, Assistant Professor, Michigan State University

South Korea's Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and Fumio Kishida of Japan.Kiyoshi Otal/Getty Images

When South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol broke out into an impromptu performance of the song “American Pie” at a gala White House dinner in 2023, it was more than just a musical interlude. It was symbolic of how on the big Indo-Pacific issues of the...

Tattooing has held a long tradition in Christianity − dating back to Jesus’ crucifixion

Written by Gustavo Morello, Professor of Sociology, Boston College

Christian Palestinian tattoo artist Walid Ayash draws a tattoo on the arm of a Coptic Egyptian pilgrim on April 28, 2016, at his studio in Bethlehem.Thomas Coex /AFP via Getty Images

Holy Week and Easter are perhaps the most important days in the Christian calendar. Many associate those celebrations with church services, processions, candles,...

Reeling religion: From anime and sci-fi to rom-coms, films are full of faith in unexpected places

Written by David W. Stowe, Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State University

Seeing the light − at the movies.igoriss/iStock via Getty Images

In some movies, religion hits viewers over the head – including films that take home the industry’s biggest prizes. No one could miss religion’s importance in “The Exorcist” or “Jesus Christ Superstar,” both nominated for Oscars 50 years...