The Conversation

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

Written by Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona

The equipment planned to help bring samples back from Mars. NASA/JPL

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this decade to 2040.

The mission would be the first to try to return...

The costs of workplace violence are too high to ignore

Written by Miranda Kitterlin-Lynch, Associate Professor, Coca-Cola Endowed Professor, Florida International University

Violence and harassment on the job are all too common: More than 1 in 5 workers worldwide have experienced it, according to the International Labor Organization, with women slightly more likely to be affected than men. In the U.S., more than 2 million workers face violence on the job each year – and those are just the cases that get reported....

Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’

Written by Raymond Hogler, Professor Emeritus of Management, Colorado State University

Lina Khan, the Federal Trade Commission's chair, announced the ban.Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP

Most American workers are hired “at will”: Employers owe their employees nothing in the relationship except earned wages, and employees are at liberty to quit at their option. As the rule is generally stated, either party may terminate the...

Banning TikTok won’t solve social media’s foreign influence, teen harm and data privacy problems

Written by Sarah Florini, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Arizona State University

It's not just TikTok. Solen Feyissa/Flickr, CC BY-SA

When President Joe Biden signed a US$95 billion foreign aid bill into law on April 24, 2024, it started the clock on a nine-month window for TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app. The president can extend the deadline by three months, and TikTok has indicated that...

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

Written by Doug Cowen, Professor of Physics and Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Penn State

IceCube sits on tons of clear ice, allowing scientists to make out neutrino interactions. Cmichel67/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these “relic” neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they can’t harm you. In fact,...

Celebrities routinely drop in on this Florida university’s hospitality course

Written by Michael Cheng, Dean of hospitality management, Florida International University

Rap mogul Rick Ross, right, speaks in a hospitality class hosted by entrepreneur David Grutman. Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Florida International University (FIU)

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Title of course:

“The David Grutman...

When the Supreme Court said it’s important to move quickly in key presidential cases like Trump’s immunity claim

Written by Donald Nieman, Professor of History and Provost Emeritus, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Judges can move with speed, but don't always.Aitor Diago/Moment via Getty Images

When former President Donald Trump’s attorneys argue before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 25, 2024, they will claim he is immune from criminal prosecution for official actions taken during his time in the Oval Office. The claim arises from his federal charges...

From shrimp Jesus to fake self-portraits, AI-generated images have become the latest form of social media spam

Written by Renee DiResta, Research Manager of the Stanford Internet Observatory, Stanford University

Many of the AI images generated by spammers and scammers have religious themes.immortal70/iStock via Getty Images

If you’ve spent time on Facebook over the past six months, you may have noticed photorealistic images that are too good to be true: children holding paintings that look like the work of professional artists, or majestic log cabin...

What is ‘techno-optimism’? 2 technology scholars explain the ideology that says technology is the answer to every problem

Written by Seyram Avle, Associate Professor of Global Digital Media, UMass Amherst

When venture capitalist and techno-optimist Marc Andreessen speaks, many people listen.Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen penned a 5,000-word manifesto in 2023 that gave a full-throated call for unrestricted technological progress to boost markets, broaden energy production, improve...

How trains linked rival port cities along the US East Coast into a cultural and economic megalopolis

Written by David Alff, Associate Professor of English, University at Buffalo

An Acela, the flagship train of the Northeast corridor, moves through Connecticut.AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

The Northeast corridor is America’s busiest rail line. Each day, its trains deliver 800,000 passengers to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington and points in between.

The Northeast corridor is also a name for the place those trains...