The Conversation

2020’s ‘fake elector’ schemes will be harder to try in 2024 – but not impossible

Written by Derek T. Muller, Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame

Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, center, of the North Carolina Supreme Court swears in state presidential electors to cast their votes on Dec. 14, 2020. AP Photo/Gerry Broome

Electors will gather across the United States in December 2024, just weeks after the election, and formally cast votes for president and vice president. They will send their...

Why is it so hard to know how many independent voters there are?

Written by Thom Reilly, Professor & Co-Director, Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy, School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University

Voters wait in line to cast their ballots in Wisconsin in November 2020.AP Photo/Wong Maye-E

Modern U.S. politics has largely been viewed through the lens of a two-party power structure: Democrats and Republicans. However, this may be changing. Increasingly, the media, pollsters, pundits and campaigns themselves are focusing on independent voters,...

Getting services to people in need often relies on partnerships between government and nonprofits, but reporting requirements can be too onerous

Written by David C. Campbell, Professor Emeritus of Human Ecology, University of California, Davis

Volunteers can help reduce costs, but most nonprofit social service groups rely heavily on government funding.Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images

Many Americans celebrate philanthropic donations to privately run institutions of all kinds – from Boys and Girls Clubs to church-sponsored charities –...

AI search answers are the fast food of your information diet – convenient and tasty, but no substitute for good nutrition

Written by Chirag Shah, Professor of Information Science, University of Washington

Fast and yummy is often less than healthy.Zinkevych/iStock via Getty Images

If you have used Google lately and been lucky – or unlucky – enough to encounter an answer to your query rather than a bunch of links, you have been subjected to something called AI Overviews. This is a new core feature that Google has been rolling out, a move...

Scientists call the region of space influenced by the Sun the heliosphere – but without an interstellar probe, they don’t know much about its shape

Written by Sarah A. Spitzer, Research Fellow in Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan

An artist's depiction of the heliosphere, the Sun's region of influence in space. Little is known of the actual shape of the heliosphere. NASA

The Sun warms the Earth, making it habitable for people and animals. But that’s not all it does, and it affects a much larger area of space. The heliosphere, the area of space influenced by the Sun, is...

Scientists and Indigenous leaders team up to conserve seals and an ancestral way of life at Yakutat, Alaska

Written by Aron L. Crowell, Arctic Archaeologist, Smithsonian Institution

Ancestral seal hunting happened at the edge of the Sít Tlein (Hubbard) glacier.Emily Kearney-Williams © Smithsonian Institution

Five hundred years ago, in a mountain-rimmed ocean fjord in southeast Alaska, Tlingit hunters armed with bone-tipped harpoons eased their canoes through chunks of floating ice, stalking seals near Sít...

Records of Pompeii’s survivors have been found – and archaeologists are starting to understand how they rebuilt their lives

Written by Steven L. Tuck, Professor of Classics, Miami University

In popular culture, the eruption is usually depicted as an apocalyptic event.Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

On Aug. 24, in A.D. 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, shooting over 3 cubic miles of debris up to 20 miles (32.1 kilometers) in the air. As the ash and rock fell to Earth, it buried the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Ac...

New database features 250 AI tools that can enhance social science research

Written by Megan Stubbs-Richardson, Assistant Research Professor at the Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University

Literature reviews and identifying themes in large datasets become easier with these AI tools.kali9/E+ via Getty Images

AI – or artificial intelligence – is often used as a way to summarize data and improve writing. But AI tools also represent a powerful and efficient way to analyze large amounts of text to search for patterns. In...

Beyond Seinfeld’s ‘Unfrosted’ – lessons from Michigan’s serial cereal entrepreneurs

Written by Laurel Ofstein, Faculty Director, Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Michigan State University

Jerry Seinfeld promotes his Netflix film 'Unfrosted,' which tells the story behind the launch of Kellogg's Pop-Tarts. Frederic J. Brown/via Getty Images

The recent release of “Unfrosted,” which was directed by Jerry Seinfeld, had an underwhelming debut on Netflix and has even been declared “one of the decade’s worst movies.&r...

Menopause treatments can help with hot flashes and other symptoms – but many people aren’t aware of the latest advances

Written by Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of Virginia

Actor Halle Berry, standing in front of U.S. senators, proclaims that she's in menopause.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Menopause used to be a taboo topic in many quarters. Now, it’s frequently in the news.

In March 2024, the White House announced an initiative to “Galvanize New Research on Women’s Midlife...