The Conversation

When science showed in the 1970s that gas stoves produced harmful indoor air pollution, the industry reached for tobacco's PR playbook

Written by Jonathan Levy, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University

Gas stoves without adequate ventilation can produce harmful concentrations of nitrogen dioxide.Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images

In 1976, beloved chef, cookbook author and television personality Julia Child returned to WGBH-TV’s studios in Boston for a new cooking show, “Julia Child & Company,” following her hit series...

Defending space for free discussion, empathy and tolerance on campus is a challenge during Israel-Hamas war

Written by David Mednicoff, Chair, Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Public Policy, UMass Amherst

Students at UMass Amherst march across campus following a walkout and rally protesting the university's "ties with war profiteers," while also calling for "a ceasefire and end of the blockade on Gaza." Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

College and university campuses across the U.S. have seen polarization and unrest since the Israel-...

Biden's executive order puts civil rights in the middle of the AI regulation discussion

Written by Margaret Hu, Taylor Reveley Research Professor and Professor of Law, Director, Digital Democracy Lab, William & Mary

Vice President Kamala Harris held a meeting with civil rights leaders and consumer protection experts about the societal impact of AI on July 12, 2023.Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

On Oct. 4, 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy released the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: A Vision for Protecting Our Civil Rights in...

Vampire viruses prey on other viruses to replicate themselves − and may hold the key to new antiviral therapies

Written by Ivan Erill, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

The satellite virus MiniFlayer (purple) infects cells by attaching itself to the neck of its helper virus, MindFlayer (gray). Tagide deCarvalho, CC BY-SA

Have you ever wondered whether the virus that gave you a nasty cold can catch one itself? It may comfort you to know that, yes, viruses can actually get sick. Even better, as karmic justice would...

We analyzed over 3.5 million written teacher comments about students and found racial bias

Written by Angus Kittelman, Assistant Professor of Special Education, University of Missouri-Columbia

Teachers had more negative comments about Black boys than they did about other groups.aldomurillo/E+ via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

Written teacher comments about students can show implicit racial or ethnic and gender biases in school discipline, according to our recent study.

To identify these...

The world's boreal forests may be shrinking as climate change pushes them northward

Written by Ronny Rotbarth, Ph.D. Candidate of Arctic and Sub-Arctic Ecology, Wageningen University

A brown bear in a Siberian boreal forest.Logan Berner, CC BY-ND

Earth’s boreal forests circle our planet’s far northern reaches, just south of the Arctic’s treeless tundra. If the planet wears an Arctic ice cap, then the boreal forests are a loose-knit headband wrapped around its ears, covering large portions of Alaska, Canada,...

Understanding that chronic back pain originates from within the brain could lead to quicker recovery, a new study finds

Written by Yoni Ashar, Assistant Professor of General Internal Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Approximately 16 million U.S. adults have chronic back pain.Olena Ruban/Moment via Getty Images

Most people with chronic back pain naturally think their pain is caused by injuries or other problems in the body such as arthritis or bulging disks. But our research team has found that thinking about the root cause of pain as a process that’s...

What is intersectionality? A scholar of organizational behavior explains

Written by Christina Hymer, Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, University of Tennessee

Civil rights advocate and legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw speaks in New York City on Feb. 7, 2015. Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images

In modern conversations on race and politics, a popular buzzword has emerged to describe the impact of belonging to multiple social categories.

Known as intersectionality, the social theory has a complex history and refers...

NASA's robotic prospectors are helping scientists understand what asteroids are made of – setting the stage for miners to follow someday

Written by Valerie Payré, Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Iowa

Mining an asteroid probably won't look exactly like mining does on Earth, but some principles will stay the same. posteriori/iStock via Getty Images

The cars, cellphones, computers and televisions that people in the U.S. use every day require metals like copper, cobalt and platinum to build. Demand from the electronics industry for these metals is...

Modern medicine has its scientific roots in the Middle Ages − how the logic of vulture brain remedies and bloodletting lives on today

Written by Meg Leja, Associate Professor of History, Binghamton University, State University of New York

This 15th-century medical manuscript shows different colors of urine alongside the ailments they signify.Cambridge University Library, CC BY-NC

Nothing calls to mind nonsensical treatments and bizarre religious healing rituals as easily as the notion of Dark Age medicine. “The Saturday Night Live” sketch Medieval Barber Theodoric of York...