The Conversation

Prisoners donating organs to get time off raises thorny ethical questions

Written by Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

Prisoners at a yard at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Neb.AP Photo/Nati Harnik

In January 2023 two Democratic representatives, Judith Garcia and Carlos Gonzalez, proposed a bill that would offer prisoners in Massachusetts a new way to win reduction in their sentences: by donating their bone marrow or vital organs.

The bill stated that...

How records of life's milestones help solve cold cases, pinpoint health risks and allocate public resources

Written by Paula Fomby, Professor of Sociology and Research Associate in Population Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Civil registries in the U.S. are spread across different local jurisdictions.eric1513/iStock via Getty Images Plus

After 65 years, Philadelphia police announced in December 2022 that they had identified the remains of Joseph Augustus Zarelli, a 4-year-old boy who was murdered in 1957. Because no one had ever come forward to reliably identify...

Super Bowl car ads sell Americans the idea that new tech will protect them

Written by Matthew Jordan, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Penn State

At the dawn of the car era, carmakers needed to allay fears that pedestrian lives were at risk.Library of Congress

Super Bowl ads tend to kick off trends, and it looks like the automotive industry will ramp up its pitch for electric vehicles after giving them center stage. Even Tesla, which has never run a Super Bowl ad, managed to sneak its Model...

Michigan State murders: What we know about campus shootings and the gunmen who carry them out

Written by David Riedman, Ph.D. student in Criminal Justice and Creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database, University of Central Florida

A tent covers the body of the alleged gunman at Michigan State University.AP Photo/Carlos Osorio

A gunman opened fire at Michigan State University on Feb. 13, 2023, killing three people and injuring five others before taking his own life.

A lot is still unknown about the campus attack. Police have yet to release a motive and said the 43-year-old man...

Earthquake in Turkey exposes gap between seismic knowledge and action -- but it is possible to prepare

Written by Louise K. Comfort, Professor of Public and International Affairs, former Director of the Center for Disaster Management, University of Pittsburgh

Worst-hit areas in Turkey were reduced to rubble.Erhan Sevenler/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Two days after a devastating earthquake struck, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited one of the worst affected areas and declared that it was “not possible to be prepared for such a disaster.”

Certainly the scale of the...

Donations by top 50 US donors dropped sharply to $16 billion in 2022 – Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mike Bloomberg and Warren Buffett lead the list of biggest givers

Written by David Campbell, Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were two of the year's biggest three donors.AP Photo/Nati Harnik

The top 50 American individuals and couples who gave or pledged the most to charity in 2022 committed to giving US$16 billion to foundations, universities, hospitals and more – a total that was 55% below an inflation-adjusted $35.6 billion in 2021,...

How do blood tests work? Medical laboratory scientists explain the pathway from blood draw to diagnosis and treatment

Written by Rodney E. Rohde, Regents' Professor of Clinical Laboratory Science, Texas State University

Pathology analyzes bodily fluids and tissues using a variety of methods.Alvaro Lavin/Moment via Getty Images

Medical laboratory testing is the heartbeat of medicine. It provides critical data for physicians to diagnose and treat disease, dating back thousands of years. Unfortunately, laboratory medicine as a field is poorly understood by both the...

Five years after Parkland shooting, a school psychologist offers insights on helping students and teachers deal with grief

Written by Philip J. Lazarus, Associate Professor, Counseling, Recreation and School Psychology, Florida International University

Simply returning to a school where a shooting took place can be a struggle for many students.fstop123 via Getty Images

Whenever a school shooting takes place, school officials often arrange for grief counseling services to be made available for whoever needs them. But what exactly do those services entail?

To answer that question, The Conversation...

My art uses plastic recovered from beaches around the world to understand how our consumer society is transforming the ocean

Written by Pam Longobardi, Regents' Professor of Art and Design, Georgia State University

Pam Longobardi amid a giant heap of fishing gear that she and volunteers from the Hawaii Wildlife Fund collected in 2008.David Rothstein, CC BY-ND

I am obsessed with plastic objects. I harvest them from the ocean for the stories they hold and to mitigate their ability to harm. Each object has the potential to be a message from the sea – a...

Tribes in Maine left out of Native American resurgence by 40-year-old federal law denying their self-determination

Written by Joseph Kalt, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Emeritus, Harvard Kennedy School

Supporters of one of several tribal sovereignty bills march in front of the governor's mansion on April 11, 2022, in Augusta, Maine. AP Photo/David Sharp

Hundreds of the 574 federally recognized Indian nations in the U.S. now routinely provide their citizens with the full array of services customarily expected from state and local governments, from...