The Conversation

Shadow war no more: Hostilities between Israel and Iran have strayed into direct warfare – is there any going back?

Written by Javed Ali, Associate Professor of Practice of Public Policy, University of Michigan

Israel's air defense system intercepted nearly all missiles fired from Iran on April 13, 2024.AP Photo/Tomer Neuberg

For decades, Iran and Israel have been engaged in a “shadow war.”

Falling short of direct military confrontation, this conflict has been characterized by war through other means – through proxies, cyber attacks, econ...

‘I’m not black, I’m O.J.’: What O.J. Simpson’s life showed about transcending race and being trapped by it

Written by Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami University

O.J. Simpson listens to testimony during his 1995 trial, in which he was acquitted of murder charges. David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

It’s still unclear when – or if – O.J. Simpson actually said the words that rapper Jay-Z attributed to him in his 2017 Grammy-nominated song “The Story of O.J.”

But the words stuck and...

Has the media learned anything since the O.J. Simpson trial?

Written by Frankie Bailey, Professor of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University of New York

O.J. Simpson shows the jury a pair of gloves, similar to those found near the crime scene, during his trial in Los Angeles in 1995.POO/AFP via Getty Images

With the death of O.J. Simpson, I can’t help but wonder whether the media has learned any lessons from its coverage of his trial, in which the ex-football star was acquitted of murdering...

The hidden risk of letting AI decide – losing the skills to choose for ourselves

Written by Joe Árvai, Dana and David Dornsife Professor of Psychology and Director of the Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

As artificial intelligence creeps further into people’s daily lives, so do worries about it. At the most alarmist are concerns about AI going rogue and terminating its human masters.

But behind the calls for a pause on the development of AI is a suite of more tangible social ills. Among them are the risks AI poses to people’s privacy...

The South’s aging water infrastructure is getting pounded by climate change – fixing it is also a struggle

Written by Jonathan Fisk, Associate Professor of Political Science, Auburn University

Workers attempt to repair a water main break in Jackson, Miss.Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Climate change is threatening America’s water infrastructure as intensifying storms deluge communities and droughts dry up freshwater supplies in regions that aren’t prepared.

The severe storms that swept through the South April...

A monumental case, unfolding in a court of law and a court of public opinion – Trump goes on trial

Written by Karrin Vasby Anderson, Professor of Communication Studies, Colorado State University

Former President Donald Trump stands trial on April 15, 2024.Yuki Iwamura//AFP via Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump’s New York trial on charges related to paying hush money to an adult film star begins on April 15, 2024. The Conversation U.S. asked Tim Bakken, a former New York prosecutor and now a legal scholar teaching at West...

A young Black scientist discovered a pivotal leprosy treatment in the 1920s − but an older colleague took the credit

Written by Mark M. Lambert, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Medicine, Medical Humanities, and Bioethics, Des Moines University

The island of Molokai, where the Ball Method successfully treated leprosy sufferers.Albert Pierce Taylor

Hansen’s disease, also called leprosy, is treatable today – and that’s partly thanks to a curious tree and the work of a pioneering young scientist in the 1920s. Centuries prior to her discovery, sufferers had no remedy for...

Colorado is latest state to try turning off the electrical grid to prevent wildfires − a complex, technical operation pioneered in California

Written by Kyri Baker, Assistant Professor of Building Systems Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

The U.S. power grid is the largest and most complex machine ever built. It’s also aging and under increasing stress from climate-driven disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes and heat waves.

Over the past decade, power grids have played roles in wildfires in multiple states, including California, Hawaii, Oregon and Minnesota. When wind...

Nitazenes found in 5 overdose deaths in Philly – here’s what they are and why they’re so deadly

Written by Christopher P. Holstege, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, University of Virginia

Nitazenes are a class of synthetic opioids more potent than fentanyl.Joe Lamberti/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office found that nitazenes, a synthetic opioid up to 40 times more powerful than fentanyl, were connected to at least five overdose deaths in Philadelphia in the past two years.

The...

The unfinished business of John F. Kennedy’s vision for world peace

Written by Philip A. Goduti, Jr., Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, Quinnipiac University

John and Jackie Kennedy in Paris in May 1961. Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Less than a week after her husband’s assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, Jackie Kennedy granted an interview with esteemed political writer Theodore White for Life magazine, one of the leading national publications of its day.

Determined to prote...