The Conversation

Why is the FDA seeking to ban menthol cigarettes? 4 questions answered

Written by David Mendez, Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan

Menthol cigarettes were responsible for an estimated 377,000 premature deaths in the U.S. during the past 40 years.BAKERLY/iStock via Getty Images

The FDA has opened the public comment period for the agency’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. Epidemiology and global health professor Rafael Meza studies data modeling in disease prevention...

Public education is supposed to prepare an informed citizenry – elementary teachers have just two hours a week to teach social studies

Written by Kenneth Anthony, Associate Professor of Elementary Education, Mississippi State University

A student listens to a U.S. history lesson in a New Mexico classroom.AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio

The founders of the United States were intentionally building a nation based on the ideals of the Enlightenment, a movement centered on individual happiness, knowledge and reason. This new approach to defining a country – rather than basing it on...

Bad news for the 2022 hurricane season: The Loop Current, a fueler of monster storms, is looking a lot like it did in 2005, the year of Katrina

Written by Nick Shay, Professor of Oceanography, University of Miami

An image from satellite data shows the strong Loop Current and swirling eddies.Christopher Henze, NASA/Ames

The Atlantic hurricane season starts on June 1, and the Gulf of Mexico is already warmer than average. Even more worrying is a current of warm tropical water that is looping unusually far into the Gulf for this time of year, with the power to...

Whether in war-torn Ukraine, Laos or Spain, kids have felt compelled to pick up crayons and put their experiences to paper

Written by Paul Morrow, Human Rights Fellow, University of Dayton

In 1970, a 16-year-old Laotian boy drew a picture of his school being bombed. 'Many people' died, he wrote, 'But I didn't know who because I wasn't courageous enough to look.'Legacies of War, CC BY-SA

“They still draw pictures!”

So wrote the editors of an influential collection of children’s art that was compiled in 1938 during the...

Nonprogrammers are building more of the world's software – a computer scientist explains 'no-code'

Written by Tam Nguyen, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of Dayton

Traditional computer programming has a steep learning curve that requires learning a programming language, for example C/C++, Java or Python, just to build a simple application such as a calculator or Tic-tac-toe game. Programming also requires substantial debugging skills, which easily frustrates new learners. The study time, effort and...

US child welfare system is falling short because of persistent child poverty

Written by Astraea Augsberger, Assistant Professor of Social Work, Boston University

Keeping families that are enduring hard times together is hard but usually benefits children.Westend61 via Getty Images

Although government spending on the child welfare system totaled US$33 billion in 2018, the most recent year for which an estimate is available, it’s still failing to meet all children’s needs because of overwhelming...

Leaking a Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion or other hot topics is unprecedented – 4 things to know about how the high court works

Written by Eve Ringsmuth, Associate professor of poltiical science, Oklahoma State University

Signs belonging to anti-abortion protesters sit in front of a fenced U.S. Supreme Court building on May 16, 2022.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to announce a decision that could possibly overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion.

The court is currently considering a case...

Racism is different than colorism – here's how

Written by Ronald Hall, Professor of Social Work, Michigan State University

The preference for lighter skin has its roots in colonial histories.STEFAN HEUNIS/AFP via Getty Images

Ronald Hall is a professor in the School of Social Work at Michigan State University. He has written over 200 books/articles/monographs, etc., on colorism – discrimination on the basis of skin tone, often among the same ethnic or racial...

The role party affiliation played in getting US to grim new milestone of 1 million COVID deaths

Written by Monika L. McDermott, Professor of Political Science, Fordham University

The American flag flies at half-staff at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 14, 2022, after President Biden ordered flags lowered to commemorate 1 million American dead due to COVID-19. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

COVID-19 has now claimed the lives of 1 million Americans – a grim milestone made worse by the fact that probably a third...

Why Turkey isn't on board with Finland, Sweden joining NATO – and why that matters

Written by Ronald Suny, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan

Room for any more at NATO? Not according to Turkey's president.Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images

After decades of neutrality, the two Scandinavian states that have to date remained out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have reacted to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by declaring an intention to join the American-led alliance. But...