The Conversation

Coronavirus numbers confusing you? Here's how to make sense of them

Written by Pamela M. Aaltonen, Professor Emerita; Immediate Past President, APHA, Purdue University

In Irvine, Calif., a COVID-19 test is retrieved from a drive-in patient at Orange County Great Park. For four weeks, the testing station will see 520 patients per day. Getty Images / Allen J. Schaben

Turn on the TV news, or look at a news website, and you’ll see charts, graphics, and dashboards that supposedly indicate the latest with...

Russian cyberthreat extends to coronavirus vaccine research

Written by Dorothy Denning, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Defense Analysis, Naval Postgraduate School

Who are in the hoodies?BeeBright/iStock/Getty Images Plus

A Russian cyberespionage group that hacked into election networks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine information from researchers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. The governments of those three countries issued a warning on July 16 saying...

Social networks aim to erase hate but miss the target on guns

Written by Adam G. Klein, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Pace University

Imagery and talk of guns can often be thinly veiled forms of threats.Zach Gibson/Getty Images

As Facebook faces down a costly boycott campaign demanding the social network do more to combat hate speech, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced plans to ban a “wider category of hateful content in ads.” Twitter, YouTube and Reddit have also...

Could employers and states mandate COVID-19 vaccinations? Here's what the courts have ruled

Written by Debbie Kaminer, Law Professor, Baruch College, CUNY

The federal government is fast-tracking some potential coronavirus vaccines currently in clinical trials.AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

A safe and effective vaccine could end the coronavirus pandemic, but for it to succeed, enough people will have to get inoculated.

Recent polls suggest that the U.S. is far from ready. Most surveys have found that only about...

Black men face high discrimination and depression, even as their education and incomes rise

Written by Shervin Assari, Associate Professor of Family Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science

Six of the author's studies show health disparities due to both race and gender.Getty Images / Juanmonino

Are you a highly educated and relatively wealthy Black man in the U.S.? Studies that we have done and also those by others show that you are at increased risk of discrimination and depression. Our research on the intersection of race and gender...

Colleges expect athletes to work but not to air any grievances – here's why that's wrong

Written by Erin Hatton, Associate Professor of Sociology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

The world of college athletics promises many opportunities to young players, but at what cost?Thomas Barwick/GettyImages

When Northwestern University created its 2013 football team handbook, the guide included a list of 50 “Twitter tips” for the athletes.

Tip #10 told the players not to use Twitter as “an outlet to complain about...

New teachers mistakenly assume Black students are angry

Written by Alison Cooke, Ph.D. Candidate of Psychology, North Carolina State University

African American students are disproportionately punished, starting in preschool.Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images

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

The big idea

College students who are training to become teachers are 36% more likely to mistakenly believe that a Black child is angry when that child...

How Taiwanese death rituals have adapted for families living in the US

Written by Pei-Lin Yu, Associate Professor, Boise State University

Priests in Taiwan perform a ritual for the souls of the dead.Alberto Buzzola/LightRocket via Getty Images

Taiwanese people living in the United States face a dilemma when loved ones die. Many families worry that they might not be able to carry out proper rituals in their new homeland.

As a biracial Taiwanese-American archaeologist living in Idaho...

With fewer cars on US streets, now is the time to reinvent roadways and how we use them

Written by Kevin J. Krizek, Professor of Environmental Design, University of Colorado Boulder

New priorities in Boulder, Colo.Kevin Krizek, CC BY-ND

Sticking closer to home because of COVID-19 has shown many people what cities can be like with less traffic, noise, congestion and pollution. Roads and parking lots devoted to cars take up a lot of land. For example, in Phoenix, Los Angeles and New York City these spaces account for over...

ALS scientific breakthrough: Diabetes drug metformin shows promise in mouse study for a common type of ALS

Written by Laura P.W. Ranum, Director, Center for NeuroGenetics and Kitzman Family Professor of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology, University of Florida

A man with ALS uses a head-mounted laser pointer to communicate with his wife, by pointing to letters and words on a communication board.Fezcat via Wikipedia.com

An FDA-approved diabetes drug shows early signs of promise against the most common genetic form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a devastating neurological condition that causes...