The Conversation

In Egypt, where a meal isn’t complete without bread, war in Ukraine is threatening the wheat supply and access to this staple food

Written by Jessica Barnes, Associate Professor of Geography, University of South Carolina

A man carries a tray of freshly baked bread outside a bread factory on Dec. 15, 2016, in Cairo.Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Russia’s war on Ukraine is disrupting global grain supplies. Restrictions on navigation in the Azov Sea and the closure of ports have interrupted grain shipments from Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, and...

Longer naps in the day may be an early sign of dementia in older adults

Written by Yue Leng, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco

Older adults who nap at least once for more than an hour a day have a 40% higher chance of developing dementia.ozgurdonmaz/E+ via Getty Images

Doctors often recommend “power naps” as a way to compensate for a poor night’s sleep and help keep alert until bedtime. But for older adults, extensive power naps could be an early sign of...

When Putin says Russia and Ukraine share one faith, he's leaving out a lot of the story

Written by Kathryn David, Mellon Assistant Professor of Russian and East European Studies, Vanderbilt University

A Ukrainian service member takes a photograph of a damaged church after shelling in a residential district in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 10, 2022. AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

Russian President Vladimir Putin has often asserted that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people.” He points to a few factors: the Russian language spoken widely in...

Drugs that treat opioid use disorder are a good use for multibillion-dollar settlement funds

Written by Elizabeth Chiarello, Associate Professor of Sociology, Saint Louis University

Dr. Laura Kehoe gives a presentation about why emergency room physicians should prescribe buprenorphine for people recovering from opioid overdoses.Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

States, cities, counties and tribal governments across the nation will soon receive a windfall through several major opioid settlements. Drug distributors...

With threats of nuclear war and climate disaster growing, America's 'bunker fantasy' is woefully inadequate

Written by David L. Pike, Professor of Literature, American University

At the end of the Academy Award-nominated film “Don’t Look Up,” with a meteor hurtling toward Earth, the movie’s three scientist-protagonists gather with family and friends for a last supper around a dinner table in central Michigan.

Having exhausted their efforts at action, they eat the food they’ve prepared and...

Madeleine Albright saw US as an ‘indispensable nation’ and NATO expansion eastward as essential

Written by Peter Harris, Associate Professor of Political Science, Colorado State University

Helping forge a post-Cold War identity for the United States.Alberto Pizzoli/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images

Madeleine Albright may have not coined the phrase “indispensable nation,” but she will always be associated with the concept.

By the time she became Secretary of State in 1997, the United States had become a beached superpower....

Would gas tax breaks make a big difference when prices are skyrocketing? We asked 4 experts

Written by Jay L. Zagorsky, Senior Lecturer in Markets, Public Policy and Law, Questrom School of Business, Boston University

Gas station in Seattle on March 11, 2022.AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

With gasoline prices trending over US$4 per gallon nationwide, politicians are feeling the heat. In response, Maryland and Georgia have temporarily waived their state gasoline taxes to reduce the burden on consumers. Other states are considering similar actions, and some members of...

Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court hearing is a flashback to how race and crime featured during Thurgood Marshall's 1967 hearings

Written by Margaret M. Russell, Associate Professor of Law, Santa Clara University

Ketanji Brown Jackson, speaking during her confirmation hearing on March 22, 2022, would be the first Black woman to serve on the court.Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images

U.S. Sen. James Eastland posed a question to U.S. Supreme Court nominee Thurgood Marshall during his August 1967 confirmation hearings.

“Are you prejudiced against white people in...

Vaccine hesitancy is complicating physicians' obligation to respect patient autonomy during the COVID-19 pandemic

Written by Ryan Liu, Family Medicine Resident Physician, Penn State

Over the past couple of decades there has been a shift away from upholding patient autonomy to prioritizing public health. Terry Vine/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Sitting barely 6 feet away from me, my patient yelled angrily, his face mask slipping to his upper lip: “No, I will not get vaccinated. And nothing you do or say will change that...

New data-sharing requirements from the National Institutes of Health are a big step toward more open science – and potentially higher-quality research

Written by Stephen Jacobs, Professor of Interactive Games and Media, Rochester Institute of Technology

In order to get funding from the National Institutes of Health, researchers now need a plan for sharing and managing their data.Exdez/Digital Vision Vectors via Getty Images

Starting on Jan. 25, 2023, many of the 2,500 institutions and 300,000 researchers that the U.S. National Institutes of Health supports will need to provide a formal, detailed...