The Conversation

Use of HIV prevention treatments is very low among Southern Black gay men

Written by Oluwafemi Atanda Adeagbo, Research fellow, University of South Carolina

Black men who have sex with men in Southern states have a low rate of using HIV prevention treatments. yacobchuk/iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

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

The big idea

Use of antiretroviral treatments to prevent HIV infection – called pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP – is...

Sea otters demonstrate that there is more to muscle than just movement – it can also bring the heat

Written by Traver Wright, Research Assistant Professor of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University

Sea otters are born with a supercharged metabolism. Adria Photography/Moment via Getty Images

Life in the cold can be difficult for animals. As the body chills, organs including the brain and muscles slow down.

The body temperature of animals such as reptiles and amphibians mostly depends on the temperature of their environment – but...

Female faculty of color do extra diversity work for no extra reward – here's how to fix that

Written by Joya Misra, Professor of Sociology & Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Time spent mentoring students is often ignored when it comes to faculty salary and promotion decisions. Peathegee Inc via Getty Images

College faculty members are critical in helping American colleges become more diverse, inclusive and equitable. Professors and instructors not only teach and advise students, they also help institutions make...

School shootings are at a record high this year – but they can be prevented

Written by James Densley, Professor of Criminal Justice, Metropolitan State University

So far, there have been 222 school shootings in 2021.Scott Olson/Getty Images

Whenever a school shooting takes place like the one at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit on November 30, 2021, it is typically followed by a familiar chorus of questions.

How could such a thing happen? Why doesn’t the government do more to stop these shootings...

Victims of domestic abuse find no haven in family courts

Written by Joan Meier, Professor of Law, George Washington University

Women's reports of domestic violence are widely rejected by family courts.The Image Bank/Getty Images

The #MeToo movement may have shifted the balance of credibility on sexual abuse and harassment at work more toward victims and away from alleged perpetrators. But the same cannot be said regarding men’s violence and abuse at home: In fact,...

The US biofuel mandate helps farmers, but does little for energy security and harms the environment

Written by John DeCicco, Research Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan

Surplus corn piled outside a farmer's co-op storage facility in Paoli, Colorado.Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

If you’ve pumped gas at a U.S. service station over the past decade, you’ve put biofuel in your tank. Thanks to the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, almost all gasoline sold nationwide is required to contain 10%...

Supreme Court signals shift on abortion – but will it strike down Roe or leave it to states to decide when 'personhood' occurs?

Written by Morgan Marietta, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Will Justices give a green light to states to decide on abortion?Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

The Supreme Court justices signaled a potential major shift on abortion law on Dec. 1, 2021. Hearing arguments in a case that could fundamentally alter abortion rights and regulations throughout the nation, the six conservative justices who hold the...

Most school shooters get their guns from home – and during the pandemic, the number of firearms in households with teenagers went up

Written by Patrick Carter, Co-Director, Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention; Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Michigan

The scene of the latest – but likely not the last – U.S. school shooting. AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Four days before a 15-year-old sophomore killed four students and wounded others at a high school shooting in Michigan, his father purchased the firearm used in the attack.

That the teenager used a weapon from home during the Nov. 30 attack is...

How the US census led to the first data processing company 125 years ago – and kick-started America’s computing industry

Written by David Lindsay Roberts, Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, Prince George's Community College

This electromechanical machine, used in the 1890 U.S. census, was the first automated data processing system.Niall Kennedy/Flickr, CC BY-NC

The U.S. Constitution requires that a population count be conducted at the beginning of every decade.

This census has always been charged with political significance, and continues to be. That’s clear...

Charting changes in a pathogen's genome yields clues about its past and hints about its future

Written by Claire Guinat, Postdoctoral Fellow in Computational Evolution, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

A virus's genes hold a record of where it's traveled, and when.imaginima/E+ via Getty Images

More than 250 million people worldwide have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, usually after a diagnostic nose swab. Those swabs aren’t trash once they’ve delivered their positive result, though. For scientists like us they carry additional valuable...