The Conversation

Poison or cure? Traditional Chinese medicine shows that context can make all the difference

Written by Yan Liu, Assistant Professor of History, University at Buffalo

Poisons have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over two millennia.4X-image/E+ via Getty Images

Poisons today typically evoke notions of harm and danger – the opposite of medicines for healing. Yet traditional Chinese medicine, which has been in practice for over two millennia, used a large number of poisons to treat a variety of...

Where do Afghanistan's refugees go?

Written by Tazreena Sajjad, Senior Professorial Lecturer of Global Governance, Politics and Security, American University School of International Service

Hundreds of Afghan citizens, fleeing their home country, await takeoff after packing inside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan. AP Photo/Capt. Chris Herbert/U.S. Air Force

Images of thousands of Afghans desperately trying to flee their country following a hasty U.S. withdrawal have provoked an...

Climate change is an infrastructure problem – map of electric vehicle chargers shows one reason why

Written by Paul N. Edwards, William J. Perry Fellow in International Security, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University

While a gas station might be 72 miles away, an EV charger may be much farther.Pgiam via Getty Images

Most of America’s 107,000 gas stations can fill several cars every five or 10 minutes at multiple pumps. Not so for electric vehicle chargers – at least not yet. Today the U.S. has around 43,000 public EV charging stations, with about...

How a vial of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine travels from a lab in Missouri to an arm in Bangladesh

Written by Ravi Anupindi, Professor of Technology and Operations, University of Michigan

A Bangladeshi man gets his jab.AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu

Inoculating the planet from COVID-19 presents an unprecedented logistical challenge like none we’ve seen before. Mobilizing for a world war may be the closest comparison – but in this case, the enemy is invisible and everywhere.

Some of the vaccines require super-cold storage at...

Students are returning to school with anxiety, grief and gaps in social skills – will there be enough school mental health resources?

Written by Sandra M. Chafouleas, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Connecticut

School districts are using federal COVID-19 relief funds to hire more mental health professionals.mmpile/E+ Collection via Getty Images

Even before COVID-19, as many as 1 in 6 young children had a diagnosed mental, behavioral or developmental disorder. New findings suggest a doubling of rates of disorders such as anxiety and depression among...

Opioid lawsuit payout plans overlook a vital need: Pain management care and research focused on smarter use of addictive drugs

Written by Mark C. Bicket, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan

The improper prescription of opioids for pain treatment is one of the central drivers of the opioid epidemic.ah_designs/iStock via Getty Images Plus

The opioid crisis has resulted in more than 500,000 overdose deaths over the past two decades. The federal government, states and other entities have filed litigation against drug manufacturers,...

After India's brutal coronavirus wave, two-thirds of population has been exposed to SARS-CoV2

Written by Rajib Dasgupta, Chairperson, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Lining up for a vaccine at a municipal stadium in Hyderabad, India. AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A

Cases of COVID-19 are surging around the world, but the course of the pandemic varies widely country to country. To provide you with a global view as we approach a year and a half since the official declaration of the pandemic, The Conversation’s...

Hospitals often outsource important services to companies that prioritize profit over patients

Written by Leonard L. Berry, University Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Mays Business School; Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Texas A&M University

Many hospitals outsource services to specialized companies. JazzIRT/E+ via Getty Images

Hospitals have long embraced the practice of outsourcing some services to specialized companies. Much of this outsourcing is for nonclinical tasks such as laundry, information technology and cybersecurity, and outsourcing those types of services can boost...

How photography can build peace and justice in war-torn communities

Written by Pamina Firchow, Associate Professor of Coexistence and Conflict, Brandeis University

Project citizen-photographers from Las Cruces, Colombia.Edwin Cubillos Rodriguez, CC BY-ND

It’s not easy for most people to think about what peace and justice mean to them, or how to express it. But that’s what we ask people in war-torn communities to do, all around the world.

One place we did this is in Colombia, a country now testing...

Afghan troops sought safety in numbers – igniting a cascade of surrender

Written by Todd Lehmann, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, University of Michigan

In May, Afghan troops raised their national flag as the U.S. pulled out. Now, their flag is down too.Afghan Ministry of Defense Press Office via AP

The swift collapse of the Afghan military in recent days caught many in the U.S. by surprise, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In the months after President Joe Biden’s April...