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The gas tax's tortured history shows how hard it is to fund new infrastructure

  • Written by Theodore J. Kury, Director of Energy Studies, University of Florida
imageGas taxes have long been used to pay for roads and bridges.AP Photo/Seth Perlman

As the Biden administration and Republicans negotiate a possible infrastructure spending package, how to pay for it has been a key sticking point.

President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress want to raise taxes on the rich, while some Republicans have been pushing...

Read more: The gas tax's tortured history shows how hard it is to fund new infrastructure

US third parties can rein in the extremism of the two-party system

  • Written by Bernard Tamas, Associate Professor of Political Science, Valdosta State University
imageAn editorial cartoon from 1900 shows the Populist Party swallowing the Democratic Party.J.S. Pughe/Buyenlarge/Getty Images

When the Republican Party ousted Liz Cheney from a leadership position, it exposed a major ideological divide within the current GOP. That caused some people, including prominent Republicans, to suggest there might be a third...

Read more: US third parties can rein in the extremism of the two-party system

Critical race theory sparks activism in students

  • Written by Jerusha Osberg Conner, Professor of Education, Villanova University
imageYouth organizers tend to outperform their peers in school. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Critical race theory – an academic framework that holds that racism is embedded in society – has become the subject of an intense debate about how issues of race should or shouldn’t be taught in schools.

Largely missing in the debate is evidence of...

Read more: Critical race theory sparks activism in students

The surface of Venus is cracked and moves like ice floating on the ocean – likely due to tectonic activity

  • Written by Paul K. Byrne, Associate Professor of Planetary Science, North Carolina State University
imageNew research suggests that Venus' crust is broken into large blocks – the dark reddish–purple areas – that are surrounded by belts of tectonic structures shown in lighter yellow–red. Paul K. Byrne/NASA/USGS, CC BY-ND

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

The big idea

Much of the brittle, upper...

Read more: The surface of Venus is cracked and moves like ice floating on the ocean – likely due to tectonic...

What's behind the rising profile of transgender kids? 3 essential reads

  • Written by Nick Lehr, Arts + Culture Editor
imageAs more trans teens have come out, they've attracted more attention from the media and politicians.iStock via Getty Images

Why are trans youth more visible these days? Is it due to more widespread acceptance, or more media coverage? Just how many trans kids are there?

There seem to be few clear-cut answers. But after talking with a number of...

Read more: What's behind the rising profile of transgender kids? 3 essential reads

Why gain-of-function research matters

  • Written by David Gillum, Senior Director of Environmental Health and Safety and Chief Safety Officer, Arizona State University
imageIn February 2021, a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of COVID-19 visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Due to unanswered questions into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, both the U.S. government and scientists have called for a deeper examination into the validity...

Read more: Why gain-of-function research matters

As urban life resumes, can US cities avert gridlock?

  • Written by John Rennie Short, Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
imageIt's back: Rush-hour traffic in Los Angeles on June 15, 2021.Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Traffic is so ubiquitous in U.S. cities that until recently, imagining urban life without it meant looking to other nations for examples. Then, in 2020, COVID-19 closures and lockdowns took drivers off the roads. The thought experiment...

Read more: As urban life resumes, can US cities avert gridlock?

What's next for health care reform after the Supreme Court rejects ACA's most recent challenge

  • Written by Zack Buck, Associate Professor of Law, University of Tennessee
imageThe Supreme Court has pushed back three challenges to the Affordable Care Act.AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act for the third time on June 17, 2021, this time in a case called California v. Texas. With seven justices holding that the states and individual plaintiffs lacked standing to sue because they...

Read more: What's next for health care reform after the Supreme Court rejects ACA's most recent challenge

Does outer space end – or go on forever?

  • Written by Jack Singal, Associate Professor of Physics, University of Richmond
imageIt can stretch your mind to ponder what's really out there.Stijn Dijkstra/EyeEm via Getty Imagesimage

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

What is beyond outer space? – Siah, age 11, Fremont, California

Right above you is the sky...

Read more: Does outer space end – or go on forever?

How to consume news while maintaining your sanity

  • Written by Aly Colón, Knight Professor of Journalism Ethics, Washington and Lee University
imageToo much news can overwhelm consumers and promote anxiety. The Washington Post / Contributor/ Getty Images

The amount and variety of news produced today often tests people’s ability to determine its value and veracity. Such a torrent of information threatens to drown news consumers in a river of confusion.

Media coverage of the coronavirus,...

Read more: How to consume news while maintaining your sanity

More Articles ...

  1. The dip in the US birthrate isn't a crisis, but the fall in immigration may be
  2. 'Managed retreat' done right can reinvent cities so they're better for everyone – and avoid harm from flooding, heat and fires
  3. This tiny minority of Iraqis follows an ancient Gnostic religion – and there's a chance they could be your neighbors too
  4. 4 ways to get more Black and Latino teachers in K-12 public schools
  5. Supreme Court unanimously upholds religious liberty over LGBTQ rights -- and nods to a bigger win for conservatives ahead
  6. Federal policy has failed to protect Indigenous women
  7. How Black writers and journalists have wielded punctuation in their activism
  8. Lighter pavement really does cool cities when it’s done right
  9. Academic tenure: What it is and why it matters
  10. Conservative hard-liner elected as Iran's next president – what that means for the West and the nuclear deal
  11. Too few women get to invent – that's a problem for women's health
  12. Young people are eager to have sex, but will post-pandemic hookups bring happiness or despair?
  13. A mix-and-match approach to COVID-19 vaccines could provide logistical and immunological benefits
  14. Being a pop star once meant baring skin – now, for artists like Billie Eilish and Demi Lovato, it's all about emotional stripping
  15. Millions are rejecting one of humanity's best weapons for saving lives: Vaccines
  16. Postal banking could provide free accounts to 21 million Americans who don't have access to a credit union or community bank
  17. What's a 100-year flood? A hydrologist explains
  18. What's the charitable deduction? An economist explains
  19. How Israel's missing constitution deepens divisions between Jews and with Arabs
  20. Nurturing dads raise emotionally intelligent kids – helping make society more respectful and equitable
  21. The first mobile phone call was 75 years ago – what it takes for technologies to go from breakthrough to big time
  22. Racial bias makes white Americans more likely to support wars in nonwhite foreign countries -- new study
  23. A court ruling on Shell's climate impact and votes against Exxon and Chevron add pressure, but it's the market that will drive oil giants to change
  24. Why nobody will ever agree on whether COVID lockdowns were worth it
  25. Biden's Supreme Court commission probably won't sway public opinion
  26. 5 ways MacKenzie Scott’s $8.5 billion commitment to social and economic justice is a model for other donors
  27. Faith still shapes morals and values even after people are 'done' with religion
  28. Smelling in stereo – the real reason snakes have flicking, forked tongues
  29. US bishops set collision course with Vatican over plan to press Biden not to take Communion
  30. Joe Biden, a father’s love and the legacy of 'daddy issues' among presidents
  31. What Greek epics taught me about the special relationship between fathers and sons
  32. Americans gave a record $471 billion to charity in 2020, amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, job losses and racial justice
  33. With Ford's electric F-150 pickup, the EV transition shifts into high gear
  34. It wasn't just politics that led to Netanyahu's ouster – it was fear of his demagoguery
  35. Bringing joy back to the classroom and supporting stressed kids – what summer school looks like in 2021
  36. Sticky baseballs: Explaining the physics of the latest scandal in Major League Baseball
  37. Artisan robots with AI smarts will juggle tasks, choose tools, mix and match recipes and even order materials – all without human help
  38. Teaching kids social responsibility – like how to settle fights and ask for help – can reduce school bullying
  39. Friends are saying 'I do' – but might not understand the legal risks of their platonic marriages
  40. What a Title IX lawsuit might mean for religious universities
  41. Rocky Mountain forests burning more now than any time in the past 2,000 years
  42. Netanyahu may be ousted but his hard-line foreign policies remain
  43. Southern Baptist Convention's focus on mission recalls history of promoting white dominance
  44. Why the Second Amendment protects a 'well-regulated militia' but not a private citizen militia
  45. Property disputes in Israel come with a complicated back story – and tend to end with Palestinian dispossession
  46. Electric heat pumps use much less energy than furnaces, and can cool houses too – here's how they work
  47. 8 ways to manage body image anxiety after lockdown
  48. Summer reading: 5 books for young people that deal with race
  49. NASA is returning to Venus to learn how it became a hot poisonous wasteland – and whether the planet was ever habitable in the past
  50. Opioid overdoses spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, data from Pennsylvania show