The Conversation

Career-based classes keep students more engaged

Written by Jay Stratte Plasman, Assistant Professor in Workforce Development and Education at The Ohio State University, The Ohio State University

Career technical education courses are linked to higher rates of school engagement for high schoolers from low-income backgrounds. Maskot/Getty Images

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

The big idea

Taking a STEM-related career and technical education course in high school makes low-income students more engaged in...

A new ratings industry is emerging to help homebuyers assess climate risks

Written by Matthew E. Kahn, Provost Professor of Economics and Spatial Sciences, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

A cabin is illuminated by firetruck lights as the Caldor Fire burns near Lake Tahoe in California on Aug. 31, 2021.Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

As climate change fuels large-scale natural disasters, wildfire evacuations in the West and flooding from the South to New York City and New England.

Buying a house is complicated enough...

Why the oil industry's pivot to carbon capture and storage – while it keeps on drilling – isn't a climate change solution

Written by June Sekera, Senior Research Fellow, Visiting Scholar, The New School

Most carbon dioxide captured in the U.S. today is used to extract more oil.Citizens of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

After decades of sowing doubt about climate change and its causes, the fossil fuel industry is now shifting to a new strategy: presenting itself as the source of solutions. This repositioning...

SUV tragedy in Wisconsin shows how vehicles can be used as a weapon of mass killing – intentionally or not

Written by Mia Bloom, Evidence Based Cyber Security Program, Georgia State University

Debris at the site where an SUV plowed into a Christmas paradeJim Vondruska/Getty Images

Police have yet to confirm what caused a driver to plow a red SUV into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Nov. 21, 2021, killing at least five people and injuring scores more. But one thing is clear: Vehicles can be a deadly weapon, whether used...

Supreme Court could redefine when a fetus becomes a person, upholding abortion limits while preserving the privacy right under Roe v. Wade

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

The Supreme Court hears a case on Dec. 1, 2021, regarding a Mississippi abortion law that poses a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

Since the Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to abortion almost 50 years ago, a powerful legal movement has sought to overturn the ruling, while abortion rights...

The average person's daily choices can still make a big difference in fighting climate change – and getting governments and utilities to tackle it, too

Written by Tom Ptak, Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, Texas State University

Reducing household energy use can contribute to slowing climate change.Westend61 via Getty Images

The average American’s everyday interactions with energy sources are limited. They range from turning appliances on or off, to commuting, to paying utility bills.

The connections between those acts and rising global temperatures may seem distant.

Ho...

How the pandemic helped spread fentanyl across the US and drive opioid overdose deaths to a grim new high

Written by Andrew Kolodny, Co-Director of Opioid Policy Research, Brandeis University

Emblems of America's epidemics.David Gannon/AFP via Getty Images

For the past 20 years, I have been engaged in efforts to end the opioid epidemic, as a public health official, researcher and clinician. And for every one of those years I have looked on as the number of deaths from drug overdoses has set a new record high.

Yet even knowing that trend...

Project Veritas and the mainstream media: Strange allies in the fight to protect press freedom

Written by Jane E Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota

James O'Keefe at the National Press Club announces an undercover investigation into Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign staff in 2015.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

An FBI raid on Project Veritas leader James O'Keefe’s home in early November 2021 has sparked an unusual demonstration of support from the very establishment media that...

Americans support climate change policies, especially those that give them incentives and clean up the energy supply

Written by Janet K. Swim, Professor of Psychology, Penn State

Incentives like rebates for insulation or allowing homeowners to sell energy from solar panels were more popular than taxing for excess energy use.Lourdes Balduque via Getty Images

As the Biden administration tries to build support for new climate and energy policies, a set of studies offers some insights that could help them appeal to the widest...

Infrastructure law's digital equity goals are key to smart cities that work for everyone

Written by Gregory Porumbescu, Assistant Professor at the School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University - Newark

Smart cities promise a shining future, but without deliberate efforts to include underserved communities they can worsen the digital divide.shunli zhao/Moment via Getty Images

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov. 15, 2021, differs from past infrastructure investments not only in its size but also...