The Conversation

Sticky baseballs: Explaining the physics of the latest scandal in Major League Baseball

Written by John Eric Goff, Professor of Physics, University of Lynchburg

It used to be spit balls, but now sticky baseballs are giving pitchers an advantage.Tage Olsin, CC BY-SA

Cheating in baseball is as old as the game itself, and pitchers’ modifying the ball’s surface is part of that long history. Adding to the lore of cheating is a new scandal involving pitchers who may be applying sticky substances...

Artisan robots with AI smarts will juggle tasks, choose tools, mix and match recipes and even order materials – all without human help

Written by Glenn S. Daehn, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University

Factory robots could soon acquire a range of skills, including the ability to choose how to make things.studiostockart/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

Failure of a machine in a factory can shut it down. Lost production can cost millions of dollars per day. Component failures can devastate factories, power plants and battlefield equipment.

To...

Teaching kids social responsibility – like how to settle fights and ask for help – can reduce school bullying

Written by Jonathan B. Santo, Professor of Psychology, University of Nebraska Omaha

Elementary school students in Brazil learn healthy ways to resolve conflicts during a three-day workshop in 2019.Sarah Roza, CC BY-NC-ND

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

The big idea

Schools that encourage their students to care for their classmates’ feelings and to peacefully resolve conflicts with their...

Friends are saying 'I do' – but might not understand the legal risks of their platonic marriages

Written by Nausica Palazzo, Postdoctoral Fellow in Comparative Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Since there’s no romantic relationship, judges are likely to default to ruling that platonic marriages are an attempt to game the system.Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images

When a couple decides to tie the knot, they’ll often say they’re marrying their best friend.

But what if two actual best friends – no sex or even romantic...

What a Title IX lawsuit might mean for religious universities

Written by William Trollinger, Professor of History, University of Dayton

A recent lawsuit has charged the U.S. Department of Education as being complicit in the abuse of LGBTQ students.AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

The Religious Exemption Accountability Project, or REAP, filed a class action lawsuit on March 26, 2021, charging that the U.S. Department of Education was complicit “in the abuses that thousands of...

Rocky Mountain forests burning more now than any time in the past 2,000 years

Written by Philip Higuera, Professor of Fire Ecology and Paleoecology, The University of Montana

Colorado's East Troublesome Fire jumped the Continental Divide on Oct. 22, 2020, and eventually became Colorado's second-largest fire on record.Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory

The exceptional drought in the U.S. West has people across the region on edge after the record-setting fires of 2020. Last year, Colorado alone saw its three largest...

Netanyahu may be ousted but his hard-line foreign policies remain

Written by David Mednicoff, Chair, Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks on June 13, 2021.AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

After two years of repeated and inconclusive Israeli elections, the advent of a new coalition government has ended the long era of Benjamin Netanyahu’s prime ministership. Yet he leaves a legacy of hawkish policies that will likely remain intact.

A...

Southern Baptist Convention's focus on mission recalls history of promoting white dominance

Written by Janel Kragt Bakker, Associate Professor of Mission and Culture, Memphis Theological Seminary

J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has called on the denomination to focus on its theological mission.AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File

Rocked by controversies, dwindling numbers and internal divisions, the Southern Baptist Convention will meet for its annual meeting on June 15 under the banner: “We Are Great Commission...

Why the Second Amendment protects a 'well-regulated militia' but not a private citizen militia

Written by Eliga Gould, Professor of History, University of New Hampshire

The Second Amendment declares the importance of state-government authorized militias, like these National Guard troops guarding the California State Capitol building.AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

When a federal judge in California struck down the state’s 32-year-old ban on assault weapons in early June 2021, he added a volatile new issue to the...

Property disputes in Israel come with a complicated back story – and tend to end with Palestinian dispossession

Written by Kristen Alff, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University

Eviction remains a threat for Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah.AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo

The bombing of Gaza may have ended, the sirens in Tel Aviv silenced for now. Yet as concern over a planned June 15, 2021 march by right-wing Israeli nationalists underscores, the threat of violence in Israel is never far from the surface. It is sustained...