The Conversation

Range anxiety? Today's electric cars can cover vast majority of daily U.S. driving needs

Written by Jessika E. Trancik, Assistant Professor of Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Despite worries over the lower driving range of electric cars, most trips can be done with existing electric vehicles. unten44/flickr, CC BY

Electrifying transportation is one of the most promising ways to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, but so-called range anxiety – concern about being stranded with an uncharged...

Not easy being blue: Fatal shootings, job stress make it hard to be a cop

Written by Ryan Wagoner, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of South Florida

Not many people in the United States can identify that their occupation includes “an element of personal danger.”

This, however, is a component of the job description for police officers across the country. It is specifically quoted from the “Duties and Responsibilities of Police Officers” in the Baton Rouge Police Department...

Making college matter

Written by Leo M. Lambert, President, Elon University

Over the next several weeks 18.4 million students will be headed to colleges and universities in the United States. They, their families and taxpayers are making a monumental investment in the futures of these students, believing, correctly, that an undergraduate education is foundational to success in a global and knowledge-based economy.

Many...

Turkey's post-coup commitment to democracy offers chance to resolve Kurdish crisis

Written by Nader Habibi, Professor of the Economics of the Middle East at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University

Turkey’s failed military coup last month rocked the foundations of its political system, yet in some ways the country has emerged stronger and more resilient.

And that’s precisely what Turkey needs to deal with one of its biggest and oldest challenges: the Kurdish minority and the PKK separatists who took up arms against the Turkish...

Are U.S. politics beyond a joke?

Written by Simon Doubleday, Professor and Chair of History, Hofstra University

“I really do respect the press,” President Barack Obama joked at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in 2013, shortly after his second successful election campaign. “I recognize that the press and I have different jobs to do. My job is to be president; your job is to keep me humble. Frankly, I think I’m doing...

Parasitic flies, zombified ants, predator beetles – insect drama on Mexican coffee plantations

Written by Kate Mathis, Research Associate in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona

Azteca ants, unsung heroes of coffee pest control.Kate Mathis, CC BY-ND

Ants are voracious predators and often very good at defending plants from herbivores. People have taken advantage of this quirk for centuries. In fact, using ants in orange groves is one of the first recorded pest control practices, dating back to A.D. 304 in China.

In southern...

Beyond borders: Why we need global action to protect migratory birds

Written by Amanda Rodewald, Professor and Director of Conservation Science, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University

Terns at sunset, Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, Massachusetts.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Flickr, CC BY

One hundred years ago, amid the chaos of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson and King George V of Great Britain turned their attention to a surprising issue: protecting migratory birds. On August 16, 1916 they signed the Migratory Bird...

Why science and engineering need to remind students of forgotten lessons from history

Written by Muhammad H. Zaman, HHMI Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health, Boston University

Isaac Newton's portrait. What can students learn from his life?Alessandro Grussu, CC BY-NC-ND

Lately, there has been a lot of discussion highlighting the need for incorporating social sciences in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines in order to foster creativity, increase empathy and create a better understanding of...

So what if some female Olympians have high testosterone?

Written by Jaime Schultz, Associate Professor of Kinesiology, Pennsylvania State University

On August 12, Dutee Chand became just the second female sprinter to represent India at the Olympic Games. Her road to Rio has been anything but easy.

In 2014, the International Association of Athletic Federations banned her from competition on the grounds that her body naturally produced too much testosterone, a condition called hyperandrogenism....

Why get a liberal education? It is the life and breath of medicine

Written by Leslie Henderson, Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology, Dean of Faculty Affairs, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College

Hospital rankings were released Aug. 2 by U.S. News & World Report. Of the top 20, almost every single hospital is affiliated with a medical school. These big academic medical centers treat a large share of our nation’s sickest patients.

Yet academic medical centers across the nation are reeling from economic pressures and questioning...