The Conversation

High-speed rail moves millions throughout the world every day – but in the US, high cost and low use make its future bumpy

Written by Stephen Mattingly, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington

The Amtrak NextGen Acela is a new high-speed train that runs between Washington, D.C. and Boston.Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

High-speed rail systems are found all over the globe. Japan’s bullet train began operating in 1964. China will have 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) of high-speed track by the end of 2025. The fastest train in Europe...

Ranked choice voting outperforms the winner-take-all system used to elect nearly every US politician

Written by Ismar Volić, Professor of Mathematics, Director of Institute for Mathematics and Democracy, Wellesley College

Ranked choice voting makes use of more information from the voters than plurality voting.stefanamer/Getty Images

American democracy is straining under countless pressures, many of them rooted in structural problems that go back to the nation’s founding. Chief among them is the “pick one” plurality voting system – also called...

Why protecting Colorado children from dying of domestic violence is such a hard problem

Written by Kaitlyn M. Sims, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, University of Denver; Institute for Humane Studies

More than one-third of homicides of women are perpetrated by intimate partners, and there has been a steady increase in domestic violence-related deaths of children.Alvaro Medina Jurado/Getty Images

A record number of Colorado children died in 2024 as a result of domestic violence, despite a statewide reduction in overall homicide.

Of the eight...

We are hardwired to sing − and it’s good for us, too

Written by Elinor Harrison, Lecturer, Performing Arts Department, Faculty Affiliate, Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis

Gospel choir director Clyde Lawrence performs at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on April 25, 2025. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

On the first Sunday after being named leader of the Catholic Church in May 2025, Pope Leo XIV stood on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and addressed the tens of thousands of people gathered....

Winter storms blanket the East, while the U.S. West is wondering: Where’s the snow?

Written by Adrienne Marshall, Assistant Professor of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines

Much of the West has seen a slow start to the 2026 snow season.Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post

Ski season is here, but while the eastern half of the U.S. digs out from winter storms, the western U.S. snow season has been off to a very slow start.

The snowpack was far below normal across most of the West on Dec. 1, 2025. Denver didn’t see its...

Winter storms blanket the East, while the US West is wondering: Where’s the snow?

Written by Adrienne Marshall, Assistant Professor of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines

Much of the West has seen a slow start to the 2026 snow season.Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post

Ski season is here, but while the eastern half of the U.S. digs out from wintery storms, the western U.S. snow season has been off to a very slow start.

The snowpack was far below normal across most of the West on Dec. 1, 2025. Denver didn’t see its...

Stalin’s postwar terror targeted Soviet Jews – in the name of ‘anti-cosmopolitanism’

Written by Wendy Z. Goldman, Professor of History, Carnegie Mellon University

A plaque in Russia commemorates the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, whose leaders were executed in August 1952.Adam Baker/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

Many Americans know of Josef Stalin’s Terror of the late 1930s, during which more than 1 million people were arrested for political crimes, and over 680,000 executed.

Fewer know about the...

Rural high school students are more likely than city kids to get their diplomas, but they remain less likely to go to college

Written by Sheneka Williams, Professor of Educational Administration, Michigan State University

A high school junior looks over a farm where he works in Perry, N.Y., in March 2025. Lauren Petracca/Associated Press

Many high school seniors are currently in the midst of the college application process or are already waiting to hear back from their selected schools.

For high school students in rural parts of the United States, the frantic pace...

Texas cities have some of the highest preterm birth rates in the US, highlighting maternal health crisis nationwide

Written by Kobi V. Ajayi, Research Assistant Professor of Maternal and Child Health, Texas A&M University

The newest March of Dimes report gives the U.S. a D+ rating on preterm birth rates.IvanJekic/E+ via Getty Images

Seven years ago, at 30 weeks into a seemingly low-risk pregnancy, I unexpectedly began to bleed. Doctors diagnosed me with complete placenta previa. Then, while on bed rest at 32 weeks, my placenta suddenly ruptured, leading to an...

New York’s wealthy warn of a tax exodus after Mamdani’s win – but the data says otherwise

Written by Cristobal Young, Associate Professor of Sociology, Cornell University

Wealthy New Yorkers have threatened to leave the city if Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani follows through on his promise to raise taxes on the rich.Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

New York’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, campaigned on a promise to raise the city’s income tax on its richest residents from 3.9% to 5.9%. Combined with the...