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The Conversation

Basic income for all could lift millions out of poverty – and change how we think about inequality

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageA basic income may distribute the peanuts a little more fairly. Peanut piles via www.shutterstock.com

The idea of a basic income for every person has been popping up regularly in recent years.

Economists, think tanks, activists and politicians from different stripes have toyed with the idea of governments giving every citizen or resident a minimum...

Read more: Basic income for all could lift millions out of poverty – and change how we think about inequality

The fourth industrial revolution: what does WEF's Klaus Schwab leave out?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageDigital and physical worlds are predicted to become inseparable in the fourth industrial revolution.DNA Films

In April 2000, Bill Joy famously wrote in Wired Magazine:

Our most powerful 21st-century technologies – robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech – are threatening to make humans an endangered species.

At the time, Joy was an...

Read more: The fourth industrial revolution: what does WEF's Klaus Schwab leave out?

If we want medicine to be evidence-based, what should we think when the evidence doesn't agree?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageWeighing the evidence. Maggie Villiger, CC BY-ND

To understand if a new treatment for an illness is really better than older treatments, doctors and researchers look to the best available evidence. Health professionals want a “last word” in evidence to settle questions about what the best modes of treatment are.

But not all medical...

Read more: If we want medicine to be evidence-based, what should we think when the evidence doesn't agree?

How do you build a mirror for one of the world's biggest telescopes?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
image20 tons of Ohara E6 borosilicate glass being loaded onto the mold of one of the GMT's mirrors.Ray Bertram, Steward Observatory, CC BY-ND

When astronomers point their telescopes up at the sky to see distant supernovae or quasars, they’re collecting light that’s traveled millions or even billions of light-years through space. Even huge...

Read more: How do you build a mirror for one of the world's biggest telescopes?

Four quotes from the sixth GOP presidential debate, explained by experts

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageTrump and Cruz during the GOP debate, round 6. North Charleston, South Carolina January 14, 2016. REUTERS/Randall Hill

Editor’s note: Seven candidates took part in Thursday’s mainstage presidential debate in North Charleston, South Carolina – the sixth debate between the GOP candidates. Donald Trump, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Ben...

Read more: Four quotes from the sixth GOP presidential debate, explained by experts

To cut emissions faster, U.S. should ditch tax credit-based subsidies for renewable energy

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageA solar array goes up in New York. Is this the best place to locate solar, given the relatively clean New York state grid? Lucas Braun, CC BY-SA

Congress last month extended valuable tax credits to producers of electricity from wind turbines and solar photovoltaic panels, a move that came as a relief to an industry that has experienced rapid growth...

Read more: To cut emissions faster, U.S. should ditch tax credit-based subsidies for renewable energy

Under the spell of a generator's thrum, a Faulkner masterpiece was born

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageIn order to support his young family, William Faulkner took a job shoveling coal at a power plant on Ole Miss's campus.Mussklprozz/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

A few hundred feet south of the University of Mississippi’s famed Grove – site of bucolic commencement ceremonies and college football’s most unique tailgating experience...

Read more: Under the spell of a generator's thrum, a Faulkner masterpiece was born

Race and racism after Obama: where do we go from here?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageObama leads the way across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, March 7, 2015. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Last night marked the final time President Obama will address the nation as its commander-in-chief, an event signaling the beginning of the end of the “Obama era.“ Now may be as good a time as any to reflect on what we were...

Read more: Race and racism after Obama: where do we go from here?

Are Powerball drawings and 'Quick Pick' numbers really random?

  • Written by The Conversation Contributor
imageHow hard is it to build a random number generator?Philip Sears/Reuters

The math behind all the discussion of tonight’s Powerball drawing assumes true randomness – equal likelihood for each number to be chosen, both in the drawing itself and, crucially, in the process of assigning “Quick Picks” to ticket buyers who...

Read more: Are Powerball drawings and 'Quick Pick' numbers really random?

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  11. Can schools punish students for off-campus, online speech?
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  13. Could online 'slacktivists' actually help Making a Murderer's Steven Avery?
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  15. Congress' bipartisan Christmas gifts will lead to ballooning deficits
  16. Federal control of western land: two perspectives
  17. What makes a 'smart gun' smart?
  18. US–Saudi relations and the search for leverage
  19. The twisted roots of U.S. land policy in the West
  20. Can we curb the opioid abuse epidemic by rethinking chronic pain?
  21. What Pantone's colors of 2016 mean for the future of design
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  23. The Paris Agreement: the first _local_ global environmental pact
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  25. Hong Kong copyright battle tests U.S. candidates' commitments to free speech
  26. Quest to find bitcoin's founder highlights currency's biggest threat: the taxman
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  28. It's too late for a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine
  29. Playing 'serious games,' adults learn to solve thorny real-world problems
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  32. Affordable Care Act's push to consolidate health care to curb costs may backfire
  33. How 3D printing threatens our patent system
  34. At UC San Diego, retired professors are mentoring first-generation college students
  35. Why isn't learning about public health a larger part of becoming a doctor?
  36. Obama's executive order on guns is mostly political theater
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  43. Pleasure is good: How French children acquire a taste for life
  44. What North America can expect from El Niño
  45. Outlook for 2016: middle-class woes, hopeful on wages, the fear factor
  46. Five things you should know about the Iowa caucuses
  47. Was 2015 such a terrible year? And what will 2016 look like?
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