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This $75 million gift might make higher ed question its obsession with science and tech

  • Written by Peter E. Knox, Eric and Jane Nord Family Professor, Case Western Reserve University
Investor Bill Miller is betting that today's students can prosper from studying philosophers like Socrates and Plato. Anastasios71/Shutterstock.com

During his unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Marco Rubio made the dubious (and grammatically unsound) assertion that “we need more welders and less...

Read more: This $75 million gift might make higher ed question its obsession with science and tech

A former prosecutor reimagines how the criminal justice system can serve victims of domestic violence

  • Written by Andrew King-Ries, Professor of Criminal Law, The University of Montana
Victims of domestic violence may not get the services they need.Shutterstock

For nearly a decade, I believed I was helping improve victims’ lives by prosecuting people who committed domestic violence in Seattle, Washington.

I aimed to advance the goals of the criminal justice system: Stop the violence, hold the defendant accountable and...

Read more: A former prosecutor reimagines how the criminal justice system can serve victims of domestic...

Is it wrong to ask your doctor for opioids?

  • Written by Travis N. Rieder, Research Scholar at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University
When should you ask your doctor for opioids?Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com

More than 42,000 people died in 2016 from an opioid overdose. Forty percent of these deaths involved a prescription opioid. Overall, deaths from opioid overdoses have contributed to a decrease in American life expectancy for the second year in a row. The last time th...

Read more: Is it wrong to ask your doctor for opioids?

Operation Gunnerside: The Norwegian attack on heavy water that deprived the Nazis of the atomic bomb

  • Written by Timothy J. Jorgensen, Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program and Associate Professor of Radiation Medicine, Georgetown University
The Nazi atomic effort relied on work done in this remote lab.grob831, CC BY

After handing them their suicide capsules, Norwegian Royal Army Colonel Leif Tronstad informed his soldiers, “I cannot tell you why this mission is so important, but if you succeed, it will live in Norway’s memory for a hundred years.”

These commandos did...

Read more: Operation Gunnerside: The Norwegian attack on heavy water that deprived the Nazis of the atomic bomb

A record 29,000 Mexicans were murdered last year – can soldiers stop the bloodshed?

  • Written by Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong

Mexico’s war on drugs has left 234,966 people dead in the last 11 years. In 2017 alone, the country saw some 29,000 murders, the highest annual tally since such record-keeping began in 1997.

For years, incensed Mexicans have demanded that President Enrique Peña Nieto – now in the final stretch of his six-year term – take...

Read more: A record 29,000 Mexicans were murdered last year – can soldiers stop the bloodshed?

Deported twice, man struggles to help his family survive

  • Written by Oscar Gil-Garcia, Assistant Professor, Binghamton University, State University of New York
US-Mexico border fence that separates Tijuana, Mexico, from San Diego, Calif.AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

For more than a decade, I documented one man’s deportation, the impact on his family and his eventual return to the U.S.

I did this as part of my work studying the migration of indigenous Mayan refugees from Guatemala to Mexico and the U.S. My...

Read more: Deported twice, man struggles to help his family survive

Before the US approves new uranium mining, consider its toxic legacy

  • Written by Stephanie Malin, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Colorado State University
Warning sign at Kerr-McGee uranium mill site near Grants, N.M., December 20, 2007.AP photo/Susan Montoya Bryan

Uranium – the raw material for nuclear power and nuclear weapons – is having a moment in the spotlight.

Companies such as Energy Fuels, Inc. have played well-publicized roles in lobbying the Trump administration to reduce...

Read more: Before the US approves new uranium mining, consider its toxic legacy

Starting with Mother Nature's designs will speed up critical development of new antibiotics

  • Written by Natalie Jones Slivinski, Virology Research Scientist, University of Washington
High-tech ways to scan nature's own creations.Caleb Foster/Shutterstock.com

“I did not invent penicillin. Nature did that. I only discovered it by accident.” - Alexander Fleming

Natural products have been the basis of medicine for centuries. Aspirin is based on a chemical in willow tree bark. Morphine comes from the opium plant....

Read more: Starting with Mother Nature's designs will speed up critical development of new antibiotics

Before hitting the road, self-driving cars should have to pass a driving test

  • Written by Srikanth Saripalli, Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University
People have to pass road tests – so should self-driving cars.Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com

What should a self-driving car do when a nearby vehicle is swerving unpredictably back and forth on the road, as if its driver were drunk? What about encountering a vehicle driving the wrong way? Before autonomous cars are on the road, everyone should...

Read more: Before hitting the road, self-driving cars should have to pass a driving test

Why this generation of teens is more likely to care about gun violence

  • Written by Jean Twenge, Professor of Psychology, San Diego State University

When 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, it was just the latest in a tragic list of mass shootings, many of them at schools.

Then something different happened: Teens began to speak out. The Stoneman Douglas students held a press conference appealing for gun control. Teens in Washington, D.C.,...

Read more: Why this generation of teens is more likely to care about gun violence

More Articles ...

  1. Why the 2020 census shouldn't ask about your citizenship status
  2. Why accountability efforts in higher education often fail
  3. When the media cover mass shootings, would depicting the carnage make a difference?
  4. College students may not be as heart-healthy as they think
  5. How Billy Graham's legacy lives on in American life
  6. Why school leaders fake academic success
  7. How airplane crash investigations can improve cybersecurity
  8. Why is there so little research on guns in the US? 6 questions answered
  9. To slow climate change, the US needs to address nuclear power's dismal economics
  10. What cybersecurity investigators can learn from airplane crashes
  11. The way humans point isn't as universal as you might think
  12. Trump's protectionism continues long history of US rejection of free trade
  13. Why is there a norovirus outbreak at the Winter Olympics? 4 questions answered
  14. 5 questions to ask your aging parents' doctors
  15. Alcohol probably makes it harder to stop sexual violence – so why aren't colleges talking about it?
  16. Parents need to start talking to their tweens about the risks of porn
  17. As the Trump administration retreats on climate change, US cities are moving forward
  18. The other feats US Olympians pull off
  19. North Korea's growing criminal cyberthreat
  20. The American public has power over the gun business – why doesn't it use it?
  21. It's getting harder to prosecute politicians for corruption
  22. It's time to end the debate about video games and violence
  23. How can women feel comfortable saying no when they are told they can't say yes?
  24. Black lung disease on the rise: 5 questions answered
  25. The media need to think twice about how they portray mass shooters
  26. 10 ways schools, parents and communities can prevent school shootings now
  27. What the 5Pointz ruling means for street artists
  28. Outfitting the world's best athletes for the Winter Olympics
  29. Protecting every voter's ballot: 6 essential reads
  30. Why students at prestigious high schools still cheat on exams
  31. From FDR's food stamps to Trump's harvest boxes: The history of helping the poor get enough to eat
  32. Writing's power to deceive
  33. Scaling back Obamacare will make the opioid crisis worse
  34. Congress failed to fix tax woes for gig workers
  35. Trump may owe his 2016 victory to 'fake news,' new study suggests
  36. Why does inflation make stock prices fall?
  37. Wearable technologies help Olympians achieve top performance
  38. When the next generation looks racially different from the last, political tensions rise
  39. Trump budget would undo gains from conservation programs on farms and ranches
  40. Trying to keep up with the 'Dreamers' debate? Here are 6 essential reads
  41. Air pollution from industrial shutdowns and startups worse than thought
  42. Why security measures won't stop school shootings
  43. Corporate America needs to get back to thinking about more than just profits
  44. Caribbean residents see climate change as a severe threat but most in US don't — here's why
  45. Why do Christians wear ashes on Ash Wednesday?
  46. Delivering packages with drones might be good for the environment
  47. Prehistoric wine discovered in inaccessible caves forces a rethink of ancient Sicilian culture
  48. The failed president who almost got ousted
  49. How to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry across North America
  50. The 'real' St. Valentine was no patron of love