The Conversation
One of Hurricane Katrina’s most important lessons isn’t about storm preparations – it’s about injustice
The Conversation • Aug 19, 2025We study disaster planning at Texas A&M University and look for ways communities can improve storm safety for everyone, particularly low-income and minority neighborhoods.
School shootings leave lasting scars on local economies, research shows
The Conversation • Jul 28, 2025We are a team of marketing professors, and in a recent study we looked at household spending in more than 60 U.S. counties that had experienced fatal school shootings between 2012 and 2019. We found that in the six months following an attack, people spent an average of 2.1% less on groceries.
How 17M Americans enrolled in Medicaid and ACA plans could lose their health insurance by 2034
The Conversation • Jul 15, 2025As a public health professor, I see these changes, which will be phased in over several years, as the first step in a reversal of the expansion of access to health care that began with the ACA’s passage in 2010. About 25.3 million Americans lacked insurance in 2023, down sharply from 46.5 million when President Barack Obama signed the ACA into law. All told, the changes in the works could eliminate three-quarters of the progress the U.S. has made in reducing the number of uninsured Americans following the Affordable Care Act.
Many Texas communities are dangerously unprepared for floods − lack of funding plays a big role
The Conversation • Jul 15, 2025We study disaster planning at Texas A&M University and see several ways the state and Texas communities can improve safety for everyone.
Dune patterns in California desert hold clues that help researchers map Mars’ shifting sands
The Conversation • Jul 10, 2025Aeolian bedforms are common on Earth and across the solar system, including on Mars, Venus, Pluto, the Saturn moon Titan, the Neptune moon Triton, and Comet 67P. These geological features, among the first landforms observed by remote images of planetary surfaces, are robust indicators of a world’s wind patterns.
The AI therapist will see you now: Can chatbots really improve mental health?
The Conversation • Jul 10, 2025Artificial intelligence-powered mental health tools are becoming increasingly popular – and increasingly persuasive. But beneath their soothing prompts lie important questions: How effective are these tools? What do we really know about how they work? And what are we giving up in exchange for convenience?
Neuropathic pain has no immediate cause – research on a brain receptor may help stop this hard-to-treat condition
The Conversation • Jun 23, 2025Texas A&M Ph.D. candidate Pooja Shree Chettiar and Ph.D. student Siddhesh Sabnis say that unlike pain from a physical injury, neuropathic pain “stems from damage to or dysfunction in the nervous system itself,” causing even soft touches to feel unbearable. Affecting about 10 percent of the US population, this condition is often overlooked due to its complex biology. The researchers highlight the role of GluD1, a receptor that organizes synapses in pain circuits, in managing this pain.
The use of federal troops to quell Los Angeles protests recalls militarized law enforcement during the Civil Rights Movement
The Conversation • Jun 17, 2025As a scholar of U.S. history, I’ve just completed a book on Jim Crow policing and the ways Black Americans fought back against racist law and order. I think the militarization of policing in Los Angeles opens important questions about democracy and state violence.
Federal R&D funding boosts productivity for the whole economy − making big cuts to such government spending unwise
The Conversation • Jun 12, 2025For the past five years, I’ve been studying the long-term economic benefits of government-funded R&D with Karel Mertens, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. We have found that government R&D spending on everything from the Apollo space program to the Human Genome Project has fueled innovation. We also found that federal R&D spending has played a significant role in boosting U.S. productivity and spurring economic growth over the past 75 years.
Hurricane season is here, but FEMA’s policy change could leave low-income areas less protected
The Conversation • May 30, 2025Hurricanes and other storms that cause flooding don’t affect everyone in the same way. A legacy of redlining and discrimination in many U.S. cities left poor and minority families living in often risky areas. These neighborhoods also tend to have poorer infrastructure.