Author: TheConversation

By Charles Colgan, Director of Research for the Center for the Blue Economy, Middlebury Institute of International Studies Ocean-related tourism and recreation supports more than 320,000 jobs and US$13.5 billion in goods and services in Florida. But a swim in the ocean became much less attractive in the summer of 2023, when the water temperatures off Miami reached as high as 101 degrees Fahrenheit. The future of some jobs and businesses across the ocean economy have also become less secure as the ocean warms and damage from storms, sea-level rise and marine heat waves increases. Ocean temperatures have been...

By Andrew Herbert, Professor of Psychology, Visual Perception, Rochester Institute of Technology Myopia, or the need for corrected vision to focus or see objects at a distance, has become a lot more common in recent decades. Some even consider myopia, also known as nearsightedness, an epidemic. Optometry researchers estimate that about half of the global population will need corrective lenses to offset myopia by 2050 if current rates continue – up from 23% in 2000 and less than 10% in some countries. The associated health care costs are huge. In the United States alone, spending on corrective lenses, eye...

By Wesley Marshall, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Colorado Denver “Can you name the truck with four-wheel drive, smells like a steak, and seats 35?” Back in 1998, “The Simpsons” joked about the Canyonero, an SUV so big that they were obviously kidding. At that time, it was preposterous to think anyone would drive something that was “12 yards long, two lanes wide, 65 tons of American Pride.” In 2024, that joke is not far from reality. And our reality is one where more pedestrians and bicyclists are getting killed on U.S. streets than at any time in...

By Tobias Dennerlein, Assistant Professor of Management, Purdue University A majority of American workers right now are not feeling very motivated on the job, a new survey suggests. Management experts often encourage business leaders to motivate employees by empowering them. The idea is that when workers are free to make decisions and manage their workday they become more motivated, perform better and work more creatively. However, for decades, employee empowerment initiatives have often failed or fallen short of expectations. Zappos, for example, was once hailed for its no-bosses structure, but that experiment has largely been dismantled and abandoned in...

By Brian Mittendorf, Professor of Accounting, The Ohio State University A revolution in charitable giving is underway due to the growth of donor-advised funds in the United States. Known widely as DAFs, these financial accounts are designated for charitable giving. Donors can get an immediate tax deduction by putting money or other assets into the accounts, and advise the accounts’ managers to give away the money at a later date. After years of concerns about how quickly the money reserved for charity gets distributed and whether donor-advised funds need to operate more transparently, proposed new federal regulations are now...