Portside

The battle over marijuana's legal status and will have consequences for the prospect of cannabis-derived drugs

Current extinction rates are 50 times higher than expected background rates, suggesting that another mass extinction event is underway

American slavery happened – we are still living with its consequences. I believe we are finally ready to face it, learn about it and acknowledge its significance to American history.

It is only when there is a particularly dramatic abuse, or a death that can’t be hidden, that the public gets any glimpse of what life on the inside is like for so many Americans. When ordinary citizens learn of atrocities committed behind bars, most are appalled, but the sad reality is that the public has few tools to gain access to those behind bars. Not knowing is what makes it possible for unimaginable suffering to take place in the name of safety and security.

Unauthorized entry into the U.S. wasn’t always a crime and Mexican immigrants didn’t always fear prosecution. Congress’ early efforts to include Mexicans in its “whites only immigration policy” were stymied by Western agribusiness, which wanted unfettered access to Mexican laborers. Up stepped a white supremacist South Carolina Senator with a compromise. Coleman Blease’s Immigration Act of 1929 dramatically altered the story of crime and punishment in the United States.

Male and female young adults are equally likely to see themself as the less powerful partner, but the consequences are not equal

For many Native Americans, myth and medicine, religion and science, are not viewed as separate, but are interwoven into the fabric of our lives.

Research and creative thinking can change the world. This means that academics have enormous power. But, as academics Asit Biswas and Julian Kirchherr have warned, the overwhelming majority are not shaping today’s public debates.

Aesthetic images can induce staggering changes to the body, including radical reductions in the observer’s stress levels.