The Conversation - Rise of the Neo-Luddites

What is carbon capture and storage? EPA’s new power plant standards proposal gives it a boost, but CCS is not a quick solution

Soyoung Oh, Tufts University

Carbon capture and storage could keep fossil fuel power plants running under newly proposed federal emissions standards, but it faces high hurdles.

Biden’s strategy for cutting carbon emissions from electricity generation could extend the lives of fossil fuel power plants

Jennifer K. Rushlow, Vermont Law & Graduate School

After the Supreme Court overturned the Obama administration’s strategy for reducing power plant carbon emissions in 2022, the Biden administration is taking a narrower but still ambitious approach.

An obscure 1800s law is shaping up to be the center of the next abortion battle – legal scholars explain what’s behind the Victorian-era statute

Sonia Suter, George Washington University; Naomi Cahn, University of Virginia

The 1873 Comstock Act makes it a crime to mail abortion drugs or medicine – raising legal questions about the law’s potential revival and influence over nationwide abortion laws.

Despite the end of Title 42, restrictions on asylum seekers are expected to continue under Biden administration

Ernesto Castañeda, American University

Title 42 has triggered criticisms from immigration advocates and public health experts. But the end of the controversial policy may mean fewer asylum seekers crossing the US border.

A brief history of debt ceiling crises and the political chaos they’ve unleashed

Raymond Scheppach, University of Virginia

There are political as well as economic risks to debt standoffs in Congress.

Meditative mothering? How Buddhism honors both compassionate caregiving and celibate monks and nuns

Liz Wilson, Miami University

The lines between family life and Buddhist monasticism are not so ‘either/or’ as they might seem.

Lessons from ‘Star Trek: Picard’ – a cybersecurity expert explains how a sci-fi series illuminates today’s threats

Richard Forno, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

‘Star Trek: Picard’ is set 400 years in the future, but, like most science fiction, it deals with issues in the here and now. The show’s third and final season provides a lens on cybersecurity.

Tupac’s ‘Dear Mama’ endures as rap artists detail complex relationships with their mothers, street life and the pursuit of success

A.D. Carson, University of Virginia

From Tupac to Jay-Z, many a rap artist has set pen to paper to pay homage to the women who gave them birth.

Gene therapy helps combat some forms of blindness – and ongoing clinical trials are looking to extend these treatments to other diseases

Jean Bennett, University of Pennsylvania

Genetics expert Jean Bennett explains how gene therapy is being used to treat certain forms of inherited blindness.

Zulu vs Xhosa: how colonialism used language to divide South Africa’s two biggest ethnic groups

Sleep paralysis: why modern horror is fascinated by old superstitions of troubled slumbers

Tiny aquatic athletes: how baby Nemo can ‘just keeping swimming’ from the open ocean to the reef

Here’s the first question of this week’s edition:

A jury has found that former President Donald Trump sexually abused journalist E. Jean Carroll in 1996. Where did the abuse happen?

1. A. On Trump's private plane
2. B. In a department store dressing room
3. C. In a luxury suite at Yankee Stadium
4. D. In a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago

Test your knowledge