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A note from...
Emily Costello
Deputy Editor
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Last night millions of American voters spent three hours with the top 10 Democratic candidates for president, listening to their views on health care, gun control, climate change – and even vegan diets.
But the two scholars who watched the debate for The Conversation both tuned into what wasn’t said on the debate stage.
Political rhetoric scholar Jennifer Mercieca of Texas A&M University explains why she feels Democrats need a more full-throated refutation of Ronald Reagan’s claim that “government is the problem.”
And economist Patricia Smith of the University of Michigan feels the candidates missed an opportunity to focus on the millions of Americans without access to healthy food.
Also today:
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Top story
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They didn’t come out and say what they really mean.
AP Photo/Eric Gay
Jennifer Mercieca, Texas A&M University
Americans want government to serve them, but don't have confidence that it actually can.
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Economy + Business
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Patricia Smith, University of Michigan
The Democratic candidates hoping to replace Trump in 2020 debated a host of critical issues but never brought up the critical issue of Americans' food security.
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Elizabeth C. Tippett, University of Oregon
The New York Times reporters who broke the Weinstein story show how lawyers – whether ones who represented him or his victims – enabled the movie mogul's wrongdoing.
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Health + Medicine
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Risa Robinson, Rochester Institute of Technology
Vaping is under heavy scrutiny in the wake of six deaths and hundreds of illnesses. A product engineer who studies how people puff explains why the way users vape could be a clue.
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Brooke W. McKeever, University of South Carolina; Robert McKeever, University of South Carolina
Minority opinions posted online can skew social consensus.
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Science + Technology
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Patricia L. Foster, Indiana University
A challenge in eradicating polio comes from a version of the vaccine itself, which relies on live but attenuated virus. Rationally designing a new vaccine could help get rid of polio once and for all.
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Kent Willis, University of Tennessee
Fungi live in everyone's gut – but now a new study reveals that this colonization may begin before birth.
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Richard Gunderman, Indiana University
Alexander von Humboldt – sometimes called the last Renaissance man – was born in Berlin 250 years ago. His influence on science is still felt today.
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From our international editions
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Angelos Tsiaras, UCL
K2-18 b is now the exoplanet most likely to be habitable.
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Tangguh Chairil, Binus University
Indonesia's top engineer and former president, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie or B.J. Habibie, who built the country's aircraft industry from scratch, died at 83 in Jakarta on Wednesday.
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Susan Watkins, Leeds Beckett University
The author has returned to Gilead, 35 years after the original novel was published.
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