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Anyone who was old enough to pump gas 50 years ago will remember the shock wave that spread through the U.S. economy on Oct. 17, 1973.
Gas prices quadrupled overnight. Stations ran out of fuel, leaving drivers scrambling to find supplies and often waiting in long lines. The trigger was the Arab oil embargo, initiated by Middle Eastern countries in retaliation for U.S. support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
The economic and political trauma the oil embargo caused is legendary, as Rice University energy policy scholars Jim Krane and Mark Finley explain. U.S. companies lost control of Middle Eastern oil. The high prices continued for over a decade, affecting industries across the U.S. and other oil-importing nations.
The world has changed in some ways since then, but energy security fears are running high once again, as Krane and Finley explain.
This week we also liked articles describing a Georgia Tech engineering course where students get steeped in the arts, explaining why novelist Arundhati Roy faces prosecution in India and unpacking recent research about the itch-sensing neurons in your skin.
[ Get a global perspective on the news, with the best of The Conversation’s journalism from around the world, twice weekly. ]
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Cars lined up for gasoline in New Jersey in 1973 as supplies ran low and prices shot upward.
Frederic Lewis/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Jim Krane, Rice University; Mark Finley, Rice University
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine reprised the risks of energy weaponization, but the oil landscape today and energy security itself are changing.
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Palestinian children play outside an UNRWA school following Israeli airstrikes on Oct. 12, 2023.
Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images
Topher L. McDougal, University of San Diego
Many people in Gaza are reliant on the United Nations and other international aid groups to meet their basic needs, like food and medical care. A scholar of peace and conflict economics explains why.
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Thoughts become works of art in this engineering class.
Ole Media/E+ via Getty Images
Francesco Fedele, Georgia Institute of Technology
Art and science combine in this engineering course to let students turn their brainwaves into creative works.
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Priya Chacko, University of Adelaide
Arundhati Roy’s prosecution is just one of a series of actions by Narendra Modi’s government against its opponents – including journalists, activists, students and opposing politicians.
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Ken Chitwood, University of Southern California
The Al-Aqsa mosque, a flashpoint in Hamas’ recent assault against Israel, hosts daily prayers and Friday gatherings. It lies adjacent to important Jewish and Christian religious locales.
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Marlys Fassett, University of California, San Francisco
Itch-sensing neurons in your skin are intertwined with your immune cells. Counterintuitively, the molecule that connects them triggers responses that both worsen and improve skin conditions.
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The Conversation Quiz 🧠
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We've got a special Friday the 13th news quiz this week, written by University of South Carolina sociology professor and expert on superstition Barry Markovsky.
Here’s the first question of this week’s edition:
I’ve written for The Conversation about Friday the 13th. The day has a bad reputation because…
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A. More bad things happen than expected by chance
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B. Parents dread weekends with their 13-year-olds
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C. The day-date combination functions like a cultural “meme”
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D. Apollo 13 exploded on a Friday
Test your knowledge
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