CAS Connection

Minnesota Legislature’s first order of business: Do not legalize online sports betting

In an opinion article in the Minnesota Reformer, J. Patrick Coolican cites work by University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences economics PhD students Emily Arnesen and Kyutaro Matsuzawa, writing that "scariest of all, legalized online sports betting seems to increase the risk of domestic violence."

Oregon group calculates economic impacts of climate change

A new economic group is tallying the costs of climate change in Oregon. Keaton Miller, an associate professor at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences, is a part of the group and spoke with KATU, based in Portland. "It's some of these other things that are less visible but still impactful. And I think a really great example of that is the cost of smoke. You know, some of it is direct. Some of it is buying, you know, air purifiers, which a lot of my friends have done. A lot of classrooms at the university that I work at now have, you know, air purifiers in them," Miller said.

Something Strange Happened During Voyager 2’s Flyby of Uranus in 1986

When Voyager 2 flew past the ice giant 38 years ago, it revealed a magnetosphere warped by solar winds, a finding uncovered through recent analysis of archival data. “It’s an exciting work,” said Carol Paty, a planetologist at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences who is not affiliated with the recent paper, in a phone call to Gizmodo. “It’s always wonderful when you can go back to data that’s decades old with fresh eyes and fresh perspective.”

How did LGBT Americans vote in election? Exit poll finds significant shift from 2020

In the 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump made inroads with multiple demographics that traditionally vote for Democrats, including young and Latino voters. But, LGBT voters were not one of them, exit polls suggest. College of Arts and Sciences political science professor Alison Gash told McClatchy News company that, "This shift away from Trump could have been fueled by the GOP’s “very clear anti-trans agenda” and “worries of rollbacks on marriage equality post Roe v. Wade."

How forensic DNA analysis can falsely link people to crime scenes

Researchers have found that forensic "DNA mixture analysis" is less accurate for certain groups of people with lower genetic diversity, which could falsely link them to crime scenes. "Our work shows that we need to be cautious in interpreting results from forensic analysis of certain mixtures of DNA," study lead author Rori Rohlfs, a data scientist at the College of Arts and Sciences, told Live Science in an email. "We certainly need to weigh the strength of evidence by its reliability. It is possible that a wrongful conviction could have been made based on a misinterpreted DNA mixture analysis."

How beef became a marker of American identity

Hannah Cutting-Jones writes in The Conversation about the social factors that led to beef becoming a part of the wider US identity. In part, the dominance of beef in American cuisine can be traced to settler colonialism, a form of colonization in which settlers claim—and then transform—lands inhabited by Indigenous people. Cutting-Jones is an assistant professor at the School of Global Studies and Languages and the director of the Food Studies Program at the College of Arts and Sciences.

The effortless trick neuroscientists say will help you pick up any new skill a lot faster

Learning a new skill, such as playing an instrument, gardening or picking up a new language, takes a lot of time and practice, whether that means scale training, learning about native plants or using flashcards to memorize new words. Upworthy explored how a new study by researchers at the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon shows that you can speed up the processes by adding a third element to practice and feedback: passive exposure.

In Pacific Northwest, 2 toss-up US House races could determine control of narrowly divided Congress

"These races could determine who controls the House of Representatives in the next Congress,” said Chandler James, assistant professor of political science at the University of Oregon. “The Pacific Northwest is kind of where the center of a lot of action is.” More than 150 media outlets—including ABC News, US News and World Report, Yahoo!, The (Toronto) Star and SFGate—covered a Media Forum held by the University Communications News and Content team on Oct. 4.

Clearing a Path for Indigenous Teachers

Leilani Sabzalian and Michelle M. Jacob, Indigenous faculty who lead the Sapsik’ʷałá Education Program at the University of Oregon, a collaboration between the University and the nine federally recognized Native nations in the state, are working to clear a path for the abundance of possible Indigenous educators. The two faculty members write an essay published in American Indian magazine.