Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
ReACH – Finding a Silent Killer: Universal Screening for Hepatitis C Saves Lives
Hepatitis C is the most common blood borne infection in the United States and a serious public health threat. It is a leading cause of liver failure and liver cancer, yet most people do not know they have it until serious liver damage has occurred. Currently,...
Dr Klaus Schulz | Dr Florian Fink – Novel Software for Cleansing Digitised Historical Texts
A fortune in historical information lies in archives and library basements around the world. Now, research by Dr Klaus Schulz, Dr Florian Fink and their colleagues at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich is helping to bring this important information to light....
Dr Andrew Scheld | Dr William Goldsmith – Angler Attitudes: Understanding Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Harvests
Scientists from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William & Mary are working to understand what motivates fishermen to target Atlantic bluefin tuna. Collaborating with the fishing community, the team surveyed over 5,000 bluefin tuna...
Outcomes of Gender Summit 11, Co-hosted by NSERC
From November 6 to 8, 2017, more than 675 advocates of gender equity from across many different fields in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) took part in Gender Summit 11, in Montreal, Quebec. Co-hosted by the Natural Sciences and Engineering...
Dr Jill Slinger – Promoting Inclusion in Environmental Policy Development
Responding to global environmental change requires ongoing effort, and long-term success depends heavily upon the input of local communities. Moreover, if diverse viewpoints are included in policy development, then shared solutions and common goals are achieved. Dr...
Dr Benjamin Jantzen – Dynamical Symmetries: Drawing New Connections Between Natural Processes
Scientists throughout history have constructed rules that help them to understand how natural systems work, but their insights are often far from perfect. Dr Benjamin Jantzen at Virginia Tech has developed computer algorithms to help. By making connections...
Professor John F. Padgett – The Social Context of Innovation
The Florence Renaissance was a time of unprecedented innovation across multiple domains of culture, science and politics. The causes of such widespread advances are often debated, and difficult to pin down. Professor John F. Padgett uses social network analysis to...
Dr Tarun Sabarwal – The Shape of Rational Choices in Game Theory
The choices we make in various situations have collective effects on the patterns of overall movement in conflict and cooperation. Dr Tarun Sabarwal at the University of Kansas is investigating the ways in which the overall pictures produced by these behaviours can be...
Dr Lynda Deeks | Dr Chantelle Jay | Dr Laura Vickers – Working Together to Achieve a Better Future for the Horticultural Industry
The production of fresh fruit and vegetables, and ornamental plants, is often taken for granted. While producing horticultural crops and plants offers many societal benefits, it can also have negative impacts on the environment and even on crop production itself....
Dr Nicola Sochacka | Dr Joachim Walther | Dr Shari Miller – Fostering Empathy in Engineering Education
Past research has found that engineering students graduate with less concern for the welfare of the public, and for the social implications of engineering design, than when they begin their studies. To address this issue, researchers from the University of Georgia...
AFCERC: The Agribusiness, Food & Consumer Economics Research Center
Research investigating the economic, social, psychological and physiological factors that influence consumers’ food choices can help in gaining a better understanding of how individuals select particular foods. The Agribusiness, Food, and Consumer Economics...
Dr Mark D. Hayward | Dr Jennifer Karas Montez – Education and Health Disparity Across the US
Adults living in certain US states suffer from more illnesses, more disability, and die sooner than residents of others. Dr Mark D. Hayward of the University of Texas at Austin and Dr Jennifer Karas Montez of Syracuse University are investigating these differences in...
Dr Rens van de Schoot – Statistical Methods for Small Data
Researchers are heavily reliant on statistical techniques that are based on large sample sizes. Therefore, attempts to gain useful information from small samples can often lead to biased, or incorrect conclusions. Dr Rens van de Schoot at Utrecht University has shown...
Dr Floris Roelofsen – Inquisitive Semantics: A New Mathematical Framework for Analysing Linguistic Meaning
Semantics is the linguistic and philosophical study of meaning in human languages. Dr Floris Roelofsen, Professor at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), at the University of Amsterdam, has been collaborating with some of his colleagues on a...
Professor Gerhard Heyer | Dr Michael Richter – Models for Understanding Language
Languages are filled with unexplored quirks that can be attributed to more than their mere design. The way we use words has an interdependent relationship with the rules of that language. Professor Gerhard Heyer and Dr Michael Richter of the University of Leipzig have...
Professor Stephen Maren – Learning to Forget – Extinguishing Fearful Memories
We often hear how impairments in learning can have a negative impact on peoples’ lives but what about problems with forgetting? The inability to forget the association between everyday cues and previous traumatic events underlies anxiety-related disorders, such as...
Dr Simon Friederich – A Rare Universe? The Multiverse Debate Through the Lens of Philosophy
How did we get here? How could a universe with such simple physical laws have created something as complex as us? These questions are so fundamental that even after millennia, neither scientists nor philosophers have reached a universally satisfying answer. Dr Simon...
Dr Francesca Dominici – Life-Saving Data: How Breathing ‘Safe’ Air Can Kill
Air pollution can have serious health impacts. However, until now, the link between air pollution and death had not been comprehensively shown in the US, especially for rural areas and underrepresented populations. Using data science methodologies, Dr Francesca...
Dr Shawn Riley | Dr Göran Ericsson – In Pursuit of Wild Game: Investigating People’s Perceptions of Hunting
Hunting is among the most ancient of human activities, and still plays a major role in obtaining food for many people worldwide. Dr Shawn Riley and Dr Göran Ericsson work to understand the volume and distribution of wild-harvested meat, how this meat moves through...
Dr Robert Lempert – Solving Long-Term Wicked Problems
Climate change is one of the most pressing long-term challenges facing humanity and planet Earth. However, scientific uncertainty still leaves the scope of the threat unclear, and the path forward even more so. Now Dr Robert Lempert and his colleagues at RAND...
Professor Bo Rothstein – The Core of Corruption
Corruption in governments affects all aspects of daily life. A society’s health, prosperity and even trust in others are all impacted by the integrity of administrations. Professor Bo Rothstein, co-founder of the Quality of Government Institute at the University of...
Dr Roger Cooke | Dr Bruce Wielicki – Knowing What We Face in an Uncertain Climate
Dr Roger Cooke of the non-profit Resources for the Future and Dr Bruce Wielicki of the NASA Langley Research Center have been researching the challenges, costs and benefits of a proposed international climate observation system capable of providing the highly valuable...
Dr Fiona Stanley – Empowering Indigenous Communities: Modern Solutions to Colonial Problems
Dr Fiona Stanley and her team of multi-disciplinary researchers at the Centre for Research Excellence in Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing use novel strategies to empower Indigenous Australians and promote public health. An Institutional Legacy of Failure Worldwide, the...
Philosophy and Science Meet at Humboldt University Berlin
A new program at Humboldt University Berlin encourages academic discussion about Greek, Roman and Arabic models of knowledge and the intersection of philosophy and science. Georgia-Maria (Giouli) Korobili, Benjamin Wilck, Gonzalo Gamarra Jordan and Juliane Küppers are...
Professor Lisa Dierker – Falling in Love with Statistics: Shaping Students’ Relationships with Data
Statistical data analysis is a cornerstone of the sciences and operates as a shared language across disparate fields, from neuroscience to astronomy. However, current curricula often result in disengaged and stressed students who struggle to connect the concepts of...
The National Science Teachers Association
Founded in 1944, the Virginia-based National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) is the largest organisation in the world promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. In this exclusive interview, we talk to Executive Director of...
Dr Edmund Gordon | Dr Cynthia Mc Callister – Centring Students and Changing the Landscape of Classroom Education
Recent advances in science have demonstrated that human learning and thinking are highly social processes, governed by the learner’s ability to manage attention and effort. Drs Edmund Gordon and Cynthia McCallister propose an approach to education that centres the...
Dr Edward Maibach – Climate Matters: A Novel Approach to Educating Americans About Humanity’s Greatest Challenge
Over the past few decades, global climate change has emerged as the preeminent issue facing modern society. In many countries around the world, climate change is shifting weather patterns for the worse, with impacts predicted to grow increasingly more erratic and...
Dr David A Hennessy – The Farmer and the Rancher
A collaborative effort driven by researchers from Michigan State University, South Dakota State University, Iowa State University and North Dakota State University, aims to improve the age-old art of farming. Vast, dry, and flat. The Great Plains of the...
Dr Beate Priewasser | Dr Josef Perner – Revealing Human Nature Through Early Competition
Developmental psychologists Dr Beate Priewasser and Dr Josef Perner at the Centre of Cognitive Neuroscience and the Department of Psychology of the University of Salzburg play games with young children to reveal nuances of social development and illuminate how we...
The STEM Education Coalition
The STEM Education Coalition was founded more than 15 years ago with a mission to raise awareness in the U.S. Congress, the administration, and on the state level about the critical role that STEM education plays in enabling the U.S. to remain the economic and...
Dr Marian Klamer – Language as a Time Machine
Language is the primary tool used by human beings to communicate with each other, allowing them to co-operate, explore their similarities and sometimes even bridge their differences. Yet it can also become a means to dive deep into the past, acting as a time...