A new paper in Oxford Open Economics, explores “Potterian economics”—the economics of the world of J.K. Rawling’s Harry Potter series. Comparing such economics with professional economic models indicates that while some aspects of this economy are in line with economic models, many other aspects are distorted, contradicting professional economists’ views. Evidence suggests that the public’s economic...
Plants have directly contributed to the development of important drugs. The antimalarial treatment artemisinin, pain medication morphine, and cancer chemotherapy taxol are just three examples of drugs derived from plants. Africa is endowed with up to 45,000 plant species – about 25% of the world’s plant genetic resources. More than 5,000 plant species from this...
The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the early months of 2020 shut down nearly all physical and social human activities. For musical practice this meant near death. Performing music is, after all, one of the oldest forms of social human engagement. In Nigeria, the shutdown of concerts and public music performances was swift....
The cover of The Routledge Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness carries a striking image courtesy of South African artist Norman Catherine. The image was created in 2015 as one of a set of digital prints and, typical of Catherine’s work, contrasts dark and light to present a cynical view of the world informed by...
Forget covid-19, monkeypox, and other viruses for the moment and consider another threat troubling infectious disease specialists: common urinary tract infections, or UTIs, that lead to emergency room visits and even hospitalizations because of the failure of oral antibiotics. There’s no Operation Warp Speed charging to rescue us from the germs that cause these infections,...
A new analysis of voting data for the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)’s World’s Best Male Football Player Award suggests that cultural similarity between voters and players biases results. Michael Johnson and Ian McCarthy of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, present these findings in PLOS ONE. Earlier studies have shown that industry-wide awards—such...
Members of the Network Contagion Lab at Rutgers University-New Brunswick (NC Lab), found evidence of a sharp rise and evolving patterns of hate speech directed toward the Hindu community across numerous social media platforms, according to a new report. “Anti-Hindu Disinformation: A Case Study of Hinduphobia on Social Media” details how white supremacist and 4chan...
Overcoming impulses to enjoy here-and-now rewards in order to attain later benefits is fundamental to achieving goals. Such delaying of gratification is often measured by the well-known “marshmallow task” in which children must resist the urge to enjoy one treat now in order to get more treats later. Individual differences in this task predict important...
A new survey shows Americans’ view of the January 6 Capitol attack can be predicted by their opinions on social movements, such as Black Lives Matter, but not as much by someone’s race or whether they own a gun except when the two are looked at together. The new study, based on a long-running survey of...
Black households in the U.S. faced higher and more volatile inflation compared to white households from 2004 to 2020, reveals new research from the University of California San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. The study, published today by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, finds that Black families experienced slightly higher inflation and 13...
