However convinced we may be that science is not just for men, the concept of science remains much more strongly associated with masculinity than with femininity in people’s minds. This automatic bias, which had already been identified among the general public, also exists in the minds of most scientists, who are not necessarily aware of...
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How Moral Obligation Drives Protest
Researchers have long studied the motives that inspire people to join in collective action. Three factors have received particular attention: anger caused by apparent social injustice; belief in the efficacy of collective action; and politicised identity. In 2008, these factors informed a predictive model of collective action – SIMCA, or a Social Identity Model of...
‘Like’ Isn’t a Lazy Linguistic Filler – the English Language Snobs Need To, Like, Pipe Down
The latest series of the television show Love Island is over, with Amber and Greg now snuggling up as the most recent winners – at least until the winter version starts in January 2020. As well as bringing us a fresh group of islanders and a new villa to admire, the January series is likely...
Long Before Armstrong and Aldrin, Artists Were Stoking Dreams of Space Travel
In the midst of the space race, Hereward Lester Cooke, the former co-director of the NASA Art Program, observed, “Space travel started in the imagination of the artist.” If the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing is an opportunity to celebrate a remarkable technological achievement, it’s also a good time to reflect on the...
El Grito: Violence in Colombia Continues to Kill Activists
Grito in Spanish can mean “to cry.” For example, the cries of despair of María del Pilar Hurtado’s son in a video that circulated throughout the Colombian media this summer. In the video, the boy kicks and screams next to his mother’s lifeless body in the town of Tierralta (Córdoba) in Colombia’s northern Caribbean region....
Too Many People Think Satirical News Is Real
In July, the website Snopes published a piece fact-checking a story posted on The Babylon Bee, a popular satirical news site with a conservative bent. Conservative columnist David French criticized Snopes for debunking what was, in his view, “obvious satire. Obvious.” A few days later, Fox News ran a segment featuring The Bee’s incredulous CEO....
50 Years Ago, Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock Anthem Expressed the Hopes and Fears of a Nation
One of the most powerful, searing renditions of the national anthem ever recorded, Jimi Hendrix’s iconic Woodstock anthem, almost never happened. In his memoir, Hendrix’s drummer, Mitch Mitchell, admitted that the band “hadn’t rehearsed … or planned to do ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock.” The festival was supposed to wrap up on Sunday night, but...
City Parks Lift Mood as Much as Christmas, Twitter Study Shows
Feeling unhappy and cranky? The treatment: take a walk under some trees in the park. That may not be the exact prescription of your doctor, but a first-of-its-kind study shows that visitors to urban parks use happier words and express less negativity on Twitter than they did before their visit–and that their elevated mood lasts,...
Mini Kidneys Grown from Stem Cells Give New Insights into Kidney Disease and Therapies
An international team of researchers led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has grown ‘miniature kidneys’ in the laboratory that could be used to better understand how kidney diseases develop in individual patients. The mini kidneys, known as kidney organoids, were grown outside the body from skin cells derived from a single patient who...
Machine Learning Models Help Clinicians Identify People Who Need Advanced Depression Care
Researchers at Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University created decision models capable of predicting which patients might need more treatment for their depression than what their primary care provider can offer. The algorithms were specifically designed to provide information the clinician can act on and fit into existing clinical workflows. Depression is the most commonly occurring...