research – Page 3

Research Projects Are Also Victims Of COVID-19 Pandemic – From Permafrost Microbes To Survivor Songbirds

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

Research Projects Are Also Victims Of COVID-19 Pandemic – From Permafrost Microbes To Survivor Songbirds

What do you do when COVID-19 safety protocols and travel restrictions mean you can’t do your research? That’s what these three scientists have had to figure out this year, as the global pandemic has kept them from their fieldwork. Missing a field season can be devastating if your research subject is melting away. Karen Lloyd, CC BY-ND A microbiologist describes the frustration of missing a sampling season in the Arctic at a time when climate change means the permafrost is an endangered resource. A biologist writes about missing for the first time the annual census of a bird population she’s been studying for 35 years and the hole that leaves in her data. And natural events aren’t the only ones researchers are forced to skip. An environmental scientist explains how postponing a global gath...

Microaggressions aren’t just innocent blunders – new research links them with racial bias

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Microaggressions aren’t just innocent blunders – new research links them with racial bias

A white man shares publicly that a group of Black Harvard graduates “look like gang members to me” and claims he would have said the same of white people dressed similarly. A white physician mistakes a Black physician for a janitor and says it was an honest mistake. A white woman asks to touch a Black classmate’s hair, is scolded for doing so and sulks, “I was just curious.” It’s a pattern that recurs countless times, in myriad interactions and contexts, across American society. A white person says something that is experienced as racially biased, is called on it and reacts defensively. These comments and other such subtle snubs, insults and offenses are known as microaggressions. The concept, introduced in the 1970s by Black psychiatrist Chester Pierce, is now the focus of a fierce deba...

Scientists don’t share their findings for fun – they want their research to make a difference

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY

Scientists don’t share their findings for fun – they want their research to make a difference

Scientists don’t take time away from their research to share their expertise with journalists, policymakers and everyone else just to let us know about neat scientific facts. They share findings from their research because they want leaders and the public to use their hard-won insights to make evidence-based decisions about policy and personal issues. That’s according to two surveys of Canadian and American researchers my colleagues and I conducted. Scientists from both countries reported “ensuring that policymakers use scientific evidence” is at the top of their list of communication goals. Helping their fellow citizens make better personal decisions also scores high. Further, scientists say they’re not communicating just to burnish their own reputation. Why it matters In just one rec...

Don’t be so shocked at the Falwell claims – research on Christian sex websites reveals an adventurous side to evangelical sexual culture

31Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Religion

Don’t be so shocked at the Falwell claims – research on Christian sex websites reveals an adventurous side to evangelical sexual culture

Many headlines in the past week have speculated publicly on the sex lives of Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife Becki Falwell. While both Falwells have told the press that the scandal is, more or less, all Becki’s fault an investigative report in Reuters alleges that Falwell Jr. was a complicit voyeur in his wife’s affair with a former pool attendant and business partner. Falwell has denied these allegations. Falwell resigned as president of Liberty University, the ultra-conservative evangelical college founded by his father on Aug. 25. As as a sociologist who has spent years studying the world of online Christian sex advice message boards and blogs, I have read stories from evangelical Christians who turn to the web to talk openly about their sexual activities and desires. Based on this r...

Russian cyberthreat extends to coronavirus vaccine research

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, CYBERCRIME, TECHNOLOGY

Russian cyberthreat extends to coronavirus vaccine research

A Russian cyberespionage group that hacked into election networks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine information from researchers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. The governments of those three countries issued a warning on July 16 saying that the group known as APT29 or “Cozy Bear” is targeting vaccine development efforts. The group, which is connected with the FSB, Russia’s internal security service, had gotten inside the Democratic National Committee networks prior to the 2016 election. This latest incident illustrates yet again how, beyond carrying all of our phone, text and internet communications, cyberspace is an active battleground, with cybercriminals, government agents and even military personnel probing weaknesses in corporate...

Research on voting by mail says it’s safe – from fraud and disease

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Research on voting by mail says it’s safe – from fraud and disease

As millions of Americans prepare to vote in November – and in many cases, primaries and state and local elections through the summer as well – lots of people are talking about voting by mail. It is a way to protect the integrity of the country’s voting system and to limit potential exposure to the coronavirus, which continues to spread widely in the U.S. I am a political scientist and part of a National Academy of Public Administration working group offering recommendations to ensure voter participation as well as public confidence in the election process and the outcome during this coronavirus pandemic. To meet that goal, our work has found that state and local governments will need to make significant adjustments to their voting systems this year – changes that will likely require new f...

Is the COVID-19 pandemic cure really worse than the disease? Here’s what our research found

8Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Is the COVID-19 pandemic cure really worse than the disease? Here’s what our research found

The coronavirus pandemic catapulted the country into one of the deepest recessions in U.S. history, leaving millions of Americans without jobs or health insurance. There is a lot of evidence that economic hardship is associated with poor health and can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, mental health problems, cognitive dysfunction and early death. All of that raises a question: Is the U.S. better off with the public health interventions being used to keep the coronavirus from spreading or without them? In a new working paper, I and a team of health economists from U.S. universities set out to answer that question from a humanitarian perspective. To do that, we reviewed the latest data and scientific research about the virus to evaluate the number of lives saved if public healt...

Retractions and controversies over coronavirus research show that the process of science is working as it should

6Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE

Retractions and controversies over coronavirus research show that the process of science is working as it should

Several high-profile papers on COVID-19 research have come under fire from people in the scientific community in recent weeks. Two articles addressing the safety of certain drugs when taken by COVID-19 patients were retracted, and researchers are calling for the retraction of a third paper that evaluated behaviors that mitigate coronavirus transmission. Some people are viewing the retractions as an indictment of the scientific process. Certainly, the overturning of these papers is bad news, and there is plenty of blame to go around. But despite these short-term setbacks, the scrutiny and subsequent correction of the papers actually show that science is working. Reporting of the pandemic is allowing people to see, many for the first time, the messy business of scientific progress. Scienti...

To fight US racism, research prescribes a nationwide healing process

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

To fight US racism, research prescribes a nationwide healing process

As the U.S. prepares to celebrate another year of its independence, the country is paying renewed attention to the founders, and how their legacy of slavery is linked to systemic racism. Calls for reform to policing across the nation can help to directly reduce police violence against civilians but don’t address the centuries-old underlying problems in American society. Our research indicates that the country is not likely to escape its historic cycles of violence and racial oppression without addressing this painful and troubled history. Sparked by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police, protests have emerged across the United States demanding police and criminal justice reform. Reform efforts abound – including Minneapolis city councilors declaring they will...

Rapid home-based coronavirus tests are coming together in research labs — we’re working on analyzing spit using advanced CRISPR gene editing techniques

20May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Rapid home-based coronavirus tests are coming together in research labs — we’re working on analyzing spit using advanced CRISPR gene editing techniques

A desperately needed tool to curb the COVID-19 pandemic is an inexpensive home-based rapid testing kit that can detect the coronavirus without needing to go to the hospital. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a few home sample collection kits but a number of researchers, including myself, are using the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR to make home tests. If they work, these tests could be very accurate and give people an answer in about an hour. I am a biomolecular scientist with training in pharmaceutical sciences and biomedical engineering and my lab focuses on developing next-generation of technologies for detecting and treating cancer, genetic and infectious diseases. The COVID-19 disease is caused by a coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus...