scientists

26May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE

Beware Of ‘Shark Week’: Scientists Watched 202 Episodes And Found Them Filled With Junk Science, Misinformation And White Male ‘Experts’ Named Mike

The Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week is the longest-running cable television series in history, filling screens with sharky content every summer since 1988. It causes one of the largest temporary increases in U.S. viewers’ attention to any science or conservation topic. It’s also the largest stage in marine biology, giving scientists who appear on it access to an audience of millions. Being featured by high-profile media outlets can help researchers attract attention and funding that can help super-charge their careers. Hammerhead sharks schooling near Costa Rica’s Cocos Island. John Voo/Flickr, CC BY Unfortunately, Shark Week is also a missed opportunity. As scientists and conservationists have long argued, it is a major source of misinformation and nonsense about sharks, the scient...

Yep Smart Devices Do Spy On You – 2 Computer Scientists Explain How The Internet Of Things Can Violate Your Privacy

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, TECHNOLOGY

Yep Smart Devices Do Spy On You – 2 Computer Scientists Explain How The Internet Of Things Can Violate Your Privacy

Have you ever felt a creeping sensation that someone’s watching you? Then you turn around and you don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Depending on where you were, though, you might not have been completely imagining it. There are billions of things sensing you every day. They are everywhere, hidden in plain sight – inside your TV, fridge, car and office. These things know more about you than you might imagine, and many of them communicate that information over the internet. Back in 2007, it would have been hard to imagine the revolution of useful apps and services that smartphones ushered in. But they came with a cost in terms of intrusiveness and loss of privacy. As computer scientists who study data management and privacy, we find that with internet connectivity extended to devices ...

During The Pandemic Surveys Of Scientists Show Women And Young Academics Suffered Most And May Face Long-Term Career Consequences

16Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

During The Pandemic Surveys Of Scientists Show Women And Young Academics Suffered Most And May Face Long-Term Career Consequences

Surveys of scientists show women and young academics suffered most during pandemic and may face long-term career consequences. On March 6, 2020, universities across the U.S. announced systematic laboratory closures, social distancing policies and travel bans to cope with the growing coronavirus epidemic. These actions, while prudent and necessary, had immediate negative impacts on the academic enterprise of science in the U.S. and around the world. We are a team of researchers who study the role of science and technology in society. We are also part of a collaborative, multi-university project, called SciOPS, that seeks to improve how scientists communicate with the public. As the pandemic wore on, researchers began telling us about the work stoppages, data losses and other hardships they...

Here’s What Scientists Are Doing Right Now To Understand The New Coronavirus Omicron Variant

10Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Here’s What Scientists Are Doing Right Now To Understand The New Coronavirus Omicron Variant

Scientists around the world have been racing to learn more about the new omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2, first declared a “variant of concern” on Nov. 26, 2021 by the World Health Organization. Officials cautioned that it would take several weeks before they’d know whether the recently emerged coronavirus variant is more contagious and causes more or less serious COVID-19 than delta and other earlier variants, and whether current vaccines can ward it off. Peter Kasson is a virologist and biophysicist at the University of Virginia who studies how viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 enter cells and what can be done to stop them. Here he explains what lab-based scientists are doing to help answer the outstanding questions about omicron. Does prior immunity protect against omicron? These are the key lab...

Scientists Can Look Like Them – What Sending Science Majors Into Elementary Schools Helps Latino And Black Students Realize

24May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

Scientists Can Look Like Them – What Sending Science Majors Into Elementary Schools Helps Latino And Black Students Realize

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. A student’s drawings of a scientist upon starting and after completing the Young Scientists Program. USC Young Scientists Program, CC BY-NC-ND The big idea After taking part in hands-on STEM lab experiments as part of a youth science program I coordinate, Latino and Black students were more likely to picture scientists as people who look like them – and not stereotypical white men in lab coats. The Young Scientists Program at the Joint Educational Project of the University of Southern California offers specialized science, technology, engineering and math instruction in local elementary schools that have mostly Latino and Black students – two groups long underrepresented in STEM fields. My colleagues and I recruit underg...

Using Big Data To Unlock Genetic Secrets Scientists Are On A Path To Sequencing 1 Million Human Genomes

15Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE

Using Big Data To Unlock Genetic Secrets Scientists Are On A Path To Sequencing 1 Million Human Genomes

The first draft of the human genome was published 20 years ago in 2001, took nearly three years and cost between US$500 million and $1 billion. A complete human genome, seen here in pairs of chromosomes, offers a wealth of information, but it is hard connect genetics to traits or disease. HYanWong/Wikimedia Comons The Human Genome Project has allowed scientists to read, almost end to end, the 3 billion pairs of DNA bases – or “letters” – that biologically define a human being. That project has allowed a new generation of researchers like me, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute, to identify novel targets for cancer treatments, engineer mice with human immune systems and even build a webpage where anyone can navigate the entire human genome with the same ease w...

Why Black Biomedical Scientists Still Lag In Research Funding Matters To All Americans

24Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Why Black Biomedical Scientists Still Lag In Research Funding Matters To All Americans

The statistics tell the story. People of color are more likely to be infected, hospitalized and killed by COVID-19 than white, non-Hispanic people. This grim reality is just one more illustration of an unacceptable truth: Science does not benefit all Americans equally. While part of the solution lies in making access to health care more equitable, I believe the key to real change is more fundamental. If science is to benefit all Americans, science first must be done by all Americans. As a Black woman in America and an academic biomedical engineering researcher, I have encountered racial, ethnic and gender discrimination and systemic racism at every stage of my life and career. Through these lived experiences, I have become deeply committed to addressing the “diversity problem” in the aca...

Filling Research Gaps Created By The Pandemic – Citizen Scientists

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE, VIDEO REELS

Filling Research Gaps Created By The Pandemic – Citizen Scientists

The rapid spread of COVID-19 in 2020 disrupted field research and environmental monitoring efforts worldwide. Travel restrictions and social distancing forced scientists to cancel studies or pause their work for months. These limits measurably reduced the accuracy of weather forecasts and created data gaps on issues ranging from bird migration to civil rights in U.S. public schools. A volunteer looks for waterbirds at Point Reyes National Seashore in California during the National Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count. Kerry W/Flickr, CC BY Our work relies on this kind of information to track seasonal events in nature and understand how climate change is affecting them. We also recruit and train citizens for community science – projects that involve amateur or volunteer scientists...

Three Scientists Awarded 2020 Nobel Prize In Physics

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, SCIENCE, VIDEO REELS

Three Scientists Awarded 2020 Nobel Prize In Physics

Black holes are perhaps the most mysterious objects in nature. They warp space and time in extreme ways and contain a mathematical impossibility, a singularity – an infinitely hot and dense object within. But if black holes exist and are truly black, how exactly would we ever be able to make an observation? This morning the Nobel Committee announced that the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics will be awarded to three scientists – Sir Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez – who helped discover the answers to such profound questions. Andrea Ghez is only the fourth woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics. Robert Penrose is a theoretical physicist who works on black holes, and his work has influenced not just me but my entire generation through his series of popular books that are loaded w...

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...