Tuesday, April 23

Tag: understand

What We Don’t Understand About Young People’s Motivations
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ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

What We Don’t Understand About Young People’s Motivations

Young people are demanding change. In the last few days, young Indigenous activists and their supporters blocked parliamentarians in Victoria, B.C., from accessing the provincial legislature and led waves of protest across the country. For some young people, climate change is urgent. For others, gun violence is a crisis. From truth and reconciliation to inclusion and diversity and mental health, young people are bringing awareness to societal crises and making headlines along the way. Historically, this is really nothing new. Young people have long been leaders and catalysts of important movements. Unfortunately, these change-makers are often thought to be outside of what is considered typical of this age group. Young people are often labelled problematic, selfish or not yet ready to le...
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How People Understand Racial Inequality Shaped By Black Lives Matter Protests
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

How People Understand Racial Inequality Shaped By Black Lives Matter Protests

Considered to be the largest social justice movement since the civil rights era of the 1960s, Black Lives Matter is more than the scores of street protests organized by the social justice group that attracted hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across the world. From its early days in 2014 after Officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown, Jr. to the protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Black Lives Matter has opened the door for social change by expanding the way we think about the complicated issues that involve race. As sociologists who study how protests lay the groundwork for social change, we understand their necessity as a tactic to draw attention toward a movement’s broader agenda. In our study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ...
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Here’s What Scientists Are Doing Right Now To Understand The New Coronavirus Omicron Variant
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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...
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The Purdue Opioid Settlement – How It Could Help The Public Understand The Roots Of The Drug Crisis
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

The Purdue Opioid Settlement – How It Could Help The Public Understand The Roots Of The Drug Crisis

HEALTH Antoine Lentacker, University of California, Riverside There’s a long history of U.S. courts being called upon to fix large-scale public health crises. Lawyers and judges, for instance, were key in settling claims related to asbestos, lead paint, Agent Orange and tobacco. More recently, they have dealt with the fallout of the U.S. opioid epidemic, which is linked to the deaths of some 500,000 Americans over the past two decades. This litigation can serve several important goals. It can identify wrongdoers and hold them accountable. It can repair damage by compensating the victims. And it can protect the public by producing evidence regarding dangerous products and practices. When cases are settled, however, the litigation rarely accomplishes all three goals together. Settlement...
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The Science You Need To Understand: Viral Mutation, Coronavirus Variants And COVID-19 Vaccines
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COVID-19

The Science You Need To Understand: Viral Mutation, Coronavirus Variants And COVID-19 Vaccines

The SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates fast. That’s a concern because these more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 are now present in the U.S., U.K. and South Africa and other countries, and many people are wondering whether the current vaccines will protect the recipients from the virus. Furthermore, many question whether we will we be able to keep ahead of future variants of SARS-CoV-2, which will certainly arise. In my laboratory I study the molecular structure of RNA viruses – like the one that causes COVID-19 – and how they replicate and multiply in the host. As the virus infects more people and the pandemic spreads, SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve. This process of evolution is constant and it allows the virus to sample its environment and select changes that make it grow more efficiently. T...
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I Understand Why Black People May Trust Their Intuition Over the Government On COVID-19
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

I Understand Why Black People May Trust Their Intuition Over the Government On COVID-19

I’m ashamed to admit it: I laughed when I saw the news story of the Black woman who wore plastic bags as she picked up a student from a Memphis school where an employee had contact with a patient who had tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus. As a Black woman and a practicing physician who works on Chicago’s South Side, I shouldn’t make light of the way a fellow Black woman attempts to protect herself in a country that often does little to protect her. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends frequent hand-washing, social distancing including avoiding crowds, keeping hands away from the face, and suggests wearing a mask only if you are sick.) Doctors are certainly not immune to panic or fear. But we are trained to remain calm in the face of uncertainty. We a...
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How Do I Begin to Understand Random Violence?
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

How Do I Begin to Understand Random Violence?

To cure the violence, we must identify and heal the causes of hatred and violence. If we don't deal with the causes we will never be safe. ~Peter Yarrow~ The term random violence suggests that there is no explanation for such acts which have become all too commonplace recently. Acceptance that there is no explanation implies that that there is nothing we can do about it. The approach of placing more guns in the hands of civilians has been promoted as one possible solution although it sounds scary to me. Commentators and others have scratched their heads trying to clarify the reasons for this violence. Among the possibilities are parenting styles, the effects of mental illness, the proliferation of guns, violent video games, media sensationalism and violent lyrics in music. We would...
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5 Things That Black and White People Don’t Understand About Each Other
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Journalism

5 Things That Black and White People Don’t Understand About Each Other

In the next couple of months, we might very well have our first black president here in the U. S. So I feel that black and white people in this country should start working on embracing, or at least respecting, each other's culture. There are a lot of things about white people that many black Americans don't understand and vice versa. Many times we have a negative reaction to things we don't understand. But when we see our fellow Americans of other ethnicities engage in activities that we can't quite relate to, we should respect that and appreciate their differences. Because no matter how much we try to rationalize, there are things that black and white people will never "get" about each other. With that being said, I have compiled a short list of 5 Things that black and white people do...
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