The letter was signed by 600 [scientists and their supporters] and sent Tuesday to the publisher of Science and to BuzzFeed News. It denounces the elite publisher for sexist columns, an offensive cover photo about trans people, and a snarky tweet from an editor who has since resigned. READ MORE: Read This Letter From Scientists Accusing Top Publisher Of Sexism | BuzzFeed News.
Tag Archives: science
Free: Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Short Course, The Inexplicable Universe | Open Culture + #CampGoogle For Kids | Camp.WithGoogle #MOOCs #science
Free: Download Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Short Course, The Inexplicable Universe, in Audio or Video Format | Open Culture
For now, The Great Courses will let you access Tyson’s Great Course for free, including all of its downloadable audio and video lectures, as long as you make an account at their site — a process which, we can report, entails only a reasonable hassle factor.
Camp Google | Camp.WithGoogle.com
Camp Google is a free summer camp that gets kids learning through fun, interactive science activities and adventures. Led by experts, the activities have been designed to encourage kids to ask questions, setting them on a lifelong journey of exploration and discovery. Everyone is welcome, and you can jump in anytime.
Study: Men who Harass #Women Online Suck at Games (and Life) | Engadget #sexism #gaming #cyberbullying
Researchers think that they’ve worked out why certain men abuse women over the internet: because they suck… at games. According to a study by Michael Kasumovic and Jeff Kuznekoff, the most vocal abusers of women online are the ones most threatened by their presence in the digital sphere. The short explanation for this is because less-skilled men have the most to lose playing games against a woman, thanks to the perceived social stigma of “losing to a girl.” Rather than risk this supposed humiliation, they’d much rather create a toxic environment that’s outright hostile to newcomers. READ MORE: Study: Men who harass women online suck at games (and life) | Engadget
Everything Science Knows Right Now About #StandingDesks | Co.Design #treadmilldesks #activedesks #business
If it wasn’t already clear through common sense, it’s become painfully clear through science that sitting all day is terrible for your health. What’s especially alarming about this evidence is that extra physical activity doesn’t seem to offset the costs of what researchers call “prolonged sedentary time.”
In response some people have turned to active desks—be it a standing workspace or even a treadmill desk—but the research on this recent trend has been too scattered to draw clear conclusions on its benefits (and potential drawbacks). At least until now. A trio of Canada-based researchers has analyzed the strongest 23 active desk studies to draw some conclusions on how standing and treadmill desks impact both physiological health and psychological performance. READ MORE: Everything Science Knows Right Now About Standing Desks | Co.Design | business + design.
This is Your Brain on #JaneAusten, and Researchers at Stanford are Taking Notes | Stanford News #books #reading #neuroscience #cognition
Researchers observe the brain patterns of literary PhD candidates while they’re reading a Jane Austen novel. The fMRI images suggest that literary reading provides “a truly valuable exercise of people’s brains.” READ MORE: This is your brain on Jane Austen, and researchers at Stanford are taking notes | Stanford News
The Science Behind Why You Can’t Read in the Car | Thrillist #books #reading
For many of us, carsickness is the bane of every automotive experience: It’s always there, preventing us from navigating with our phone or even reading a book to pass the time without the sudden onset of a headache, cold sweats, and crippling nausea. It’s like being hungover, but without the fun drinking part that precedes it.
What exactly is going on here? Why do some of us fall violently ill just by glancing at a book in a moving car, while others can read through an entire road trip without any problem at all? Here’s the scientific lowdown on what makes carsickness tick, as well as what you can do to prevent (or at least minimize) its wickedly brutal effects.
READ MORE: The Science Behind Why You Can’t Read in the Car | Thrillist
The Sexiest (And Last?) Job Of The 21st Century | TechCrunch #careers #tech #datascientist
Data scientist, according to a 2012 Harvard Business Review article, is the sexiest job of the 21st century. Given that its authors are Thomas H. Davenport and D.J. Patil, the declaration is hardly surprising. Nonetheless, the IT industry is besotted with the term, and is expecting huge shortages of skilled workers.
A less well-known paper, “The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerization?,” was published less than a year later by two Oxford academics (data scientists, perhaps). The authors, Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne, examine 702 detailed occupations in the U.S. labor market and estimate that about 47 percent of total U.S. employment is at risk from computerization “over some unspecified number of years, perhaps a decade or two.” Nearly 100 occupations, covering a wide range of skills from manual to mental, showed a 95 percent or higher probability of computerization. READ MORE: The Sexiest (And Last?) Job Of The 21st Century | TechCrunch.
Researchers in Japan Show off Super Fast Laser #Holograms You Can Touch | Mashable #lasers #tech #holographics
The dream of being able to touch and interact with holograms was the subject of many science fiction stories, but a lab in Japan has actually accomplished the feat.
Unlike the fictional holodeck on Star Trek, which used force fields to create a sense of touch, researchers at Japan’s Digital Nature Group used a different method: femtosecond lasers.
READ MORE: Researchers in Japan show off super fast laser holograms you can touch | Mashable
What Emotion-Reading #Computers Are Learning About Us | Fast Company #emotionalintelligence
https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/rana_el_kaliouby_this_app_knows_how_you_feel_from_the_look_on_your_face.html
Rana el Kaliouby, a Cambridge- and MIT-trained scientist and leader in facial-recognition technology, is concerned about how computers are affecting the emotional lives of her two small children.
There is much research that suggests that emotional intelligence develops from social interactions, yet children are increasingly spending their days in front of computers, tablets, and smartphones. Today, children under the age of eight spend on average two full hours a day in front of screens. El Kaliouby is deeply concerned about what happens when children grow up around technology that does not express emotion and cannot read our emotion. Does that cause us, in turn, to stop expressing emotion?
The answer, according to recent research, is yes. A University of California-Los Angeles study last year found that children who had regular access to phones, televisions, and computers were significantly worse at reading human emotions than those who went five days without exposure to technology.
But El Kaliouby does not believe the solution lies in ridding the world of technology. Instead, she believes we should be working to make computers more emotionally intelligent.
READ MORE: What Emotion-Reading Computers Are Learning About Us | Fast Company | Business + Innovation
Study Finds That #Active Video #Gaming May Be As Good For #Kids As Playing Outside | TechCrunch
Researchers at the University Of Tennessee At Knoxville have confirmed what my kids believe they already know – that some video gaming can be as physically intense for younger gamers as playing outside.
Before you let your toddlers have a four-hour Minecraft session, however, check out the methodology [hint “active gaming”]. READ MORE: Study Finds That Active Video Gaming May Be As Good For Kids As Playing Outside | TechCrunch.
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