Cutting NSF Is Like Liquidating Your Finest Investment
Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using […]
If Only MOOCs Could Add an eHarmony Component
We go to school for an education, not a mate. But if you don’t find a mate at school, you are not getting as much return out of the experience as you can. Which brings us, in a new Danish study, to one issue with online classes …
The New Realism in Academic Life
As some of the ferment that marked university life for an earlier generation seems to dissipate, has a new realism crept in among subsequent generations of academics to accept what they feel they cannot change?
How Science Communication Can Validate Sexism
Cliodhna O’Connor describes how traditional gender stereotypes sometimes get projected onto scientific information and its subsequent reporting.
UK Universities and the Clash of (Organizational) Cultures
The organization of British universities in changing, affecting not only the education provided but the circumstances of of those who labor there. Adapting to this required dialogue, says Daniel Nehring, and not invective.
Shine a Light on Academic Journals’ Dark Arts
When McDonald’s came under sustained criticism from campaigners in the 1980s, the company responded by constructing a carefully crafted image of corporate […]
Fixing the ‘Leaky Pipeline’ of Women in Science and Math
There are ways to patch the pipeline that sees women drain out of STEM fields in university and on the job, but it will take some effort to dismantle structural barriers first.
Ebola – WHO (Still) Don’t Get It: Social Science Saves Lives
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa reminds us of a key lesson in public health, notes Robert Dingwall: Biomedical solutions will always come late, while social science-based interventions can break the cycle much sooner.
The Tyranny of Excellence is Hurting Research
Nick Butler and Sverre Spoelstra argue that the game-playing that accompanies Britain’s Research Excellence Framework to achieve better appearances is harming the intent of the exercise.
