Could Distributed Peer Review Better Decide Grant Funding?
The landscape of academic grant funding is notoriously competitive and plagued by lengthy, bureaucratic processes, exacerbated by difficulties in finding willing reviewers. Distributed […]
Involving patients – or abandoning them?
The Covid-19 pandemic seems to be subsiding into a low-level endemic respiratory infection – although the associated pandemics of fear and action […]
The UK Pandemic Inquiry – Missing the Point?
The post-mortems on national governments’ management of the COVID-19 pandemic are getting under way. Some European countries have completed theirs, with rapid […]
Oppenheimer: Science, Culture and Politics
The new film ‘Oppenheimer’ offers several interesting views of the scientific endeavor that resonate as much in the social sciences and the humanities as in the physical sciences.
An Australian Look at Generalist Degrees Like Social Science Shows Value of Adaptability
The generalist degree has a big part to play in the emerging higher education landscape for graduates. Humanities, social science, general science, technology and creative industries fields such as design can deliver adaptable, flexible mindsets.
Unskilled But Aware: Rethinking The Dunning-Kruger Effect
As a math professor who teaches students to use data to make informed decisions, I am familiar with common mistakes people make when dealing with numbers. The Dunning-Kruger effect is the idea that the least skilled people overestimate their abilities more than anyone else. This sounds convincing on the surface and makes for excellent comedy. But in a recent paper, my colleagues and I suggest that the mathematical approach used to show this effect may be incorrect.
Aporophobia: Why People Reject The Poor
The idea that the poor are impoverished morally as well as materially, that they lack humanity as well as means, has a long history.
Can We Trust the World Health Organization with So Much Power?
Robert Dingwall argues that the World health Organization has become a top-down, command-and-control approach, based on a narrow scientific base and the preferences, or prejudices, of a few major donors, that has failed to deliver in times of crisis.
Face Mask Evangelism, Trust and Democracy
The Great Mask Debate is limping towards closure. While there is no single conclusive piece of evidence, the best research points towards […]
