Category: social science

  • Designing emergency refugee camps to be more resilient

    Designing emergency refugee camps to be more resilient

    Picture by Ahmed Akacha via Pexels As of March 28th, 2023, with more than 57,000 people who died after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit Turkey on February 6th 2023, Turkey has been left with infrastructure and facilities damage, injured and displaced refugees. Like any earthquake that reaches this magnitude, the survivors will have to…

  • Uganda Schistosomiasis Symposium – sharing innovative research into schistosomiasis.

    Uganda Schistosomiasis Symposium – sharing innovative research into schistosomiasis.

    Scanning electron micrograph of a pair of Schistosoma mansoni. Source: Wikipedia. Credit: Davies Laboratory Uniformed Services University Bethesda, MD. The Uganda Schistosomiasis Symposium, brought together researchers working on schistosomiasis over four days, to share exciting science, provide cutting-edge training and to raise the profile of schistosomiasis controlled human infection studies in Uganda for vaccine development.…

  • Local knowledge systems: how can they help to guide ecological transition and a freer world?

    Local knowledge systems: how can they help to guide ecological transition and a freer world?

    Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay Local knowledge systems consist of the knowledge, beliefs, traditions, practices, institutions, and worldviews developed and sustained by indigenous and local communities, and are believed to represent an adaptive strategy to the environment in which these communities live. Local knowledge systems, which over millennia have been a pillar of people’s…

  • Gender gaps in maths and science are not a given!

    Gender gaps in maths and science are not a given!

    Downloaded from Pexels, CC0 licensed, uploaded by Gerd Altmann Gender differences regarding MINT? I have raised two sons and a daughter, and I always tried to avoid gender-specific treatment. But guess what – while my sons always preferred playing with some technical toys, my daughter was devouring one book after another, and she told me…

  • “Sister I Love You!” Facebook users engage more with social posts than health misinformation

    “Sister I Love You!” Facebook users engage more with social posts than health misinformation

    To answer these questions, we examined 6.5 million interactions generated by 500 posts from the Facebook page Santé + Mag. According to some French media, there are concerns about the accuracy of health information disseminated by this outlet. With 11 million interactions per months and more than 8 million Facebook followers and, Santé + Mag…

  • How can we, as mentors, help undergraduate researchers with depression?

    How can we, as mentors, help undergraduate researchers with depression?

    CC0 licensed, Pikwizard Depression among undergraduates Nearly one in four undergraduates report having depression. As such, we can expect that students with depression enter our research labs as undergraduate researchers. In fact, data that we have collected across a total of 62 research-intensive (R1) institutions, master’s granting institutions, and primarily undergraduate institutions revealed that 35%…

  • Brain Awareness Week 2020: Cognitive function and commercial video games

    Brain Awareness Week 2020: Cognitive function and commercial video games

    Kerkez / Getty Images / iStock In the spirit of the campaign, we’re taking an insight into a recent review by Min-Hyeon Park et al. published in Behavioral and Brain Functions, considering the different genres of commercial video games available, and how they are associated with cognitive function. The study aimed to lean away from…

  • The U.S. Congress is back in the business of funding gun research. Now what? Part 2

    The U.S. Congress is back in the business of funding gun research. Now what? Part 2

    Image by geralt from Pixabay, CC0. (This post continues from the first part that is available here). Point 4: Federal funding for gun research does not mean that the NRA is on the ropes The budget has been called a “defeat” for the NRA, and a sign that “the financially troubled gun group is no…

  • Echo chambers and polarization may not be the same phenomenon in social media

    Echo chambers and polarization may not be the same phenomenon in social media

    Image by ar130405 from Pixabay, CC0 When are echo chambers harmful? The presence of echo chambers may seem synonymous with their potential ill effects. Existence of echo chambers indicates a polarized state of the society concerning beliefs regarding a given topic. A social network becomes polarized when several communities exist with differing beliefs. Such communities…

  • How can the plastic waste crises be solved in Africa?

    How can the plastic waste crises be solved in Africa?

    (Image by pasja1000 from Pixabay, CC0) Plastic waste management has become a topical issue, especially the contamination of marine and fresh water environments. Nearly 513 million tonnes of plastics wind up in the oceans every year; and the major contributors from Africa are Egypt (0.97 tonnes), Nigeria (0.85 tonnes), and South Africa (0.63 tonnes), ranking…