Celebrities and social media influencers are reaching global audiences on unprecedented scales. Such audiences are already forming cooperative groups that could one day tackle complex problems such as climate change, argues a recent perspective published in One Earth. Drawing on … Continue reading
Journal Club
Highlighting recent, timely papers selected by Academy member labs
Author Archives: Amy McDermott
Could expanding social webs help humans cooperate altruistically on a global scale?
Categories: Journal Club | Sustainability Science
Tagged altruism, biodiversity loss, climate change, empathy, hunter gatherer, protest, social science, sustainability
Leave a comment
Is scientific progress waning? Too many new papers may mean novel ideas rarely rack up citations
There are so many papers coming out in the largest fields of science that new ideas can’t get a foothold, according to a recent study in PNAS. Researchers analyzed citation trends for 90 million papers and found that in very … Continue reading
Categories: Journal Club | Social Sciences
Tagged durable dominance, electrical engineering, molecular biology, Web of Science
Leave a comment
Frustrations can combust into a riot regardless of age, politics, or gender
The most common caricature of riots suggests criminal young men are the culprits. But a recent study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that is not necessarily the case. The study used a video game to incite virtual … Continue reading
An algorithm suggests a sidewalk-space redesign to make cities safer for pedestrians
A recent study in Communications Physics is among the first to systematically analyze whole city networks of spider-webbing roads and sidewalks. Examining 10 global cities, including Boston, Paris, and New York, researchers created an algorithm that could help planners choose … Continue reading
Categories: Computer sciences | Journal Club
Tagged city planning, COVID-19, cycling, pedestrian, sidewalk, social distance, urban planning
1 Comment
Robot swarms communicate best when messages spread neighbor to neighbor
In the not-so-distant future, swarms of robots could help contain environmental disasters such as wildfires, by locating and dousing the most dangerous patches, even as flames move and spread. But how would these individual robots coordinate effectively to pull off … Continue reading
Categories: Animal Behavior | Computer sciences | Journal Club
Tagged ants, fish, kilobot, majority rule, network connection, node, robot, robotics, schooling, social network, wildfire
Leave a comment
Forests fight drought, even from far away
Forests are said to be the lungs of the Earth—they also provide a moist breath that travels tens to thousands of miles. Dense stands of trees release foggy clouds of condensation. The water molecules from those clouds ride wind currents … Continue reading
Categories: Environmental Sciences | Journal Club
Tagged aforestation, climate change, conservation, drought, IPCC, precipitationshed, rainforest, reforestation
Leave a comment
Well-connected members of tight-knit groups spread controversial ideas much more readily than “influencers”
The people who spread new and controversial ideas—changes in diet, exercise routine, political leaning, or even attitudes about vaccination—may not be the Kim Kardashians and Paris Hiltons. According to a recent study in Nature Communications, those with the most actual … Continue reading
Categories: Journal Club | Social Sciences
Tagged complex contagion, COVID-19, network science, simple contagion, social network, sociology, vaccines
1 Comment
Study suggests mask-wearing reduces the odds of self-infection with SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19 typically turns deadly when the virus infects the lungs. Hence, how exactly SARS-CoV-2 gets deep into the respiratory tract has been a pressing question since the pandemic started early last year. One pathway is well known: Most people catch … Continue reading
Categories: Immunology | Journal Club | Uncategorized
Tagged coronavirus, COVID-19, lung, SARS-Cov-2, self-infection, virus
4 Comments
Degradable plastic polymer breaks down in sunlight and air
Plastic trash chokes shorelines and oceans, in part because plastic polymers do not easily decompose. But a new kind of environmentally degradable plastic could help change that: It breaks down in about a week in sunlight and air, according to … Continue reading
Categories: Chemistry | Journal Club
Tagged biodegradable, materials science, plastic, plastic waste
Leave a comment
Harmful social behaviors are the toughest to shift
Social norms changed dramatically during the pandemic. Six-foot distancing and mask wearing became de facto rules in some communities, while elsewhere, wearing a mask was seen as an invitation for harassment. A new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society … Continue reading
A popular household fern may be the first known eusocial plant
Staghorn ferns are popular houseplants, sporting long, antler-like fronds that poke out from a brown, tissue-papery base. They may also be the first known example of a plant that exhibits a type of social organization—that is, the first plant thought … Continue reading
Categories: Ecology | Evolution | Journal Club
Tagged behavioral ecology, eusociality, social behavior, social insects, staghorn fern, tropical dry forest
6 Comments