America grapples with millions of people with organ transplants in need of extra Covid vaccination
Covid vaccination in the US has been framed as a binary: People either seek out the inoculation, or they distrust the formula or the politics that produced it and reject the shot. People who accept the vaccine get to return to normal life. For the people who don’t, “Your health...
Ethical and moral red flag raised about DNA data use without informed consent
Last year, forensic geneticist a Berlin research hospital Lutz Roewer removed profiles that had been uploaded by the authors of a paper describing DNA studies of Uyghur, Kazakh and Hui minority groups in China. He did so after Springer Nature investigated and retracted that paper. The authors said that the...
Can bar of soap fix tired legs syndrome? Some medics agree, but can’t explain why
At times, we are all prone to feeling restless. When it is chronic, it can be a symptom of restless legs syndrome (RLS). Restless legs syndrome or RLS, is a sleep disorder characterised by an uncontrollable urge to move the lower legs. It is usually worse in the evening and...
America grapples with millions of people with organ transplants who need extra Covid vaccination
Covid vaccination in the US has been framed as a binary: People either seek out the inoculation, or they distrust the formula or the politics that produced it and reject the shot. People who accept the vaccine get to return to normal life. For the people who don’t, “Your health...
Global Y-chromosome database solve sex crimes, problem is in obtaining informed consent
In May 1999, a disturbing crime shocked the inhabitants of Kollum, a small village in the Netherlands. A local 16-year-old girl was found raped and murdered in a field nearby, and some people said that Iraqi or Afghan residents at an asylum seekers’ centre in the village could be to...
National loyalty: Real America has always been a country of white people
As a national narrative, Smart America has a tenuous sense of the nation. Smart America doesn’t hate America, which has been so good to the meritocrats. Smart Americans believe in institutions and they support American leadership of military alliances and international organisations. But Smart Americans are uneasy with patriotism. It’s...
PhD holders, researchers want reforms in their fields addressed to rein in wastage
Nations, universities and research institutions around the world must redouble efforts to expand training for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to prepare them for jobs outside academia. So urges a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental coalition of 38 nations. The report, the result...
In Smart America, new economy replaced ‘outmoded ideologies’ with dazzling technologies
Winners in Smart America have lost the capacity and the need for a national identity, which is why they can’t grasp its importance for others. Politically, Smart America came to be associated with the Democratic Party. This was not inevitable. If the party had refused to accept the closing of...
Zoom distance: Researchers estimate physical signals make up 70 per cent of conversation
Travel often demarcates an experience, focusing attention and solidifying work-life boundaries –whether it’s a flight to a conference or a daily commute to the office. As the online world has sliced those rituals away, people have experimented with “fake commutes” (a walk around the house or block) to trick themselves...
Online conferencing cuts cost, but weaned of thrill of in-person connection
The pandemic has immersed us faster and deeper in immersive communication technologies. It’s a disrupted, confusing, sometimes exhausting world, but shifting both the tech and our expectations might make it a better one. I am sitting in a darkened room, listening to upbeat music of the type often used at...
