Researchers should focus on generating knowledge instead of boosting their English skills
Most of my 19 years in Russian academia has been spent teaching English to students. But in 2014, my employer at the time, Tomsk Polytechnic University, gave me a new task: delivering full English courses to academics. I’ve been giving similar courses ever since. My experience of teaching English to...
Pandemic teaches us we can deliver better care to patients who seek to terminate pregnancies
Last year, over concerns of exposure to Covid-19, a federal judge ended the US Food and Drug Administration’s requirement that mifepristone, a medication necessary to terminate an early pregnancy, must be obtained directly from a hospital or provider’s office. On January 12, the Supreme Court reinstated that requirement, over the...
Facebook’s too big for antitrust law to regulate, its oversight board’s helpless
Unlike most other companies, growth and user engagement – not revenue, profit or even market capitalisation – have been the driving metrics for Mark Zuckerberg since the beginning. Any attempt to limit Facebook’s reach would have to contend with those core values. But we currently lack any methods to do...
UN’s biometric identity cards have brought little but pain to Rohingya refugees
Massive amounts of personal and biometric data are being gathered from hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. This should set off multiple alarm bells. As bystanders to likely crimes against humanity against the Rohingya, the humanitarian community has a particular responsibility to ensure their rights are not violated...
How Trumpists weaponised ‘smokescreen trolling’ and waged ideological war
Some of the claims coming out of the Trump camp in recent weeks are laughable: that Joe Biden is the Hamburglar, that Democrats are conspiring to take away the Chick-fil-A sauces of “real” Americans, that socialism is making your burritos more expensive. Some are much more serious, but just as...
Kenyans’ journey to the Promised Land stalled in River Jordan, they need a Joshua
It took the children of Israel 40 years to get from Egypt to the Promised Land. The journey could have been accomplished in 11 days. But while God had taken them out of Egypt in a day, it took Him a whole generation to take Egypt out of them. And...
Although God’s sovereign and stops all suffering, he’s not a Sugar Daddy to dish out gifts to Africa freely
At the turn of the New Millennium in January 2000, I wrote an introspective letter to a good friend of mine, and on re-reading it, I thought the thoughts God prompted me to share with her were worthy of wider circulation. Africa was on my mind as the continent hopped...
We rely so heavily on the First Amendment as a bulwark against government intrusion
Last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a controversial bill to regulate social media that represents the culmination of months of conservative attacks on free speech and the Constitution. The bill is designed to force social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to host speech from conservative...
World Bank’s unwillingness to release Covid funds squanders fruits of research
Someday, my grandchildren will read how teams of scientists around the world developed vaccines against Covid-19 within a year. They will also read a sadder history: how millions of people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) died after those vaccines came to market. Part of the reason, they’ll learn, was...
Corporate responsibility: Science-funding giant Wellcome steps up the plate to tackle racism
Two years ago, I was about to log off from my work at the research funder Wellcome when I got an e-mail from a senior leader. I remember tensing as I read it. I’d asked that Wellcome add its name to some general anti-racism commitments. The leader didn’t refuse, but...
