Latest science news in Psychology & Sociology
Science cafes offer a sip of learning
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Americans may be turning away from the hard sciences at universities, but they are increasingly showing up at "science cafes" in local bars and restaurants to...
Focus on Mental Health Laws to Curb Violence Is Unfair, Some Say
Critics say focusing on mental illness as a component of gun violence unfairly singles out people more likely to be a victim of violence than a cause.
When fairness prevails: Research shows how uncertainty affects behavior
Philosophers and scientists have long puzzled over the origins of fairness. Work by a group of Harvard researchers offers some clues, with the discovery that uncertainty is critical in the...
Mindfulness meditation heightens a listener's musical engagement
When De'Anthony Thomas returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown in the 2013 Fiesta Bowl, says a researcher, Thomas put Ducks fans into a heightened zone of engagement for watching...
Empathy varies by age and gender: Women in their 50s are tops
Looking for someone to feel your pain? Talk to a woman in her 50s. According to a new study of more than 75,000 adults, women in that age group are...
U.S. math deficiencies stem from preschool
Researchers identified how a lack of a specific math skill in first grade correlated to lower scores on a seventh grade math test used to determine employability and wages in...
Peers, Not TV, Influence Girls' Body Issues: Study
Girls might feel the biggest pressure to be thin from their peers.
Mixed decision in phony Scrolls email appeal
NEW YORK (AP) -- Evidence in a rare Internet impersonation case showed that a highly educated defendant broke the law by trying to "damage the careers...
Family's Pet Tortoise Found Alive, After 30 Years, In Locked Storeroom
Lost/Found Red-Footed Tortoise The Telegraph The Almeidas' story starts out a lot like the usual pet-disappearance saga: Someone left the front door open, and Manuela, the family tortoise, went missing....
How plant communities endure stress
The Stress Gradient Hypothesis holds that as stress increases in an ecosystem, mutually supportive interactions become more significant and negative interactions, such as competition, become less so. The idea has...
The Brain Retroactively Edits Conscious Experience
The brain can retroactively recreate the conscious experience of seeing something as much as half a second after it's actually seen
3-D microchip moves information from left to right, back to front, and up and down as well
Scientists have created, for the first time, a new type of microchip which allows information to travel in three dimensions. Currently, microchips can only pass digital information in a very...
‘A Whisper to a Roar’ sparks discussion
What motivates people across the globe to risk their lives to fight for democracy? And why do authoritarian regimes survive despite the recent expansion of democracy around the world? With the film...
Direct from Broadway
Harvard College students looking for a little Broadway inspiration don’t have to make the four-hour bus ride to Manhattan. Thanks to a popular program sponsored by Harvard’s Office for the Arts (OFA), Broadway...
Alicia Keys, new BlackBerrys fail to impress
Research in Motion shares plunge sharply after corporate pageantry, amid worries that new phones won't be enough to save a leaking ship
Academic gains, improved teacher relationships found among high risk kids in Head Start
A new study finds that Head Start can make a positive impact in the lives of some of its highest risk children, both academically and behaviorally.
Is Dr. Oz Bad For Science?
Dr. Oz Wikimedia CommonsDr. Oz dispatches advice to one of the biggest audiences in the country. A New Yorker profile asks: Why is so much of that advice bunk? Dr. Oz comes...
Disasters prompt older children to be more giving, younger ones to be more selfish
A natural disaster can bring out the best in older children, prompting 9-year-olds to be more willing to share, while 6-year-olds become more selfish. Researchers made this finding in a...
China and India catching up in the innovation stakes
China and India are collaborating with global partners and becoming innovative in their own right, according to new research.
Watch: Science project sends Hello Kitty to space
7th grade science project goes where no 7th grade science project has gone before
Good mood helps boost brain power in older adults
Older adults can improve their decision making and working memory simply by putting on a happy face, a new study suggests.
Moving to a world city liberates creative young people from demands in home countries
The increasingly globalised world enables individuals to more easily move abroad to escape restricting lifestyle norms in their home countries. Yet doing so also makes boundaries more evident. This is...
Adrienne Arsenault: A behind-the-scenes look at BlackBerry's strategy
CBC's Adrienne Arsenault takes an unprecedented look inside the high-tech Waterloo, Ont., complex where earnest young programmers hope their work on the BlackBerry 10 smartphone will spawn a comeback.
How to be a social climber: A study reveals the mechanisms of 'opportunist' societies
"He landed the job because he has connections." How many times have you heard these words? Now a study confirms what is apparently only a stereotype. The research, published in...
Rats, like humans, return to drinking once punishment is removed
Once heavy drinking impairs function, a variety of punishment-related threats may motivate people to stop drinking: spouses may threaten divorce, employers may threaten job loss, and courts threaten drunk drivers...
Conflicting cultural identities may foster political radicalism
New research suggests that dual-identity immigrants—first-generation immigrants and their descendants who identify with both their cultural minority group and the society they now live in—may be more prone to political...
British Columbia skills deficit looming in 2016: More jobs than qualified people unless post-secondary capacity expanded
A skills shortage will hit British Columbia in 2016 and continue to grow, unless immediate action is taken to improve access to all types of post-secondary education – university, college...
Tongue-tied? Perspectives on English as the international language of science | Steve Caplan
There is no argument that English has taken a firm hold as the language of modern science. How far should non-English speaking countries go to maintain their own languages?Several days ago I came...