EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE The Unconventional Origins Of Artificial Limbs Key Takeaway: The idea that humans can alter patients’ bodies in difficult and invasive ways has its roots in the American Civil War, which led to the development of amputation techniques and artificial limb design. By 1700, Europeans began to believe they could use amputation along with artificial limbs to shape the body. This change […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY Being Thoughtful In The Age Of A.I. Key Takeaway: Concerns about AI’s potential roguehood and potential harm to privacy and dignity are a significant concern. AI’s algorithms, programmed by humans, are also biased and discriminatory. However, a psychologist’s research suggests that AI is a threat to making people less disciplined and skilled in making thoughtful decisions. Making thoughtful decisions involves understanding the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK How Art Can Help Us Rethink Sleep Key Takeaway: Sleep loss is often seen as a personal responsibility, with consumer products and media reporting treating it as a personal issue. However, recognizing sleep as a cultural issue can help us rethink our relationship with sleep and recognize how it exposes competing agendas. Literature and art can help challenge dominant visions of sleep, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SCIENCE SOCIOLOGY The End Of Evolution Key Takeaways: As humans, we are just too smart, too industrious, too impatient and too egotistical to leave our fate to Nature alone. As the philosophy of ethicscame to be, then influence our feelings about one another (thanks, Aristotle), our values evolved, and we chose to apply our outsized creativity to keeping everyone alive as […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY Theoretical Perspectives On Culture Music, fashion, technology, and values—all are products of culture. But what do they mean? How do sociologists perceive and interpret culture based on these material and nonmaterial items? Let’s finish our analysis of culture by reviewing them in the context of three theoretical perspectives: functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. Functionalists view society as a […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK JOURNAL & RESEARCH SOCIOLOGY Chinese Society From Confucius To Communist Revolution To figure out the effects of national events on a society and to understand how a society’s behaviour patterns are shaped throughout the history, one should understand that society’s or nation’s psychology. In order to understand a nation’s psychology, one should look at the social psychology discipline. Barons, Byrne & Suls (1989) characterize social psychology […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
JOURNAL & RESEARCH POLITICS The Politics Of Intellectual Property Introduction: This Article argues that we need a politics, or perhaps a political economy, of intellectual property. Using the controversy over copyright on the Net as a case-study and the history of the environmental movement as a comparison, it offers a couple of modest proposals about what such a politics might look like — what theoretical […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE The Psychological Science Behind Happiness Although the study of stress and how it affects us physically and psychologically is fascinating, it is—admittedly—somewhat of a grim topic. Psychology is also interested in the study of a more upbeat and encouraging approach to human affairs—the quest for happiness. HAPPINESS The world believes that everyone should have an unalienable right to pursue happiness. But what […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Real Art Of War Key Takeaway: The Art of War, an ancient Chinese war manual from the 5th century BCE, is often cited as a cliché by teen edgelords and management gurus. However, the book is actually a work of clear-sighted and sometimes ruthless realism, influenced by philosophy and strategy. The book, which is attributed to Chinese general and […] Written by Jamie Roberts July 18, 2024July 18, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Democracy Of Bees Key Takeaway: Honey bees, originally tropical insects, evolved complex nest-choosing patterns 600,000 years ago to survive cold climates. However, research into honey bee pressures and behavior rarely takes into account these nest preferences. Researchers have found that tree nests lose less heat than conventional hives and that features of man-made hives inserted for convenience increase […] Written by Derek Mitchell July 17, 2024July 17, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is Fusion Power Our Future? Key Takeaway: Nuclear fusion could be a promising solution to climate change and energy security issues, as it offers a clean, abundant, and safe energy source. However, the technology’s realisation may come into tension with the issues it aims to solve. The technology’s appeal may mask deeper ethical questions, such as environmental sustainability and the […] Written by Sophie Cogan July 11, 2024July 11, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How People Can Influence Our Memories Key Takeaway: A study has found that our memory helps us learn from experiences and develop new knowledge by integrating and updating information. Memory can forge inferred connections beyond direct experiences, which can sometimes lead to false inferences. The study found that people may prioritize information from liked sources more than those from disliked ones, […] Written by Ines Bramao July 10, 2024July 10, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Does Space Change Astronaut Biology? Key Takeaway: Astronauts are experiencing a new era of human spaceflight, with longer missions ranging from minutes to months. As humanity looks to return to the Moon over the coming decade, space exploration missions will be longer, with more space travelers and tourists. Researchers in space health are seeking to better understand the human health […] Written by Susan Bailey July 9, 2024July 12, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Who Really Was Mona Lisa? Key Takeaway: The Mona Lisa, a Renaissance icon, has been a subject of debate for over half a millennium. The painting has been traditionally associated with Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. However, another theory suggests Isabella of Aragon, a princess deeply entwined in the political and cultural fabric of […] Written by Darius von Guttner Sporzynski July 5, 2024July 5, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Science Fiction Feedback Loop Key Takeaway: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sparked controversy by referencing the 2013 movie “Her” to highlight the novelty of ChatGPT’s latest iteration. Actor Scarlett Johansson accused the company of improperly using her voice after she spurned their offer to make her the voice of ChatGPT’s new virtual assistant. This highlights the “sci-fi feedback loop,” which […] Written by Rizwan Virk July 4, 2024July 4, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked