Upping the Game for Future Researchers By Lindsay Lewis and Sarah F. Hill “When you allow yourself to fully relate with another person, you’re listening and engaged, riding the waves of uncertainty inherent in any conversation,” said Alan Alda in an interview with Scripps Research in 2020. “When you embrace that uncertainty, rather than try ...
Understanding How the Public Consumes Science and Research By Lindsay Lewis “When scientists are able to communicate effectively beyond their peers to broader, non-scientist audiences, it builds support for science, promotes understanding of its wider relevance to society, and encourages more informed decision-making at all levels, from government to communities to individuals,” writes Mónica I. ...
Making Research More Credible for Public Consumption “In the 17th century, many scientists kept new findings secret so that others could not claim the results as their own. Prominent figures of the time, including Isaac Newton, often avoided announcing their discoveries for fear that someone else would claim priority,” stated the authors of On Being ...
How Social Media Sows Confusion “Social media platforms were designed for engagement and therefore revenue. Unfortunately, the most engaging content is usually controversial and polarizing. This means that a platform’s algorithms often end up contributing to the problem,” said Ali Tehrani, writing for the Forbes Technology Council. Social media gives universities and researchers alike a platform ...
Why the Constant Barrage of Headlines Adds to the Hysteria “In the old days, on the first day we would report what happened. On the second day, we would tell what the reaction was. On the third day, we would analyze what it means. Now CNN tells you what happened and five minutes later some ...
Exploring the Confusion Among the Masses “If you have diabetes, some research suggests that eating seven eggs a week increases heart disease risk. However, other research failed to find the same connection. Still other research suggests that eating eggs may increase the risk of developing diabetes in the first place. More research is needed to ...
Years ago, I would argue with friends in an army mess hall: “How should we best keep our coffee warm until we get around to drinking it? Should we put the cream in right away? Or should we wait?” Well, let’s see what happens when we play with that question. Perhaps the cream is just ...
This is The Big Idea’s reoccurring segment where we ask some of our top professors from across the University of Houston to weigh in on a truism or idiom – a safe place for them to rant, wax poetic or dazzle us with their clever take on age-old adages. Dorothy preferred the pre-twister complacency of ...
Before the Black Lives Matter movement, there were already committees and organizations at colleges around the country trying to change the systemic racism that, much like the virus, had worked its way into every facet of our American life – including within our institutions of higher education. But important seed funding for diversity and inclusion ...
UH alumna Patrice O. Yarbough (Biochemistry ’80, ’85) discusses the confinement studies she leads at NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) and what insights they can give us to better cope with isolation. Cut off from the outside world. Day in and day out: the same faces and the same four walls. Living through quarantine sounds eerily ...
“Make a salad.” One of the pivotal works of the Fluxus collective by artist Alison Knowles is —like most contemporary art— open to interpretation. Taking advantage of the work as a recipe for automatic participation, University of Houston professor of art history Natilee Harren often teaches this performance art instruction or “event score” in her ...
By Claudia Neuhauser, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of Research and Technology Transfer, Professor of Mathematics, University of Houston Brian Herman, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and former Vice President for Research, University of Minnesota and University of Texas Health, San Antonio We read several newspapers every morning. Like many other people, we get notifications ...
