Science in Society

Science in Society articles discuss scientific topics as they relate to academics, politics, ethics, culture, arts, and more.

Don’t Look Up: A Scientific Review
Science in Society

Don’t Look Up: A Scientific Review

Kate Braverman

How realistic is Don’t Look Up? What does it tell us about NASA, the importance of peer review, and asteroid-fighting technology in the real world? (Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)

Don’t Look Up, a film released on Netflix in December 2021, provided a metaphorized take on the relationship between the scientific community, the political sphere, and the public in regard to climate change. In a fictionalized United States, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), an astronomer at Michigan State University, and his PhD student, Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), try to warn the public about a comet, first discovered by Dibiasky, scheduled to collide with the Earth in six months. Encountering the ineffectual POTUS Orlean (Meryl Streep) anda CEO tech billionaire, Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance), only concerned with making a profit, Mindy...
Read More
Researchers Highlight Concerns About Personality Testing in Workplace Training
Features Science in Society

Researchers Highlight Concerns About Personality Testing in Workplace Training

Andreas Wingert

The use of personality testing in the workplace has expanded from personnel selection to workplace training. However, several concerns regarding the use of personality testing in workplace training have been identified.

Personality Test Cartoon. Photo by breakthroughvisuals.com While personality tests in the workplace setting were originally used for personnel selection, human research departments (HRDs) have increasingly employed personality tests in workplace training despite the paucity of evidence supporting their use for this purpose. Several concerns about the use of personality testing in workplace training were identified in a 2017 study by Lundgren et al., who analyzed multiple case studies. Using data collected in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands between 2012 and 2016, the researchers reviewed interviews, test reports, product flyers and email correspondence from publishers, associations, psychologists and HRD...
Read More
Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded for Discovery of Temperature and Touch Receptors
News Science in Society

Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded for Discovery of Temperature and Touch Receptors

Emi Krishnamurthy

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for research on how we feel temperature, touch, and bodily spatial awareness. This discovery marks a key breakthrough in our previously limited understanding of our sense of touch.

2021 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine, David Julius (above) and Ardem Patapoudian (below), and the discovered temperature and touch sensing proteins. Images via NobelPrize.org. This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to David Julius and Ardem Patapoudian for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch, marking a key breakthrough in our understanding of how mechanical stimuli are converted into electrical impulses in the nervous system. Sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, our five major senses, connect our bodies and brains to the world. A sixth sense, proprioception, which helps our body know where it is...
Read More
Haverford Bee Handbook
Features Science in Society

Haverford Bee Handbook

Emi Krishnamurthy

Which bees should I be afraid of? What should I do if a wasp lands on my sandwich? Did I just see a murder hornet? This is your guide to the bees on Haverford’s campus.

Bees run the world. They are widely recognized as being integral to biodiversity and food security. Their little lives impact our water cycle, carbon cycle, GDP, architecture, and so much more. Interior of the Vessel in Hudson Yards, NYC (left), honeycomb (right). Photos by Soly Moses and Archana GS. Honeybees First and foremost, the honeybee is an excellent pollinator, skilled honey maker, and close friend to Haverford’s campus. Our own beehive hosts thousands of fuzzy, golden-brown bees that help pollinate our produce at the Haverfarm. The honeybees you encounter on campus are most likely female worker bees collecting pollen and...
Read More
Science in Society

A New Frontier: Scientific Funding Policies after COVID-19

Lydia Guertin

America’s scientific funding is at its lowest in 60 years. After the COVID-19 pandemic exposed just how unprepared we are to face health crises, the public eye has now turned to how basic scientific research is prioritized and funded, if at all.

Federal research and development funding has become a hot-button issue after the Trump administration defunded Predict, a pandemic early warning project that had already identified and flagged 190 dangerous coronaviruses, just months before the global outbreak of COVID-19. In the 2019 fiscal year, federal research and development (R&D) funding was sitting at less than 1% of the US national gross domestic product, the lowest in over 60 years. Because of this decreased funding specific to health and viral research, it was no surprise that the US was unprepared to face the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the biggest health crises of...
Read More
The Twenty-Two Percent: A Review of Gender in Physics
Features Science in Society

The Twenty-Two Percent: A Review of Gender in Physics

Ashley Schefler

Recently, the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University published a study ten years in the making investigating the relationship between gender and performance in introductory physics courses. This article will review the results of the study, as well as the underlying problems that have led to the underrepresentation of women in the field.

Naval officer Gretchen S. Herbert speaks with young women participating in a Pre-College Experiences in Physics (PREP) Summer Program at the University of Rochester. Photo by U.S. Navy Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Katrina Sartain, via Wikimedia Commons. Note: This article will use some binary gender language (“women” and “men”). These were the genders studied and language used in the papers this article covers, but I acknowledge that this language does not encompass the whole spectrum of identities. Recently, the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University published a study ten years in the making investigating the relationship...
Read More
Halting Misinformation is Crucial in Battling Conspiracies
Features Science in Society

Halting Misinformation is Crucial in Battling Conspiracies

Lukas Voelkner

Was the moon landing faked? Is the Earth flat? Does Bill Gates inject microchips in Americans? There are many popular conspiracy theories held amongst the American population. With very little to no evidence backing up conspiracies, why do so many people believe in them? A recent study from the Philipps-University emphasizes the importance of limiting the spread of misinformation.

At a QAnon rally in Los Angeles (2020). Photo by Joel Muniz. Was the moon landing faked? Is the Earth flat? Does Bill Gates inject microchips in Americans? (The answer to all of these is no.) There are many popular conspiracy theories held amongst the American population. With very little to no evidence backing up conspiracies, why do so many people believe in them? A recent study from the Philipps-University emphasizes the importance of limiting the spread of misinformation. A conspiracy theory is a belief that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event. Conspiracy theories...
Read More

Recent

Polio Resurgence in New York State Prompts Rapid Public Health Response

What are Spotted Lanternflies, Why You Should Kill Them, and What Haverford Researchers Are Doing to Fight Them

Fall 2022 Stargazing: JWST Photos and Jupiter Opposition

Why does coffee make you poop?

A Look into Mathematical Biology