Researchers can gather highly accurate information about social trends and groups by asking about a person’s social circle rather than interrogating their own individual beliefs. In a new perspective piece for Nature, Santa Fe Institute researchers Mirta Galesic, Jonas Dalege, Henrik Olsson, Daniel Stein, Tamara van der Does, and their collaborators* propose a surprising way…

A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to producing cleaner energy based on cost alone could create social inequalities, finds a new study. The Paris Agreement aims to keep global temperature rise this century well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. One major route to achieving this is for countries to…

Psychology researchers hope to improve the social success of autistic adolescents and adults by promoting understanding and acceptance of autism among non-autistic people instead of focusing on teaching them ways to think and behave more like their non-autistic peers. The researchers published their findings online Jan. 20 in the journal Autism. The study showed that…

Data privacy laws require encryption and, in some cases, transforming the original data to ‘protected data’ before it’s released to external parties. Data privacy laws require encryption and, in some cases, transforming the original data to «protected data» before it’s released to external parties. But for researchers like Matthew Schneider, PhD, an assistant professor of…

States with low initial use of HIV-prevention drugs are continuing to fall behind in usage among people at risk for the disease, a new study finds. Researchers, clinicians and advocates had hoped that late-adopting states would see a surge in HIV prevention uptake once those states joined the prevention effort, but that’s largely not the…

Fiber optic cables, it turns out, can be incredibly useful scientific sensors. Researchers have studied them for use in carbon sequestration, groundwater mapping, earthquake detection, and monitoring of Arctic permafrost thaw. Now they have been awarded new grants to develop fiber optics for two novel uses: monitoring offshore wind operations and underground natural gas storage.…

One in four adults reported a change in alcohol use almost immediately after stay-at-home orders were issued: 14 percent reported drinking more alcohol and reported higher levels of stress and anxiety than those who did not drink and those whose use stayed the same. The 11 percent who decreased their drinking also had higher levels…

A new study among young Danish men confirms the assumption that risk-tolerant, impatient and self-centered people are more likely to commit crimes than risk averse, patient and altruistic people are. In general, however, we lack knowledge about the role of people’s preferences in relation to the risk of ending up committing a crime. Researchers from…

Researchers have published new findings that take a first look at the use of SARS-CoV-2 mathematical modeling to inform early statewide policies enacted to reduce the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Colorado. Among other findings, the authors estimate that 97 percent of potential hospitalizations across the state in the early months of the pandemic…

Scientists have developed a predictive computer model that, when tested on real pandemic data, proposed strategies that would have reduced the rate of both COVID-19 infections and deaths by an average of 72 per cent, based on a sample from four countries. The model, called NSGA-II, could be used to alert local governments in advance…