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Harnessing the Power of the Crowd Could Improve Screening Accuracy
Averaging the results from two independent participants improved screening accuracy, whether participants were looking at baggage scans or mammograms.
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How to Play Our Way to a Better Democracy
Before he died, Senator John McCain wrote a loving farewell statement to his fellow citizens of “the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil.” Senator McCain also described our democracy as “325 million opinionated, vociferous individuals.” How can that many individuals bind themselves together to create a great nation? What special skills do we need to develop to compensate for our lack of shared ancestry? When Alexis de Tocqueville toured America in 1831, he concluded that one secret of our success was our ability to solve problems collectively and cooperatively.
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Playtime May Bolster Kids’ Mental Health
“Play has become a four-letter word.” So says Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a psychologist at Temple University and one of the authors of a new paper about the importance of play in children’s lives. The clinical report, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommends that pediatricians write a “prescription for play” at doctor visits in the first two years of life. Years of research have shown that play is an important part of a child’s development, assisting in cognition, memory, social skills, and, to a lesser extent, maybe even mental health. Yet, according to the paper, children in the United States play less, and have less free time, than in decades past.
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To Raise Confident, Independent Kids, Some Parents Are Trying To ‘Let Grow’
Walking through the woods alone can be a scary prospect for a kid, but not for 7-year-old Matthew of Portland, Oregon. He doesn't have much of a backyard at his condo, so the woods behind his house essentially serve the same purpose. He spends hours out there: swinging on a tire swing, tromping across the ravine to a friend's house, and using garden shears to cut a path. He lays down sticks to form a bridge across the small stream that flows in the winter. And he does all of this without any adult supervision. Matthew's mom, Laura Randall, wants her son to gain the sort of skills and confidence that only come with doing things yourself.
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The secret to happiness? Ask this Yale professor (and the 1,200 students taking her class)
What's the secret of happiness? Hard work. But a little help from a Yale professor — and roughly 1,200 eager classmates — probably doesn't hurt. Laurie Santos teaches Psychology and the Good Life course at Yale, a class designed to teach students how to be happy. She said that much of the anxiety she sees comes from being focused on things that don't lead to happiness. "The hope is that teaching students the right way to spend their time, and the right things to worry about, and the right things to focus on might actually shift things around," she said.
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Three reminders to help you thrive—not merely survive—in grad school
Grad school does not have the best reputation. The stereotype is that it is a time of so much despair that it seems, as Marge Simpson noted, like a terrible life choice. This idea is not entirely unfounded: Ph.D. and master’s students around the world report rates of depression and anxiety that are six times higher than the general public. When asked how things are going, grad students often respond, “I’m surviving.” And we as an academic community seem to have accepted this as par for the course. My fellow Letters to Young Scientists authors and I think it is time to change that.
