Science Education & Policy

No Link Between Minimum Wage And Crime Rates

Contrary to sociological claims that poor people are more likely to be criminals, increasing the minimum wage will not lower violent crime or property crime, according to research presented today at the American Society of Criminology’s 69th annual meeting ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 21 2013 - 7:08pm

Climate Change Response In Europe: Who's Actually Doing Something?

Though Europeans are commonly regarded by Americans as more accepting of climate science, when it comes to putting plans into action, that isn't the case. America has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions from energy back to early 1990s levels and its ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 28 2013 - 3:15pm

STEAM: Be Better In STEM Fields By Doing Some Art

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) advocacy has become all the rage at colleges, universities and other institutions as the US government spends billions doing outreach to make students more technical. ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 3 2013 - 11:18am

Demographic Dividend Debunked? Education, Not Birth Control, Is Key For Economic Development

Economists and sociologists have long insisted that abortion and birth control lead to economic growth and a new paper  in the journal Demography says it's instead education. All of those are correlated so there is no wrong answer. More economically ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 4 2013 - 12:14pm

Who's Patenting Whose Genome?

Overworked patent offices are struggling to keep up with the rapid explosion in information and technology that genetic sequences represent. An international project may have a solution- a free and open public resource that will bring transparency to the m ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 8 2013 - 12:18pm

Test Scores Are Meaningful? Even If They Go Up, Cognitive Abilities Don't

There is culture cold war in America over education. One side says American kids are under-performing because teachers are not using agreed upon criteria and so students don't do as well as some other countries on international standardized tests. Th ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 11 2013 - 2:07pm

Without Consent: A Jaded Public Now Has Lax Attitudes About Access To Their Medical Information

In America, where the Obama administration is using surveillance cameras, tracking website visits and monitoring citizens using GPS, many people feel their privacy is slipping away. It's no surprise that, if there is a choice, like with electronic he ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 15 2013 - 7:00am

Kids May Understand Large Numbers Better Than We Think

A paper in the journal Child Development says that children as young as 3 understand multi-digit numbers more than previously believed and may even be ready for direct math instruction when they enter school. This will have implications for the debate ove ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 18 2013 - 6:55pm

Just Ban Smoking- Then Legalize Marijuana

California academics have found that banning smoking- including inside the home and in entire cities- will reduce smoking. This makes sense. The death penalty also cuts recidivism of criminals by 100 percent, yet we don't use it for every crime. Mean ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 18 2013 - 6:24pm

Bans Not Needed: Kids Will Eat Happy Meals No Matter How Many Calories Are In It

Social authoritarian cultures like San Francisco want to ban things and limit choice but when it comes to healthier kids, it doesn't require creating higher prices, more taxes or political fundamentalism regarding Happy Meals, it can just mean a few ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 19 2013 - 12:30pm