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The Science of Chocolate: How Long Does it Survive in Hospital Wards?
By Roberta Attanasio The prestigious British Medical Journal is giving the best Christmas present ever to its readers: food for thought. The food is chocolate, the thought (or concern) is chocolate survival. A new research article published just a few days ago and entitled “The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards: covert observational study” presents the result of a study aimed “To quantify the consumption of chocolates in a hospital ward environment.” In other words, the study aimed to answer the following research question: How long does chocolate survive after being identified by healthcare assistants, nurses, and doctors? To answer this research question, observers — doctors familiar with the ward…
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Embarrassing Facebook Posts May Cause Anguish
By The Editors A new study from Northwestern University explores the strength of the emotional response to “violations” or ”threats” on Facebook – something that gets posted and results in embarrassment and may, sometimes, create anguish. Jeremy Birnholtz, one of the researchers, said: “Almost every participant in the study could describe something that happened on Facebook in the past six months that was embarrassing or made them feel awkward or uncomfortable.” The study, which will be presented in February 2014 at the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing in Baltimore, found that people concerned about social appropriateness and those with a diverse network of friends on…
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Facebook: High Connection and Low Well-Being
By The Editors Facebook may be big in helping people connect, but may not be that big in making people happy. Indeed, results from a study published in the scientific journal PLOSone indicate that Facebook use predicts decreases in a user’s well being. The study, entitled “Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults” (August 14, 2013), has been carried out by a group of investigators from the University of Michigan (U.S.) and the University of Leuven (Belgium). For the study, the researchers recruited 82 young adults, a core Facebook user demographic. All of them had smart phones and Facebook accounts. They used experience-sampling—one of the most reliable…
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Global High Tech Hubs, Applied Sciences and Net-Zero Energy Buildings
By The Editors At this time, it only offers a beta class (a one-year Masters of Engineering degree in Computer Science from Cornell University), with a handful of students housed in space donated by Google – in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. In the next few years, it will be a major global research and academic program that will confer graduate degrees and engage in research in the Applied Sciences – on Roosevelt Island, a 52-hectare sliver of land in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. We’re talking about Cornell NYC Tech and the launch of an innovative curriculum that leaves behind the traditional highly academic approach to learning and…
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Globalization, Global Competence and Education
By The Editors One of the effects of globalization on higher education is (or will be) the gradual shift from the reductionist approach so in vogue now for many disciplines to a more holistic point of view. The limits of the current discipline-specific reductionist approach will be highlighted when attempting to become globally competent, as discipline-specific knowledge will need to integrate global competence concepts to ensure educational success – success measured on the basis of positive contributions to the new globalized environment as part of the workforce or other. In his commencement address to the graduating class of 1990 at Arkansas College, David Orr suggested six principles for rethinking education –…
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Global Education
By The Editors In a previous post, I introduced the concept of global education as the education perspective expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The concept of global education is defined in more detail by the Global Education website as a set of five perspectives: 1) Interdependence and globalisation, 2) Identity and cultural diversity, 3) Social justice and human rights, 4) Peace building and conflict resolution, 5) Sustainable futures. The Global Education website, which illustrates all aspects of the Global Education Project, has been developed and is maintained by Education Services Australia, a national, not-for-profit company owned by all Australian education ministers. The five perspectives, detailed below, provide a framework for global education.…
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Let’s Invent a Global Society – Lee Bollinger on Global Challenges
By The Editors In the video below, Lee C. Bollinger, President of Columbia University, and Chrystia Freeland, Thomson Reuters Consumer News Editor, discuss how Columbia University tackles the challenges of rapid global changes – the changes we have described in a previous post on the great acceleration, results of the events that define the space age and the information age. Lee Bollinger’s approach is matter-of-fact acceptance of the global changes we are undergoing – he describes well the uncertainty we’re facing these days and points out how much we don’t know – and especially how much it is that academic institutions don’t know. The solution is to be open and invent a…
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The Information Age
By The Editors The Information Age is the era shaped by information and communication technologies—and therefore by information-based industries. It started in the mid-1970s in association with the Digital Revolution, and partially overlaps with the Space Age, which started in the late 1950s with the launch of the world’s first artificial satellite. The Information age has been characterized by widespread optimism about the ability of technology to solve most of the world’s challenges—for example food security, environmental degradation, economic growth and social inclusion. However, we now know that technology, by itself, cannot provide solutions to these challenges. One of the recognized fathers of the Information Age is the scientist Norbert Wiener,…
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The Space Age
By The Editors On October 4, 1957, the 184-pound Sputnik 1 was successfully launched by the Soviet Union and entered Earth’s orbit. Sputnik 1 was the world’s first artificial satellite, only 56 centimeters (22 inches) in diameter, orbiting the Earth in 96 minutes. Its launch ushered in what is now called the “Space Age“, a new era characterized by a variety of political, scientific and technological achievements accompanied by very rapid changes with profound societal implications. During the 1960s, the Space Age led to an environmental revolution. Indeed, the Space Age has been pivotal in shaping how we perceive our planet. Marina Benjamin, author of “Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of…
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The Schwarzman Scholars Program: Focus on China
By The Editors The $300 million “Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University” program, jointly founded by Tsinghua University in Beijing and Stephen Schwarzman, was launched on April 21 and will emulate the famous Rhodes Scholarship program, the oldest and most celebrated international fellowship in the world. The launch ceremony was held at Tsinghua University. Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama both sent congratulatory letters. Starting in June 2016, every year for the next 50 years, 200 students from all around the world will receive the scholarship for a one-year master’s program at Tsinghua University in public policy, international relations, economics, business or engineering. During the scholarship year, Schwarzman scholars will travel around China and will meet Chinese…
