In the News
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February 12, 2020
Political campaign ads and candidate messages showing opponents in a negative light have long been a staple of American politics, but now such content can spread quickly, says Clifford Lampe, professor of information: “The difference now is that the campaigns themselves, the president of the U.S. himself, is able to disseminate these pieces of media to the public. They no longer have to collaborate with media outlets.”
The New York Times -
February 11, 2020
Among high school seniors, the proportion who never smoked tobacco surged from 39 percent in 2001 to 76 percent in 2018, and never-smokers were at least four times less likely to misuse drugs like opioids and amphetamines than teens who had tried smoking, according to Richard Miech, research professor at the Institute for Social Research, and colleagues.
Reuters -
February 11, 2020
Tom Buchmueller, professor of business economics and public policy, and health management and policy, says proposals to change the Affordable Care Act to increase the number of families eligible for government subsidies and lower their out-of-pocket costs could have even more immediate impact than a public-option health care system: “As a practical matter, it would be much easier to tweak the parameters of the Obamacare system to expand coverage.”
Detroit Free Press -
February 11, 2020
“This younger group of students, they see it differently, and they want something different. They want climate justice. They want energy justice, not just energy or climate change,” said Dorceta Taylor, professor of environmental sociology, on the younger generation’s interest in making environmental groups more diverse.
Gizmodo -
February 10, 2020
Students least likely to enroll in college — poor and nonwhite students — have less access to high school career-tech programs that can lead to jobs earning middle-class wages, according to research by Brian Jacob, professor of public policy, economics and education: “I wouldn’t have been surprised if (the disparity) was AP (advanced placement) courses or gifted and talented programs or college advising. But I was more surprised by the disparity in CTE.”
Bridge Magazine -
February 10, 2020
“These data are becoming of increasing practical importance for figuring out the state of the economy for policymaking. The quality of official statistics is going to deteriorate without help from big data,” said Matthew Shapiro, professor of economics, on the Fed’s reliance on some privately produced economic data, which is nearly as accurate as — and often timelier than — the government reports that it has long depended upon.
The New York Times -
February 10, 2020
Pierre Ferdinand Poudeu, associate professor of materials science and engineering, and Ctirad Uher, professor of physics, commented on the arrest of a Harvard professor accused of concealing and lying about his research activities in China. “I’m not sure what the problem is. This is kind of too close to what a university researcher is supposed to be doing,” Poudeu said. Added Uher, “It’s sad to hear situations like these because this all started probably 10 or 15 years ago when these interactions were strongly encouraged by the previous administration. Now, it’s not as favorably viewed.”
Times Higher Education -
February 7, 2020
“Climate change is not a black-and-white situation. It’s not like an asteroid hitting the Earth. But we know we’re in for some major impacts. It’s important to know where we’re vulnerable so we can make informed decisions about possible solutions,” said Daniel Raimi, lecturer of public policy, whose research reveals that “100-year floods” could occur every few years rather than once a century in many locations along Florida’s 8,500-mile coastline.
Scientific American -
February 7, 2020
“The really big players are not focused on this. There’s still a lot of work to be done on self-driving cars in general, but (driving in bad weather) is going to be a big differentiator,” said Matthew Johnson-Roberson, associate professor of naval architecture and marine engineering, and electrical engineering and computer science, who believes that tackling bad weather may offer a way to gain a competitive edge for an autonomous-vehicle company.
WIRED -
February 7, 2020
“There’s a danger in having the instruction emphasize climate catastrophe. It’s tempting to say how bad things are, how much we need to stop it. … We can overemphasize how scary it is to the point where people feel hopeless and panicked,” said Meghan Duffy, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, who now includes solutions — and not just doom and gloom — when teaching the topic of climate change.
The Washington Post
