Monthly Archives: February 2024

How having conversations with children builds their language — and strengthens family connections

How having conversations with children builds their language — and strengthens family connections

Parents and caregivers of school-aged children are all too familiar with the after-school conversation that sounds a little something like: “How was school?” “Fine.” “What did you learn?” “Nothing.” Conversations between children of all ages and attentive, caring adults offer strong benefits in all domains of children’s well-being. When these conversations are purposeful and strategic, they can even strengthen skills […] … learn more→

Happy teachers: a key to improving academic results

Happy teachers: a key to improving academic results

Nine in the morning, the doorbell rings. The boys and girls rush to enter the classrooms. His teacher is waiting there. She has been at the center for more than half an hour arranging the classroom to carry out a dynamic that she hopes will work and capture attention better than yesterday. Among the large […] … learn more→

How far are we, scientifically, from reading thoughts

How far are we, scientifically, from reading thoughts

On January 29, Elon Musk published in X the success of the first surgical intervention implanting a device developed by his start-up Neuralink in a human . The name of the device: Telepathy (Telepathy). In the scientific community we were attentive to what Elon Musk’s team had achieved since in September 2023 the competent body, the United States Food and […] … learn more→

A thesis is not just a display

A thesis is not just a display

It’s tempting to think that the PhD thesis is the place you get to display every single thing you’ve read. To peacock-like spread out a significant dazzle of texts. Look how much I’ve done. See how well I can summarise it all. Just imagine how good my notes are and how impressive my (Endnote, Zotero […] … learn more→

“The other side of words”: Resilience

“The other side of words”: Resilience

Increasingly frequent in media discourse and everyday language, the term resilience was said to have been used for the first time by Emmy Werner . This developmental psychologist focused in the 1980s and 1990s on the long-term consequences of stress occurring during the prenatal and perinatal periods, based on longitudinal research on 698 people from the island of Kauai […] … learn more→

Drowning in ‘digital debt’? AI assistants can help – but we must use them carefully

Drowning in ‘digital debt’? AI assistants can help – but we must use them carefully

In recent days, the “right to disconnect” has entered Australia’s legislative agenda. It refers to employees’ rights to refuse unreasonable after-hours contact from their employer. In a work landscape where employees are constantly available after hours thanks to smartphones and portable devices, and employers are competing in global markets and operating on tight deadlines, concerns about […] … learn more→

Research espionage is a real threat – but a drastic crackdown could stifle vital international collaboration

Research espionage is a real threat – but a drastic crackdown could stifle vital international collaboration

Australia’s research institutions are targets for nefarious actors, from China and elsewhere. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has publicly tabled an “awareness” of various attempts to compromise the sector. What are we doing about it? Not enough, according to critics. One recent charge is that Australia “lags behind” its allies and partners in responding to threats to “research […] … learn more→

Students lose out as cities and states give billions in property tax breaks to businesses − draining school budgets and especially hurting the poorest students

Students lose out as cities and states give billions in property tax breaks to businesses − draining school budgets and especially hurting the poorest students

Built in 1910, James Elementary is a three-story brick school in Kansas City, Missouri’s historic Northeast neighborhood, with a bright blue front door framed by a sand-colored stone arch adorned with a gargoyle. As bustling students and teachers negotiate a maze of gray stairs with worn wooden handrails, Marjorie Mayes, the school’s principal, escorts a […] … learn more→

Counting birds, identifying plants: does participatory science really advance research?

Counting birds, identifying plants: does participatory science really advance research?

The phenomenon of citizen science is not new, but it has grown over the last decade. Moreover, you yourself may have contributed by observing birds from your balcony or garden during the 2020 confinement, or by using your smartphone to identify a plant or an insect during a walk in the forest. In doing so, you shared your observations […] … learn more→