The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, awarded notably to Philippe Aghion, has brought renewed emphasis to the benefits of technological innovation and its crucial role in economic growth. But are there not also forced innovations? The philosophy of Ivan Illich can shed light on this question. In theory, we […] … learn more→

Open science awareness alone is not enough to create an ethical research climate, especially without the support of an adequate research ecosystem. Publication pressures and quantitative incentives often lead to unethical research practices. A change in research culture based on quality and transparency is needed to create a healthy research ecosystem. Awareness of open science does not […] … learn more→

Across the United States, more schools are implementing policies restricting cellphones as concerns about digital distraction, mental health and academic performance rise. The scale of the issue is significant. According to a 2023 report from Common Sense Media, 97% of students between the ages of 11 and 17 use their cellphones at least once during the school day. These students spend […] … learn more→

Robots make headlines when they imitate us: they converse in almost human voices, write texts that sound like ours, or “read” emotions on a screen. But the truly important leap is another: to stop copying us and start complementing us, designing capabilities that fill in our gaps—attention, biases, fatigue—and valuing machines for their impact on […] … learn more→

For some years now, children have been spending more and more time at home or indoors, staring at a screen, and less time outdoors or in natural spaces. This loss of contact with the natural environment has consequences for their development. Among the many concerns raised by this increase in screen use ( sedentary lifestyle, isolation, overexposure, and even addiction ), […] … learn more→

We’re meeting a friend for lunch at a restaurant. When the first courses arrive, she interrupts the conversation to say, “Would you pass me the…” while looking at a specific spot on the table. We probably don’t need any more words or gestures to understand that she’s referring to salt and we pass it to […] … learn more→

Do you want to know how drones are being used in urban planning? Everyone in urban planning wants better, more precise data for smarter infrastructure and city development decisions. After all, improved mapping directly leads to: Better allocation of resources More efficient city building However… Mapping cities hasn’t changed all that much since the days […] … learn more→

Even if you don’t recall many facts from high school biology, you likely remember the cells required for making babies: egg and sperm. Maybe you can picture a swarm of sperm cells battling each other in a race to be the first to penetrate the egg. For decades, scientific literature described human conception this way, […] … learn more→

New inventions — like the printing press, magnetic compasses, steam engines, calculators and the internet — can create radical shifts in our everyday lives. Many of these new technologies were met with some degree of skepticism by those who lived through the transition. Over the past 30 years alone, we’ve seen our relationship with the internet transform […] … learn more→

The traces left by individuals on the internet and social media constitute a considerable source of digital data, known as big data. Some predicted the death of the social sciences with the emergence of this massive data set. On the contrary, it seems that the social sciences are transforming and refining their research methods thanks […] … learn more→