Social Issues News

April 19, 2024

Top Headlines

Are Lab-Grown Brain Tissues Ethical? There Is No No-Brainer Answer

Apr. 8, 2024 — Researchers offer insights into the ethical dilemmas and legal complexities surrounding brain organoids, especially those derived from human fetal tissue. Their findings advocate for thorough regulatory frameworks to ensure that scientific and ...

How Climate Change Will Impact Food Production and Financial Institutions

Apr. 8, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new method to predict the financial impacts climate change will have on agriculture, which can help support food security and financial stability for countries increasingly prone to climate ...

Ag Economists Offer Food for Thought to Improve Baby Formula Supply

Feb. 22, 2024 — Remember the 2022 baby formula crisis? The historic shortage of infant formula that year highlighted the precarious balance between regulation, competition and safety, according to a new study. The article takes a close look at the infant formula ...

Why Do(n't) People Support Being Nudged Towards Healthier Diets?

Feb. 16, 2024 — You may not realize it, but 'nudge' has been used by businesses, policy-makers and governments for years to prod the public into making different choices. Small changes in our environment can 'nudge' us into different behaviors without restricting ...

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Research Examines Tweets During Hurricane María to Analyze Social Media Use During Disasters

Apr. 9, 2024 — Understanding how social media is used during a disaster can help with disaster preparedness and recovery for future ...

Researchers Overestimate Their Own Honesty

Feb. 26, 2024 — The average researcher thinks they are better than their colleagues at following good research practice. They also think that their own research field is better than other research fields at ...

Can Hunger Be Eradicated by 2030?

Feb. 26, 2024 — World hunger is growing at an alarming rate, with prolonged conflicts, climate change, and COVID-19 exacerbating the problem. In 2022, the World Food Programme helped a record 158 million people. On ...

How a City Is Organized Can Create Less-Biased Citizens

Feb. 6, 2024 — A new study presents data and a mathematical model to explain why there is more unconscious, or implicit, racial bias in some cities than others. The study, which brings together the math of cities ...

National Policy Aimed at Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gases Also Would Improve Water Quality

Dec. 12, 2023 — A climate policy that raises the price of carbon-intensive products across the entire U.S. economy would yield a side benefit of reducing nitrate ...

What Makes Sustainable Consumption So Difficult

Nov. 30, 2023 — When it comes to self-discipline, psychological research traditionally focuses on individual responsibility. Some researchers believe this is too short-sighted. Self-discipline doesn't work without ...

AI Can Alert Urban Planners and Policymakers to Cities' Decay

Oct. 27, 2023 — As urbanization advances around the globe, the quality of the urban physical environment will become increasingly critical to human well-being and to sustainable development initiatives. However, ...

A Sustainable Future Is Based on a Learning Society

Oct. 25, 2023 — A holistic transformation is needed for the planet to accommodate people's pursuit of well-being. A new study explores a Theory of Planetary Social Pedagogy as a driver of a transformative process ...

Ensuring Fairness of AI in Healthcare Requires Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

Oct. 20, 2023 — New perspective argues pursuing fair AI for healthcare requires cross-disciplinary collaboration to translate methods into real-world ...

Keeping a Human in the Loop: Managing the Ethics of AI in Medicine

Oct. 20, 2023 — Increasingly used in medicine, AI raises both hopes and concerns. An international task force has laid out recommendations to ensure AI medical devices help patients and avoid worsening health ...

Study Finds Increased Anxiety and PTSD Among People Who Remained in Ukraine

Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers conducted a survey to understand how the mental health of displaced Ukrainians has been affected by the ongoing war. Their findings describe high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder ...

Climate Change Impacts Terrorist Activity

Apr. 4, 2024 — Changing weather patterns induced by climate change are contributing to shifts in the location of terrorist activity, according to new ...

AI Ethics Are Ignoring Children, Say Researchers

Mar. 21, 2024 — Researchers have called for a more considered approach when embedding ethical principles in the development and governance of AI for ...

Psychosocial Stressors Linked to Higher Inflammation in Black Pregnant Women

Mar. 6, 2024 — Living in neighborhoods with more white residents and greater lifetime experiences of racial discrimination are linked to increased systemic inflammation during pregnancy among Black women, according ...

Women Farmers Quantitatively Linked to Better Community Well-Being

Jan. 17, 2024 — Having more women in agriculture is associated with greater community well-being, according to researchers. Their work suggests that women farmers approach their operations in ways that positively ...

U.S. Renters Are Hit the Hardest When a Hurricane Strikes, New Research Shows

Dec. 14, 2023 — Two new studies based on data from 2009 to 2018 show that renters living along the East and Gulf coasts of the United States face rent increases, higher eviction rates, and a lack of affordable ...

New Interactive Evidence-Based Mapping Tool Gives Policymakers More Insight Into Highly Concentrated Cannabis Products

Nov. 8, 2023 — After conducting the first scoping review of its kind, researchers have developed an evidence-based interactive mapping tool to assist policymakers as they consider regulating the concentration of ...

Experts Warn of Risk of Civil Unrest in UK Due to Food Shortages

Oct. 12, 2023 — Food shortages caused by extreme weather could lead to civil unrest in the UK, according to a new study which has surveyed some of the country’s leading food ...

New Study Offers Improved Strategy for Social Media Communications During Wildfires

Oct. 10, 2023 — New research offers an improved strategy for social media communications during wildfires and contradicting existing crisis communication ...

Discrimination Alters Brain-Gut 'Crosstalk,' Prompting Poor Food Choices and Increased Health Risks

Oct. 2, 2023 — People frequently exposed to racial or ethnic discrimination may be more susceptible to obesity and related health risks in part because of a stress response that changes biological processes and how ...

Parental Incarceration Increases Cardiovascular Risk in Young Adults, Study Suggests

Aug. 30, 2023 — New research suggests parental incarceration elevates cardiovascular risk in early adulthood, potentially contributing to larger health ...

With Advances in in Vitro Models, Group Proposes Refined Legal Definition of an Embryo

Aug. 17, 2023 — Thanks to continuous advances in human stem cell research, studies that make use of embryo models are progressing quickly. This research offers both a scientific and ethical alternative to the use of ...

Greater Excess Mortality After Hurricanes More Recently and for Most Socially Vulnerable in the U.S.

Aug. 16, 2023 — Over recent decades, there was a large variation in cyclone-related excess deaths by hurricane, state, county, year, and social vulnerability for counties in the United States, with 83 percent of ...

Study: People Expect Others to Mirror Their Own Selfishness, Generosity

Aug. 7, 2023 — A person's own behavior is the primary driver of how they treat others during brief, zero-sum-game competitions, researchers report. Generous people tend to reward generous behavior and selfish ...

Researchers Discuss the Ethical Challenges of Studying DNA from a 18th--19th Century African American Community

Aug. 3, 2023 — A population genetics team recently identified the genetic relationship between over 40,000 23andMe users and a population of enslaved and free African Americans that lived in Catoctin Furnace, ...

The Missing Americans: Unprecedented US Mortality Far Exceeds Other Wealthy Nations

July 17, 2023 — A new study found that more than one million US deaths per year -- including many young and working-age adults -- could be avoided if the US had mortality rates similar to its peer nations. In 2021, ...

The Good Advice That Could Lift People out of Poverty

July 12, 2023 — Researchers have found that providing access to advice about housing, debt and benefits within food banks could help lift people out of poverty. The initiative meant that people forced to use a food ...

Policymakers Should Consider Animal Welfare in Decisions

July 6, 2023 — Incorporating animal welfare into policymaking may improve policy and practice, according to new research. The article notes that animal welfare rarely is considered during policymaking, explains why ...

Public Support Hydrogen and Biofuels to Decarbonize Global Shipping

July 6, 2023 — New research into public attitudes towards alternative shipping fuels shows public backing for biofuel and hydrogen. The study also found that nuclear was preferred to the heavy fuel oil (HFO) ...

Philosophy Aligns With Economics on How to Value Future Generations in Climate Policy

May 30, 2023 — A survey of philosophers finds they broadly agree with economists on the best way of valuing the environment of the future in policy decisions made now -- although for different ...