Tag: USA
How joyful dialogic reading jumpstarts early learning
The role of family engagement in children’s early learning is crucial to their future educational prospects. Alice Letvin and Carolyn Saper, who are based in Chicago, USA, developed the ReadAskChat dialogic reading app for families with babies, toddlers, and prereaders. The ReadAskChat app includes a library of short, content-rich stories and prompts for adult readers to stimulate brain-building “serve-and-return” conversations. […]
The periphery: Where radical innovation occurs
Gino Cattani is Professor of Management and Organization at the Stern School of Business, and Simone Ferriani is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Bologna. Both professors have researched creativity and entrepreneurship independently but they’ve come together for a common goal: to solve the Core-Periphery Conundrum. Why is it that resources are concentrated among those who conform, when the […]
You are your most important teacher (and what to do about it)
Dr Robert Hahn, Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Emory University, Atlanta, describes how learning is an internal dialogue, as we continuously build on the knowledge we already possess in our minds. His synthesis of research shows that your most important teacher is actually yourself. He argues that the classroom that recognises that we can learn how […]
How to make a CRISPR cow
Genome editing offers an opportunity to introduce useful genetic traits into livestock breeding programmes. However, it has proven difficult to insert large DNA fragments into livestock embryos using the CRISPR-Cas9 system. Dr Alison Van Eenennaam and Dr Joseph Owen, of the University of California, Davis, employed their knowledge of bovine embryogenesis and DNA repair pathways, and the help of a […]
Laboratory lungs: The implications of lung organoids for health and disease
Lung disease is a major public health concern. However, research is hindered by the challenges of developing translatable human lung systems in a laboratory setting. Dr Sandra Leibel, neonatologist and Physician Scientist at UCSD and Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, USA, is studying lung development and disease mechanisms. In order to do this, she has developed stem cell-derived lung […]
How to change the world: COMPASS on science and effective communication
Scientists have information that can help us solve complex problems that threaten us all, such as climate change and biodiversity loss. COMPASS is a non-profit organisation which believes that strategic communication is critical for a future in which both people and nature survive and thrive. Executive Director Amanda Stanley told Research Outreach how they are building a cross-discipline community of […]
How new RNA genes are born
The study of gene birth and evolution focuses on the identification of ancestral genetic sequences, highly conserved during evolution, that can serve as a foundation for gene development. Nicholas Delihas, Professor Emeritus at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, New York, has identified one such ancestral element and presented data and a model to show how new […]
Uncovering critical cell death mechanisms for novel cardioprotective therapies
Cell death is part of a natural process by which old cells are replaced by new, but it can also result from disease or injury. There are still many aspects of this process which are not fully understood. The laboratory of Dr Jason Karch, Baylor College of Medicine, aims to increase comprehension of the mechanisms behind cell death. If these […]
Let’s talk! How Science Talk is getting science communicators together
If scientists want their research to make a difference in the world, it is essential that they learn how to be effective ‘science communicators’; if no one hears about research, it may as well never have happened. We found out from Science Talk President Allison Coffin how her organisation is bringing scientists together in new ways to create a community […]
Cellulose nanodefects: The key to biofuels and biomaterials of the future
Cellulose is a renewable polymer that can be used to produce biofuels and other bio-based materials. However, the potential of cellulose to displace petroleum-derived products had been limited by incomplete knowledge of its nanoscale characteristics. Recent research by Dr Peter Ciesielski and Dr Michael Crowley, both from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has advanced our understanding of nanoscale defects that […]