USA Archives

Rethinking thinking about figures

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Statistics influence opinion, and scientists have a role to play in that regard. Professor Jane E Miller of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA is a specialist in numeric literacy. She has published guidelines to help scientists and those communicating their work to clearly convey the methods, results, and implications of quantitative research. Her work challenges entrenched norms […]

Audible barcodes – a symphony of data

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AuraCodes enable the encoding and decoding of digital information through the medium of sound.

Barcodes and QR codes have become ubiquitous sights in our current information age. However, they have some notable limitations – specifically, the requirement for line of sight, close physical proximity of the reader to the code, and adequate lighting for accurate interpretation. Soorya Annadurai, an independent researcher and software engineer at Microsoft in the USA, has developed a solution for […]

Exploring Mars in search for life before it is too late

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In the next few decades, space agencies are hopeful that humanity may take its first steps on Martian soil. Yet according to Alberto Fairén at the Astrobiology Centre in Madrid, Spain, these missions could have disastrous consequences for our ability to study any life which may be present on Mars. Through his research, Fairén proposes a ‘New Deal’ for Mars […]

**Controlling Salmonella in the poultry gut: Diversity is key**

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Newborn chicks are especially susceptible to Salmonella.

When microorganisms that interact in a specific environment suppress the growth of pathogens, researchers call this ‘pathogen exclusion’. Salmonella is found in poultry intestines and can harm both the birds and humans. To control Salmonella growth, a balance between microorganisms that colonise the poultry gut is necessary. This involves complex interactions between microbes that we don’t yet fully understand. Dr Margie […]

Manijeh Razeghi: The curious life of communication physics

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Professor Manijeh Razeghi of Northwestern University, USA, is a pioneer in the world of semiconductors and optoelectronic devices. She was central to the optical fibre telecommunication revolution in the 1980s and 1990s – an integral part of the subsequent information age. In this interview with Research Outreach, Razeghi reveals why she is just as passionate and curious now as when […]

Exploring the impact of Title IX on women’s rights and inclusion in sports

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The researchers explore the impact of the Title IX amendment and its contribution to broadening horizons for women in education and sports whilst also protecting them.

Title IX is an amendment to the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act introduced in 1972, which prohibits discrimination based on gender in educational programmes and sports. Despite sparking heated debates and having unexpected consequences, this law undoubtedly played a key role in broadening women’s rights, giving women access to sports and to post-secondary education. Denise Green, Chair for the Department […]

Informal learning experiences with big data visualisation

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To enhance visitors’ experience, the CRE team recommend using easy-to-understand, well-designed data visualisations.

Professor Joe E Heimlich and his colleagues from the Center of Science and Industry, a science museum in Columbus, Ohio, USA, are investigating how we learn when we visit informal learning institutions such as museums and aquariums. This project involved a series of studies spanning eleven years that focus on visitors’ experiences of visualisations together with their learning behaviour and […]

Just war and class conflict in Shakespeare’s ‘Henry V’

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‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers’ – King Henry’s speech to rouse his troops before the Battle of Agincourt is one of the most famous in Shakespeare. But what does ‘Henry V’ tell us about theories of war in Elizabethan England? Professor Anne-Marie Walkowicz of Ohio’s Central State University in the USA argues that the play explores the […]

CRISPR gene editing: Can we make cancer cells easier to kill?

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Researchers at the Gene Editing Institute have developed a CRISPR gene editing tool to disable genes causing resistance to standard care in cancer patients.

Lung cancer accounts for approximately one in five cancer deaths globally. The high death toll makes the development of new treatments and improvement of old ones a top priority. One of the challenges with traditional chemotherapy is that tumours can develop resistance to treatment. For several years, Eric B Kmiec, PhD, at the Gene Editing Institute of ChristianaCare, USA and […]

From Charlemagne to Obama: Unifying ancestries and Western European genealogy

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Data scientist Reagan W Moore attempts to construct a unifying ancestry for Western Europeans that will create a genealogical history of the modern world.

What do Britain’s Prince George and former American President Barack Obama have in common? The answer: they are both descendants of Charlemagne, the 9th-century Holy Roman Emperor. Reagan W Moore, Emeritus Professor at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA is creating a genealogical history of the Western world. Based on the […]