Search

The biological basis for sex differences in autoimmune diseases are beginning to come into focus. The biological basis for sex differences in autoimmune diseases are beginning to come into focus., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: Credit: Daniel Stolle Illustration of two beakers containing mice, one labelled XX, one XY, with a hand reaching for the mouse in the XX jar [...]

A growing understanding of consciousness could lead to fresh treatments for brain injuries and phobias. A growing understanding of consciousness could lead to fresh treatments for brain injuries and phobias., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: Credit: Sam Falconer Decoding the neuroscience of consciousness In the 1990s, neuroscientist Melvyn Goodale began to study people with a condition called visual form agnosia. [...]

How do you get your creative juices flowing after spending hours, days or months looking at a blank screen? Researchers share their advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to affordable birth control can improve the social and economic status of women and their communities, especially in low-income countries. Access to affordable birth control can improve the social and economic status of women and their communities, especially in low-income countries., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: Credit: Chiara Zarmati Illustration showing a young woman holding an iud fashioed like a key climbing steps to a door that leads to a sunlit [...]

How researchers think about migraine in young people is shifting, offering hope for better long-term management of the condition. How researchers think about migraine in young people is shifting, offering hope for better long-term management of the condition., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: The unique demands of childhood migraine Children can struggle to explain their symptoms with words, so Carl Stafstrom at Johns Hopkins Medicine asks them to [...]

Programmes to catch cancers early are on the increase in low- and middle-income countries, but some face cultural and logistical challenges. Programmes to catch cancers early are on the increase in low- and middle-income countries, but some face cultural and logistical challenges., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: Better cancer screening in resource-poor nations Women wait to be screened for breast cancer in Uganda, where efforts are being made to catch the disease [...]

As interest builds in the potential health benefits from the plant, accumulating evidence confirms that taking the drug also carries risks. As interest builds in the potential health benefits from the plant, accumulating evidence confirms that taking the drug also carries risks., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: Weighing the dangers of cannabis The modern interior of a cannabis dispensary in Louisville, Colorado. [see PDF for image] Credit: Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post/Getty The [...]

Researcher-parents must balance their children's needs with work priorities while in the field. Researcher-parents must balance their children's needs with work priorities while in the field., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: Ways to juggle fieldwork with kids in tow Archaeologist Colleen Morgan's daughter with her father Daniel Eddisford, also an archaeologist, at a field site in [...]

Researchers are redefining twenty-first-century conferences at which delegates set the agenda.Researchers are redefining twenty-first-century conferences at which delegates set the agenda., Author(s): Emily SohnAuthor Affiliations:The future of the scientific conference Credit: Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images [see PDF for image]People standing around talking at a break in a conferenceBefore she attended her first [...]

Each person's skin carries a unique population of microbes that might help to protect skin from infection, or increase its vulnerability.Each person's skin carries a unique population of microbes that might help to protect skin from infection, or increase its vulnerability., Author(s): Emily SohnAuthor Affiliations:Skin microbiota's community effort Jack Gilbert investigates the movement of microbes between skin and the environment. [see PDF for image]Credit: Argonne National LaboratoryIn December 2012, two months [...]

Scientists are merging their life's passions with their academic studies, and coming up with new fields in the process.Scientists are merging their life's passions with their academic studies, and coming up with new fields in the process., Author(s): Emily SohnAuthor Affiliations:How to turn your interests into a career Exercise physiologist Vanesa España-Romero is a keen rock climber and studies climbing fitness. [see PDF for image]Credit: Jason SchneiderVanesa [...]

Lots of things can and will go wrong in the field, but there are ways to rescue the work and learn from your mishaps.Lots of things can and will go wrong in the field, but there are ways to rescue the work and learn from your mishaps., Author(s): Emily SohnAuthor Affiliations:A fieldwork flop needn't be a disaster Colleagues of marine biologist Rob Williams install ill-fated hydrophones off the coast of Uluwatu, on the Indonesian island of Bali. [...]

Mental illness can be devastating -- but there are ways to fight it, say four researchers who have known those bleak times.Mental illness can be devastating -- but there are ways to fight it, say four researchers who have known those bleak times., Author(s): Emily SohnAuthor Affiliations:How to handle the dark days of depression Illustration of depression [see PDF for image]ELYN SAKS: 'Crazy thoughts' Lawyer and psychoanalyst at the University of Southern California [...]

It can be tricky to plan and carry on fieldwork when you're pregnant, but there are ways to smooth the path. It can be tricky to plan and carry on fieldwork when you're pregnant, but there are ways to smooth the path., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: A guide to juggling fieldwork and pregnancy Marine ecologist Sandra Binning recommends that researchers who are pregnant take a few extra steps of preparation before [...]

How to balance a long-term illness and a research career. How to balance a long-term illness and a research career., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: When sickness interrupts science Jennifer Mankoff, who experiences extreme fatigue, studies technologies for people with disabilities. Credit: Dennis Wise/Univ. Washington Jennifer Mankoff Jennifer Mankoff was [...]

Four scientists with disabilities or chronic conditions share their conference conundrums and give advice on improving accessibility. Four scientists with disabilities or chronic conditions share their conference conundrums and give advice on improving accessibility., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: Ways to make meetings accessible Astronomer Wanda Diaz-Merced uses apps that improve conference accessibility. Credit: Marla Aufmuth/TED Wanda Diaz-Merced giving a talk at a conference [...]

Scepticism towards the idea that lifestyle choices can reduce the risk of dementia is waning.Scepticism towards the idea that lifestyle choices can reduce the risk of dementia is waning., Author(s): Emily SohnAuthor Affiliations:How the evidence stacks up for preventing Alzheimer's disease A Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil might help to stave off Alzheimer's disease. [see PDF for image]Credit: [...]

Tedious daily work might feel frustrating, but idle thoughts can drum up just the right spark of scientific inspiration., Author(s): Emily Sohn [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Emily Sohn is a freelance journalist in Minneapolis, Minnesota., When biologist Adrian Smith chose to study ants, he approached the field with ambitious [...]

Damascus had steel. In Venice, it was glass. Switzerland made watches. For hundreds of years, regions developed specialities that often arose from access to a natural resource, but then intensified [...]

Knowing when to hand-hold and when to step back is crucial for helping early-career researchers.Knowing when to hand-hold and when to step back is crucial for helping early-career researchers., Author(s): Emily SohnAuthor Affiliations:Meet the supervisors who helped to shape four scientists' careers Emiliano Monroy-Ríos samples rocks from a cave off the eastern coast of Mexico with adviser Patricia Beddows. [...]

Robin Bell studies ice sheets in sensitive polar regions to map the march of climate change. Robin Bell studies ice sheets in sensitive polar regions to map the march of climate change., Author(s): Emily Sohn Author Affiliations: Robin Bell is a geophysicist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York. [see PDF for image] Credit: Beth Perkins for Nature [...]

The armed guards at Mali's Bamako Senou International Airport had never seen a German shepherd before. The only dogs they were familiar with were the small, scrappy mixed breeds that [...]

Scientists deploy networking, collaboration and long-term thinking to win private donor dollars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major clinical study raised questions about one of the most celebrated cancer-screening procedures available, but a close look at the data tells a different story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

US institutions and states are revamping hiring practices in an attempt to increase transparency about past misconduct in academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing awareness that children and teenagers can get depressed, substantial gaps remain in diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presenting and networking at events can be daunting for researchers with a stammer or other speech disability. Here’s how colleagues can support them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living with a rare disease but no concrete diagnosis can be difficult. Genetic sequencing may finally provide a solution., Author(s): Emily Sohn [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Emily Sohn is a freelance journalist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota., When Elizabeth Davis had her exome sequenced after 30 years of misdiagnosis, it [...]

Infectious disease, loneliness and stress can affect cellular ageing, making us less healthy and shortening lifespans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Back in 1980, Canadian researchers decided to tackle a pressing question: how many women could be saved with breast-cancer screening? At the time, many researchers suspected that the relatively new [...]

Alan Shackelford is intent on finding out why some of his patients respond so well to cannabis. But despite living in Colorado, the US state with some of the most [...]

Mouse lemurs are primates and not rodents, and proof of that is their tendency to observe a new environment first before exploring it. Extinction of such species will have a negative impact on primate evolution research. Efforts to understand mouse lemurs' behavior, distribution and habitats are discussed.

Austin, a fluffy white-and-black Old English sheepdog, was still a puppy when his owners called the University of North Carolina's Francis Owen Blood Research Laboratory in Chapel Hill four years [...]

Health-care systems are rolling out artificial-intelligence tools for diagnosis and monitoring. But how reliable are the models? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uneven access to health-care resources is complicating the drive to eliminate this viral infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) decision support is increasing in high-stakes contexts, such as healthcare, defense, and finance. Uncertainty information may help users better leverage AI predictions, especially when combined with their domain knowledge. We conducted a human-subject experiment with an online sample to examine the effects of presenting uncertainty information with AI recommendations. The experimental stimuli and task, which included identifying plant and animal images, are from an existing image recognition deep learning model, a popular approach to AI. The uncertainty information was predicted probabilities for whether each label was the true label. This information was presented numerically and visually. In the study, we tested the effect of AI recommendations in a within-subject comparison and uncertainty information in a between-subject comparison. The results suggest that AI recommendations increased both participants' accuracy and confidence. Further, providing uncertainty information significantly increased accuracy but not confidence, suggesting that it may be effective for reducing overconfidence. In this task, participants tended to have higher domain knowledge for animals than plants based on a self-reported measure of domain knowledge. Participants with more domain knowledge were appropriately less confident when uncertainty information was provided. This suggests that people use AI and uncertainty information differently, such as an expert versus second opinion, depending on their level of domain knowledge. These results suggest that if presented appropriately, uncertainty information can potentially decrease overconfidence that is induced by using AI recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]