Scientific Sense ®

Social networks, Influencers, On the origins of a good society, Artificial Intelligence in hybrid systems, and managing pandemics. Prof. Nicholas Christakis is professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. He directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale. His current research is focused on the social, mathematical, and biological rules governing how social networks form (“connection”), and (2) the social and biological implications of how they operate to influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (“contagion”).

The Great American Gun War: Notes from Four Decades in the Trenches, Understanding Gun Violence: Public Health v/s Public Policy, and Thinking about gun violence. Prof. Philip Cook is Professor of Public Policy, Economics and Sociology at Duke University. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also co-director of the NBER Work Group on the Economics of Crime, and co-editor of a NBER volume on crime prevention.

Do Youth Employment Programs Work? Evidence from the New Deal, The association between educational attainment and longevity using individual-level data from the 1940 census, The Incentive Effects of Cash Transfers to the Poor, and A Unified Model of Cohort Mortality for Economic Analysis Prof. Adriana Lleras-Muney is a Professor of Economics at UCLA. Her research examines the relationships between socio-economic status and health, with a particular focus on education and income. Her most recent work investigates the long term impact of government policies on children by analyzing the effects of programs like the Mother’s Pension program and the Civilian Conservation Corps, implemented during the first half of the 20th century.

Outline of an Account of Experience, Conscious Experience: A Logical Inquiry, Experience and Its Rational Significance, and Principles and the Generalization Function of Truth Prof. Anil Gupta is Professor of Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, and a Fellow of the Center for Philosophy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also editor of Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.

Reducing Crime and Violence: Experimental Evidence from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Liberia, The Long-Term Impacts of Grants on Poverty: Nine-Year Evidence from Uganda’s Youth Opportunities Program, and Gang rule: Understanding and Countering Criminal Governance Prof. Chris Blattman is an economist and political scientist at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

Modulation of early sensory processing in human auditory cortex,  Inhibitory Control in Children with ADHD, The neural bases of momentary lapses in attention, Timing and Sequence of Brain Activity in Top-Down Control of Visual-Spatial Attention,  and A key role for stimulus-specific updating of the sensory cortices in the learning of stimulus–reward associations. Prof. Marty Woldorff is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University. His research focuses on advancing our understanding of the neural and psychological mechanisms underlying human attentional processes and their effects on other cognitive functions.

Networks of military alliances, wars, and international trade, The Friendship Paradox and Systematic Biases in Perceptions and Social Norms,  Using Gossips to Spread Information: Theory and Evidence from Two Randomized Controlled Trials, and The Role of Referrals in Immobility, Inequality, and Inefficiency in Labor Markets Prof. Matthew Jackson is Professor of Economics at Stanford University and an external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute, and is president of the Game Theory Society. Prof. Jackson's research interests include game theory and the study of social and economic networks, on which he has published many articles and the books `The Human Network' and `Social and Economic Networks'.

Pathophysiology and correction of amblyopia, The synaptic substrates of visual recognition memory, and pathophysiology and correction of fragile X syndrome and other causes of autism Prof. Mark Bear is a Professor of Neuroscience in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His laboratory is interested in how the brain is modified by experience. He uses a variety of methods to examine the synaptic modifications that form the neurobiological basis of learning and memory.

Motivation, Perception, and Chance Converge to Make a Binary Decision, Recurrent Circuitry Sustains Drosophila Courtship Drive While Priming Itself for Satiety,, Measures the Passage of Time to Coordinate Behavior and Motivational State, and Sleep Loss Can Cause Death through Accumulation of Reactive Oxygen Species in the Gut Prof. Dragana Rogulja is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Her interests include sleep, circadian rhythms, and motivation.

Problem of Polarization, and Semantic Descent: More Trouble for Civility Prof. Robert Talisse is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Graduate Studies at Vanderbilt University. He specializes in contemporary political philosophy, with particular interest in democratic theory and political epistemology. His current research is focused on democracy, polarization, public ignorance, and egalitarianism.