All posts tagged: studies

Leonardo da Vinci’s incredible studies of human anatomy still don’t get the recognition they deserve

Leonardo da Vinci’s incredible studies of human anatomy still don’t get the recognition they deserve

The mere mention of Leonardo da Vinci evokes genius. We know him as a polymath whose interests spanned astronomy, geology, hydrology, engineering and physics. As a painter, his Mona Lisa and Last Supper are considered works of mastery. Yet one great achievement that frequently goes unrecognised is his studies of human anatomy. More than 500 years after his death, it’s time this changed. Leonardo is thought to have been born on April 15 1452 in Anchiano, a small hamlet near the town of Vinci, close to Florence. His mother was a 16-year-old peasant girl called Caterina di Meo Lippi, and his father was Ser Piero da Vinci, a 26-year-old notary. Anchiano is believed to be Leonardo da Vinci’s birthplace. Marco Taliani de Marchio/Alamy Being illegitimate, the young Leonardo was only permitted an elementary education in reading, writing and arithmetic. He was also barred from becoming a notary, but this worked out to his advantage. Instead of being constrained by life as an officiate, he was free to be creative and explore the world of nature, …

American studies degrees are declining in popularity – but the subject has never been more important

American studies degrees are declining in popularity – but the subject has never been more important

We’re witnessing a momentous period in US history and culture. A second Donald Trump presidency promises to be just as turbulent, if not more so, than his first term in office. A proper understanding of how the US works is going to be vital in years to come. The UK will need people with this knowledge in politics, business and in the media. But given the importance and influence the US holds, it’s puzzling that the popularity of the American studies degree in the UK is in decline. Data from universities admissions service UCAS shows that the number of accepted undergraduate applications in the subject field of American and Australasian studies has fallen from 410 in 2019 to just 140 in 2024. Many universities, including prestigious Russell Group institutions, no longer offer American studies at undergraduate level. The course has closed at the University of Birmingham and is not being offered in 2025-26 at the University of Nottingham, for instance. Declining influence A hostility from the UK government towards humanities degrees may have played a …

More than a third of schools force Religious Studies GCSE on pupils

More than a third of schools force Religious Studies GCSE on pupils

More than a third of schools in England are blocking pupil choice by forcing them to take religious studies at GCSE level, new research has found. Freedom of information requests made by the National Secular Society have revealed 37% of all secondary schools require their pupils to take religious studies (RS) GCSE. Nine in ten faith schools in England are blocking pupil choice, with 88% of schools with a religious character requiring their pupils to take RS GCSE. Around 1.3 million pupils at schools with mandatory RS GCSE Out of the 317 responses received by the NSS, 280 schools with a religious character confirmed they had policies requiring all pupils to take GCSE RS in place. Most also confirmed that pupils would be unable to take an alternative GCSE, should parents elect to withdraw their child from religious education. In comparison, most nonreligious schools do not require children to take RS GCSE, with just 25% making it mandatory. An estimated 1.3 million pupils are affected by such policies across all types of school. Although it …

NSS: New studies show need to separate religion and state

NSS: New studies show need to separate religion and state

The National Secular Society has repeated its calls for secular democracy in the UK, after new research revealed most Brits think Christianity is not important to British identity and feel negatively about religion. Only 19% of British people think it is “very” or “fairly” important to be Christian to be “truly British”, according to research published by NatCen last month. This is a significant decline from 24% in 2013 and 31% in 2003. The NSS said the figures show the UK’s constitutional arrangement is “unfair, undemocratic and unsustainable”. The UK state is constitutionally Christian. The Church of England is the established religion and the head of state, the monarch, is “Supreme Governor” of the Church. British monarchs are required to be a ” faithful Protestant” and pledge to maintain the CofE. Recent YouGov polls have also revealed British people are increasingly rejecting religion: Most (57%) Brits think religion has a negative impact on the world. Only 22% think it has a positive impact. Over half of Brits (56%) think religious education (RE) is “not very …

Stanford Continuing Studies Offering an Online Course Exploring the Music of the Grateful Dead

Stanford Continuing Studies Offering an Online Course Exploring the Music of the Grateful Dead

Image via Wiki­me­dia Com­mons A quick heads up: On Octo­ber 3rd, Stan­ford Con­tin­u­ing Stud­ies will kick off an 8‑week online course called Did It Mat­ter? Does It Now? The Music and Cul­ture of the Grate­ful Dead. Led by David Gans (author of Play­ing in the Band: An Oral and Visu­al Por­trait of the Grate­ful Dead), the course will fea­ture a num­ber of spe­cial guests, includ­ing Jesse Jarnow (host of The Good Ol’ Grate­ful Dead­cast), Den­nis McNal­ly (author of A Long Strange Trip: The Inside His­to­ry of the Grate­ful Dead) and David Lemieux (Grate­ful Dead Archivist). Open to any adult, the course descrip­tion reads: The Grate­ful Dead’s ground­break­ing fusion of music, coun­ter­cul­ture, and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment forged an endur­ing lega­cy that tran­scends gen­er­a­tions while shap­ing the evo­lu­tion of music and cul­tur­al expres­sion. Near­ly 30 years after the band played its last show, Grate­ful Dead music is more pop­u­lar than ever—in both live and record­ed form. This course invites stu­dents to delve into the phe­nom­e­non that is the Grate­ful Dead through a cap­ti­vat­ing explo­ration of the band’s his­to­ry, …

Researchers Say There’s Something Fishy With All These Studies Showing Huge Health Benefits From Ozempic-Like Drugs

Researchers Say There’s Something Fishy With All These Studies Showing Huge Health Benefits From Ozempic-Like Drugs

Image by Getty / Futurism It seems like every week, there’s a new headline about the health benefits of GLP-1s, the new class of injectable weight loss drugs like semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy. However, in a new editorial published in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, a group of public health specialists pointed out that the companies funding the research into these drugs and their safety are often the same ones making billions of dollars from their runaway popularity. In their commentary, the Duke-led group of health researchers suggest that there’s a glaring conflict of interest when companies like Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, initiate research into the safety and efficacy of these drugs. As these experts point out, studies have shown that “clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceutical companies are more likely to yield favorable results for company products than independent trials.” This so-called “sponsorship bias” can not only lead to favorable academic papers, but similar boosterism in the media and public perception of the drugs. The …

The Secret Life Of People With Incredibly High Self-Control

The Secret Life Of People With Incredibly High Self-Control

“If only I had more self-control.”“I don’t have such an iron mind.”“I want to enjoy life, too — not just suffer.” These are comments I might get when people learn about my lifestyle. I’m one of those annoying people who eat lots of fruits and vegetables, exercise five times a week, save a portion of their salary, and write or read every morning before work — I have good self-control. What’s more, retaining this lifestyle doesn’t feel particularly difficult to me; I don’t grit my teeth to avoid unhealthy foods, the warmth of the couch, or Black Friday deals. That’s why I’ve often wondered why some people succeed at resisting temptations while others struggle. To find some answers, I decided to peek into the science of willpower. A peek turned into a deep dive, and I ended up reading over 25 academic papers over two months. Now I want to share with you what I learned. Consider it a story about how researchers learned what good self-controllers knew all along. The lucky ones with good …

NASA orders studies from private space companies on Mars mission support roles

NASA orders studies from private space companies on Mars mission support roles

Mars exploration has been always been the exclusive purview of national space agencies, but NASA is trying to change that, awarding a dozen research tasks to private companies as a prelude to commercial support for future missions to the Red Planet. It’s the second time in a month that the agency has shown its desire for commercial support in Mars missions, having more or less scrapped the original Mars Sample Return mission in favor of a to-be-determined alternative likely by private space companies. A total of nine companies were selected to perform twelve “concept studies” on how they could provide Mars-related services, from payload delivery to planetary imaging to communications relays. While each award is relatively small — between $200,000 and $300,000 — these studies are an important first step for NASA to better understand the costs, risks, and feasibility of commercial technologies. The companies selected are: Lockheed Martin, Impulse Space, and Firefly Aerospace for small payload delivery and hosting services; United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, and Astrobotic for large payload delivery and hosting services; …

Genetics studies have a diversity problem that researchers struggle to fix

Genetics studies have a diversity problem that researchers struggle to fix

CHARLESTON, S.C. — When he recently walked into the dental clinic at the Medical University of South Carolina donning a bright-blue pullover with “In Our DNA SC” embroidered prominently on the front, Lee Moultrie said, two Black women stopped him to ask questions. “It’s a walking billboard,” said Moultrie, a health care advocate who serves on the community advisory board for In Our DNA SC, a study underway at the university that aims to enroll 100,000 South Carolinians — including a representative percentage of Black people — in genetics research. The goal is to better understand how genes affect health risks such as cancer and heart disease. Moultrie, who is Black and has participated in the research project himself, used the opportunity at the dental clinic to encourage the women to sign up and contribute their DNA. He keeps brochures about the study in his car and at the barbershop he visits weekly for this reason. It’s one way he wants to help solve a problem that has plagued the field of genetics research for …

Women in AI: Anna Korhonen studies the intersection between linguistics and AI

Women in AI: Anna Korhonen studies the intersection between linguistics and AI

To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. We’ll publish several pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work that often goes unrecognized. Read more profiles here. Anna Korhonen is a professor of natural language processing (NLP) at the University of Cambridge. She’s also a senior research fellow at Churchill College, a fellow at the Association for Computational Linguistics, and a fellow at the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems. Korhonen previously served as a fellow at the Alan Turing Institute and she has a PhD in computer science and master’s degrees in both computer science and linguistics. She researches NLP and how to develop, adapt and apply computational techniques to meet the needs of AI. She has a particular interest in responsible and “human-centric” NLP that — in her own words — “draws on the understanding of human cognitive, social and creative intelligence.” Q&A …