Category Archives: Sociology
Can we use mathematics to prevent crime?
There is a theory in criminology that says that if a broken window in a building is left unrepaired, that building will soon have all its other windows broken. The rationale behind it is that signs of urban disorder […]
Formal versus informal negotiations
When I buy in a market I only deal with myself regardless of whether the market is competitive or in the hands of a monopoly. Given the price, I choose how much to buy. In an auction to get a […]
Mapping interdisciplinarity
Some decades ago, the American social scientist Donald T. Campbell imagined interdisciplinary research as a fish-scale structure according to which scholars should make an effort to create links between disciplines, spanning areas ignored by others, in an overlapping pattern aiming […]
Public Engagement 2.0: Ready to take it seriously?
Scientific progress has undoubtedly being fed by singular individuals. Those who have pushed the boundaries driven by endless curiosity aiming to understand how the world surrounding us works. Mankind regards Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin or Marie Curie (among others) as […]
The conflict between science and religion as an “invented tradition”
Author:
Jaume Navarro received his PhD in history of science from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (1998). He has been a researcher at the universities of Cambridge, Imperial College (London) and the Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (Berlin). Currently […]
Growing inequalities in science
One of the most common misconceptions regarding inequality consists of thinking that an unequal distribution of resources is the result of an unequal effort to achieve them. Although this might be the case in certain situations, when it comes […]
Stories of the past as promises of the future
Author:
Robert Bud is an historian of science, technology and medicine. Also the Principal Curator of Medicine at the Science Museum, he has worked at the Museum in a variety of roles, for more than 30 years. He was […]
The market for blood
Slonim et al. (2014) discuss the problems of blood allocation in different countries and suggest a mechanism that can improve it. The present article is a summary of their main ideas.
In the wealthy countries blood is mostly supplied […]
Going postal: When radiation dosimeters got into a box
Author:
Maria Rentetzi is associate professor of history and sociology of science and technology at the National Technical University of Athens in Greece. She received her B.Sc. in Physics at the University of Thessaloniki, an MA in History and […]
What are we talking about when we talk about glass ceilings?
Every year, as the International Women’s Day approaches, a classic topic for the media is to summarize statistics related to the gender wage gap. The empirical evidence is overwhelming: differences between men and women in the labor market are […]