Parroting Probabilities – Amalia Bastos

Americans trust scientists over politicians with COVID-19

69% of US adults in study of the coronavirus outbreak want scientific/public health leadership (either the CDC Director or NIH Director) to lead the US response to coronavirus outbreak; just 14% want the either the president or Congress to do so.

Long-acting injectable drug prevents HIV infections

Antiretroviral drug given as an injection every 2 months protected all but 12 out of 1125 people from HIV in a large-scale trial that was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social distancing dramatically reduced coronavirus spread

Coronavirus found to be up to 35 times higher in areas that didn’t practice proper social distancing.

Authoritarianism associated with belief in determinism

Authoritarianism positively correlated with both fatalistic and genetic determinism beliefs; openness negatively related to fatalistic determinism and agreeableness was negatively related to genetic determinism.

A VR environment for flies

By placing flies in insect-sized VR chambers, researchers are learning how to teach search and rescue robots how to better save lives.

Single vaccination approach to killer diseases

2-in-1 vaccine developed which simultaneously protects against flu and pneumonia.

Cycling to work

Tracking of more than 300,000 commuters indicates that bicycling to work can cut the risk of dying early from illnesses such as heart disease and cancer by up to 24%.

Upcoming guests

• Neil Garg from UCLA joins us to discuss his article “Electrochemical Oxidation of Δ9 Tetrahydrocannabinol: A Simple Strategy for Marijuana Detection” [to be recorded June 2, 2020]
• Richard Bomphrey from the Structure and Motion Laboratory at Royal Veterinary College joins us to discuss his article “Aerodynamic imaging by mosquitoes inspires a surface detector for autonomous flying vehicles” [to be recorded May 28, 2020]
• Emily Ho from Northwestern University joins us to discuss her article “Measuring Information Preferences” [to be recorded May 15, 2020]
• Daniel Field from The University of Cambridge joins us to discuss his article “Late Cretaceous neornithine from Europe illuminates the origins of crown birds” [already recorded]