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No one in the world knows what the hell do with mobile phones in classrooms. Not even scientific research

April 18, 2025 by usatoday24

Imagine two students of a similar level doing exactly the same attention and memory test. Imagine, in fact, there is only one difference between them: one has the mobile in sight. It is silent, in a corner of the table, with the sound off; But it is in sight. The other student, before starting the test, had left it in the next room. I would ask you to imagine who would get better results, but it doesn’t make too much sense. A team from the University of Chicago and He studied it in detail. There is nothing surprising in this mental experiment, the results coincide with our prejudices: The student who sees the mobile will get worse results. It is something, also that connect directly to our experience real, with Our Fomowith Our “dependence” to mobile. How are we not going to worry about the damage made by these technologies in the classroom? How will the smartphone not become a first -order educational problem? And that is precisely the problem: that if we stay on the surface of the problem, in the social and political debate, we find a Spectacular political consensus (with several Autonomous communities prohibiting them from hype and saucer); But if we deepen the scientific fund, the problems begin. Life is not summarized in an experiment from the University of Chicago. So, we have wondered what really happens in a school when we prohibit mobile phones? What experiences have other countries and colleges that have already taken measures? Why is there no clear consensus about what to do? What does the experience say? Verkeorg The scenes are almost a cliché: kids looking at the mobile phone, notifications that interrupt classes, parallel chats commenting on what happens in the classroom, bullying, anonymous messages, worried families, decentralized students … With all this in mind, it is not surprising that dozens of experts, activists and parents warn of the negative consequences for learning associated with mobile use. In fact, with all this in mind, it is not strange that Many countries have begun to take letters In the matter: one in four countries It has regulated the use of mobiles in school. The list is very long. If we only focus on our geographical, cultural or development environment: they have done so places like France, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Canada or Australia. The first country to do so, in fact, was Italy. In late 2006 and early 2007, several incidents impacted fully on the country’s public opinion: from a group of students who recorded bulling another student with disabilities to another in which several students were recorded sexually harassing a teacher. That led the government to prohibit mobile in class. Unfortunately, its implementation was complex and there are not many data on its impact. What we do know is that in 2022 the Ministry of Education announced its prohibition againRecoding that (although no one paid attention to him) the measure had been in force for 15 years. We also know that by then, many more Páisses had regulated the matter. France approved its prohibition In 2018. In a similar situation are Luxembourg, Portugal and Sweden. In addition to Bavaria, the Swiss vaud canton, Ontario, Various states of Australia and dozens of school districts in the United States They have done the same. In 2023, Holland and the United Kingdom They said that it would also implement prohibitions From the following year. How have they done it? As we will see, this is the central question. First because, as Maria del Mar Sánchez pointed outProfessor of Educational Technology at the University of Murcia, none of these regulations has managed to homogenize the situation. If we approach what really happens in schools, “We will find great diversity“ Sánchez says. And this makes it difficult to apply, measure and study the consequences. The best example of this is Norway. In 2024, a report He explained That the prohibition of mobiles in classes had achieved a 60% reduction in consultations by psychological symptoms in adolescents, the decrease in cases of bulling and a significant improvement in the academic results of the girls. In addition, the effects it shows are much more intense on the low -income population. The curious thing, however, is that Norway I was not doing anything nationally with mobile phones. What was doing something was with bullying. Just coinciding with the period studied, the Nordic country was underway A series of changes To reduce bulling. The result is that, little by we are realistic, we will have to recognize that confusion is enormous. And is Spain? Being an autonomous competition, until recently each autonomous community and each educational center has decided on its own. As it seems, Galicia was a pioneer: In 2015 he published a decree prohibiting phones in class and, at the end of 2023, he also took a more vet during recess, dining room and entries or outputs of the center. Behind her (and in recent years) almost all communities have gone behind. But, again“one thing is the political and the holder and another the reality that he reaches the centers.” To the point that while Autonomic decrees were reformed To accommodate more hard disciplinary approaches, in others pilot projects to use mobiles were introduced as didactic tools. In short, Spain has been one more. Of course, it is important to note, however, that as Jose César Perales, professor at the University of Granada, explained in practice “the prohibition of mobile phones for non -educational use during school hours It was already the usual In most centers “that is, the most important change in recent years is that this prohibition is being made in a generalized way. In experts like Laura Canois part of a political response to the ‘state of opinion’ on the impact of technology rather than a clear will to intervene educationally in the huge list of problems That has contemporary youth. What does science say about all this? Let’s talk about academic performance Pabak … Read more

The White House will try to reduce NASA’s scientific budget by 50%. It is so devastating that Elon Musk has separated

April 12, 2025 by usatoday24

The White House has presented a preliminary proposal of its budgets by 2026. If the United States Congress approved them, NASA would see 20% less money next year, but with an especially controversial turn, because they would be cuts centered on science. A devastating loss. NASA is the largest and most influential space agency in the world. Its direction of scientific missions finances some of the most important research for the advancement of astrophysics, planetary science, terrestrial science and heliophysics. Studies in which international entities such as the European Space Agency often participate. The White House budget in half reduces the resources of the Directorate of Scientific Missions. It would go from 7.5 billion dollars in the fiscal year from 2025 to 3.9 billion in 2026. The consequences are so devastating for the scientific community that Elon Musk has described it as “worrying” and It has come out to clarify that has not had anything to do: “I am very in favor of science, but unfortunately I cannot participate in the discussions about NASA’s budget because Spacex is an important NASA contractor.” Affected missions. While the proposal maintains the financing of HUBBLE observatories and James Webb, explicitly cancels other space telescopes, including the Nancy Grace Romanwhich is already completely assembled waiting for its launch. The two most important planetary missions that would not continue with the White House Budgets are, on the one hand, Mars Sample Returnthe recovery of Martian soil samples that has been collecting the Rover Perseverance, and the Davinci mission to explore Venus. Both milestones would be in the hands of China, which It has similar missions in your scientific roadmap. Goodbye to the Goddard? According to Ars Technicathe cuts seem designed to force the closure of the Goddard Space Flight Center, the NASA headquarters in Maryland, which uses 10,000 officials and contractors, and from where iconic cosmological, land and sun observation missions are operated. Astrophysics: it would reduce its budget by two thirds, leaving 487 million dollars. Heliophysics: it would reduce its budget by more than two thirds, leaving 455 million dollars. Terrestrial science: would reduce its budget in more than half, remaining at 1,033 million dollars. Planetary Science: would reduce its budget by one third, being at 1,929 million dollars NOAA is even worse stop. Donald Trump’s administration also seeks Complaint the magazine Science. Like NASA, NOAA is one of the world’s main scientific agencies, but in the weather, climate and space climate. The cuts would close the Ocean and Atmospheric Research Office (OAR), and would leave hundreds of scientists who study global warming. Waiting for Congress. NASA has a period of 72 hours to appeal these figures before they are incorporated into the final budgets. Ultimately, it will be the United States Congress who approves them. It is likely that the cuts are with strong opposition in Congress, Very sensitized With the idea of losing ground in front of China. “This would tithe the American leadership in space and inflict great damage to NASA centers throughout the country,” Congressman George Whitesides, from the Science Committee, told Ars Technica. It would be like an “extinction event.” Image | POT In Xataka | 12 years after making fun of Spacex and his idea of landing rockets, Arianegroup is creating a European mini-falcon 9

Some researchers have analyzed what the summaries of scientific papers say. There is enough “clickbait”

March 30, 2025 by usatoday24

Academic articles, Papers reviewed by pairs published in scientific journals, they are One of the pillars of science nowadays. These articles usually have a more or less defined structure, with introduction, results, conclusions and discussion, in addition to a section dedicated to the methodology used. An element that never (or practically ever) is missing in this type of articles is abstract. Abstract It is the term with which a kind of summary of the content of the article is known. It is a key piece that has the objective of serving as a bibliographic guide to those who are looking for a study, so this short text must answer properly to the question What is this article going? But beyond this basic function, the abstract Often fulfills the function of Summary of the articleincluding information on methods, results and conclusions of the experiment or study. Many of the scientific articles are limited access, protected by a Paywallthe price of a single article can be several tens of eurosbut summaries are available in open. Scientific articles, including this short introductory text, are subjected to several editorial and scientific reviews, so it would be expected that the abstracts be faithful representations of what the article and the study carried out. The problem is that sometimes, They are not so much. In the late 90s, a group of researchers analyzed the existence of discrepancies between the summaries of the articles and their content. The team analyzed more than 260 articles (44 pieces by six scientific relief journals) published in 1996 and 1997. They studied two ways in which these summaries could be incorrect, or by inconsistencies with the body of the article, or by the omission of relevant information. The results showed variation in the results according to the magazine (they found that between 18% and 68% of the articles presented problems). They concluded, in their own abstractthat the inconsistent or absent data in these summaries were “common, even in the medical magazines of great circulation.” The study was published in 1999 the magazine Jamaone of the publications analyzed in it. 25 years have passed since the publication of the magazine’s study Jama and almost 30 since the publication of some of the articles analyzed. Science has changed a lot in those 25 years. However some subsequent studies They indicate that this problem persists. In 2016, a group of researchers made a compilation and analysis of the studies carried out in this field. This literature review, published in the magazine BMC Medical Research Methodologyhe found that the median “level of inconsistency found these studies was In 39%although the variability was high: it ranged between 4% and 78%. Since not all errors are equally severe, this review was fixed on the studies that discriminated against the serious inconsistencies of the milder. They observed that the median in this case was somewhat lower, but still considerable, of 19%. Subsequent studies, like one posted this year In The magazine American Journal of SurgeryThey continue to show the existence of this trend in scientific literature. What happens then? Are scientists falsifying your data? Or are we simply witnessing an important accumulation of errors? We know that the summaries of the articles are determinants when receiving quotes of other academic articles and that This metric is key for the evaluation of scientific work for the authors. But the publication of an article may sometimes depend on its results being novel. That is why there is an incentive to emphasize some results and clarify them later. A non -significant result can cause the editors of the magazine or future readers to lose interest in the article, regardless of the real quality of the study. The call publication bias (which refers to the fact that studies with different results are overrepresented in scientific literature) is also the result of this interest in the novelty. Clickbait academic The titles of the articles have also been subject to scrutiny in recent years. Consciously or unconsciously, a striking holder can be decisive when we are more or less interested in a study. In 2016, A study Posted in the magazine Frontiers in Psychology It echoed this phenomenon. The analysis observed how the way in which the headlines affected were affected within reach of the study. Gwilym Lockwood, author of the study, analyzed More than 2,000 academic articles And he observed that the titles that enunciated something in a positive frame had better metrics than the average. On the other hand, he also found that the works that resorted to speech games showed a worse performance. The titles containing questions, meanwhile, did not deviate from the average significantly. The problem of abstractsIt is one of many to which the scientific publishers. Some publishers pressed By scandals of various typesfrom the “Mills of scientific articles”Even the problems with rates charged by publication or access to their contents. The artificial intelligence It is one of these problems, but perhaps also a potential solution. In recent months, and after the occasional scandal, scientific publishers They have been integrating The artificial intelligence tools in the scientific publication, beyond the work that these tools may have developed in the development of research itself. Artificial intelligence has the capacity, among other things, to generate more “objectives” summaries or to detect and correct possible errors and discrepancies between texts and summaries. In Xataka | This is how bad science infiltrates the international scientific debate: they are not just the great scandals, more than 50,000 questionable articles are incorporated every year Image | Sonia Radosz

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