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| Open AccessGlobal musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories
Human groups preserve cultural history in songs passed between generations. Here the authors show that musical histories are largely independent of the history preserved in genes and languages.
- Sam Passmore
- , Anna L. C. Wood
- & Patrick E. Savage
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Article
| Open AccessWorldwide divergence of values
The authors test whether social values have become converged or diverged across national cultures over the last 40 years using a 76-country analysis of the World Values Survey. They show that values have diverged, especially between high-income Western countries and the rest of the world.
- Joshua Conrad Jackson
- & Danila Medvedev
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| Open AccessPeople quasi-randomly assigned to farm rice are more collectivistic than people assigned to farm wheat
According to the rice theory, the demands of rice farming might make cultures more collectivistic. Here the authors provide evidence in support of this theory by showing that Chinese farmers who were quasi-randomly assigned to farm rice score higher on measures related to collectivism than those assigned to farm wheat.
- Thomas Talhelm
- & Xiawei Dong
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| Open AccessDelayed increase in stone tool cutting-edge productivity at the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in southern Jordan
Lithic cutting-edge productivity is a way of quantifying prehistoric human technological evolution. Here, the authors examine the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition across eight assemblages in the eastern Mediterranean, finding the transition to be later than expected and associated with bladelet technology development.
- Seiji Kadowaki
- , Joe Yuichiro Wakano
- & Sate Massadeh
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Comment
| Open AccessExtending research impact by sharing maker information
The availability of maker resources such as 3D printers, makerspaces, and public repositories enable researchers to share information with research peers, educators, industry, and the general public. This broadens the impact of research and inspires its extension and application.
- Larry L. Howell
- & Terri Bateman
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| Open AccessCross-national analyses require additional controls to account for the non-independence of nations
Nations are connected in many ways, yet cross-national analyses often assume they are independent. Here, the authors show that previous studies may not have sufficiently accounted for this non-independence of nations.
- Scott Claessens
- , Thanos Kyritsis
- & Quentin D. Atkinson
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| Open AccessA holistic view on the role of egg yolk in Old Masters’ oil paints
Old Masters used paints containing mixtures of oils and proteins, but we lack an understanding on how and why proteins were used. Here, the authors use egg yolk in combination with two pigments to evaluate how different repartition of proteinaceous binder can be used to control the flow behaviour as well as drying kinetics and chemistry of oil paints.
- Ophélie Ranquet
- , Celia Duce
- & Norbert Willenbacher
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| Open AccessCommunity voices: policy proposals to promote inclusion in academia through the lens of women in science
Diversity is a creative force that broadens views and enhances ideas; it increases productivity as well as the impact of our science, making our respective organisations more agile and timely. Equality of opportunity is a key to success for any research organisation. Here we argue that every research organisation, whether in academia or in industry, needs to have better inclusion policies to harness the benefits of diversity in research. Drawing from our personal experiences and perspectives as women in science, we share our suggestions on how to promote inclusion in academia and create a better research culture for all. Our shared experiences highlight the many hurdles women in science face on a daily basis. We stress that rules and regulations, as well as education for awareness, will play critical role in this much needed shift from a male-dominated scientific culture that dates from Victorian times to a modern focus on gender equality in science. The key ingredients of this new culture will be flexibility, transparency, fairness and thoughtfulness.
- Sarah A. Teichmann
- , Muzlifah Haniffa
- & Jasmin Fisher
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| Open AccessCommunity voices: Achieving real diversity in STEM requires the ability to transform institutions
Resilience is often invoked to address systemic marginalization (e.g. racism) in academia but inadvertently maintains harmful systems. We argue that the ability to transform systems, as opposed to persevering within them, must be prioritized to make real, lasting change.
- Jory C. Lerback
- , Monique M. Holt
- & Stephanie Alvarez
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Perspective
| Open AccessAn actionable anti-racism plan for geoscience organizations
Racism thrives in geoscience. We present an antiracism plan to support the recruitment, retention and success of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in geoscience. Our action plan can be adapted by any organization to remove barriers to participation for all marginalized geoscientists.
- Hendratta N. Ali
- , Sarah L. Sheffield
- & Blair Schneider
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| Open AccessUsing the president’s tweets to understand political diversion in the age of social media
By analyzing President Trump’s tweets and data from two media sources, the authors provide evidence suggesting that when the media reports on a topic potentially harmful to the president, he tweets about unrelated issues. Further evidence from this case study suggests that these diversionary tweets may also successfully reduce subsequent media coverage of the harmful topic.
- Stephan Lewandowsky
- , Michael Jetter
- & Ullrich K. H. Ecker
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| Open AccessHuman large-scale cooperation as a product of competition between cultural groups
The authors here show that readiness to cooperate between individuals from different groups corresponds to the degree of cultural similarity between those groups. This is consistent with the theory of Cultural Group Selection as an explanation for the rise of human large-scale cooperation.
- Carla Handley
- & Sarah Mathew
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| Open AccessThe ecological drivers of variation in global language diversity
Could similar ecological and biogeographic drivers explain the distributions of biological diversity and human cultural diversity? The authors explore ecological correlates of human language diversity, finding strong support for a role of high year-round productivity but less support for landscape features.
- Xia Hua
- , Simon J. Greenhill
- & Lindell Bromham
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Perspective
| Open AccessDesigning with living systems in the synthetic yeast project
Synthetic biology often views the organism as a chassis into which a circuit can be inserted. Here the authors explore the idea of the organism as a core aspect of design, aiding researchers in navigating the genetic space opened up by SCRaMbLE.
- Erika Szymanski
- & Jane Calvert
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| Open AccessAcculturation orientations affect the evolution of a multicultural society
Cross-cultural interactions can cause cultural change, a process known as acculturation. Here, Erten et al. develop a model of cultural change under immigration, considering individuals’ orientations towards acculturation, and find that willingness to interact cross-culturally and resident cultural conservatism favour cultural coexistence.
- E. Yagmur Erten
- , Pieter van den Berg
- & Franz J. Weissing