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SPONSORED BY  | | | | September 5, 2024: Curiosity makes us patient, locked pouches will keep students off their smartphones this fall, and we talk directly to the International Space Station. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images | | | More than a dozen schools have enacted bans on student smartphones during the school day. Some are requiring students to lock their phones away in fabric pouches that can only be unlocked by strong magnetic keys near school exits (the locks work like anti-theft devices in clothing stores).
The evidence: Not a lot of research has been done on the effect of phones on students' attention and focus in school. "We found that banning mobile phones in schools increases student performance, especially for low-achieving students. There was no negative impact on high-achieving students," says Louis-Philippe Beland, an associate professor at Carleton University and co-author of one of the first papers on the academic impact of smartphone use by kids. Further research has corroborated that smartphones cause distraction in school, Beland adds.
Other options: Instead of banning the technology, some experts advocate for teaching young people how to engage with it responsibly. "We don't just toss kids into wood shop with all the power tools and say 'Have at it,'" says Michael Rich, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School who studies teen phone use. "We teach them how to use them responsibly and carefully—and use them in productive ways." | | | Curiosity drives an urgent desire for answers. But it can also prompt more patience, enabling people to savor moments of discovery. Researchers asked 2,000 people ages 19 to 76 years to watch a video of an object being drawn by a moving line. As the line wiggled around the screen, gradually forming an image, the study participants rated how curious they were about the image forming and how confident they felt that they knew the outcome. Participants also had the option to jump ahead to reveal the image at the end.
Why this is interesting: The more curious participants were, the more likely they were to continue watching rather than skipping ahead to reveal the finished object. The researchers found that curiosity evolved over the course of the activity–it would grow and change as more of the image was revealed.
What the experts say: Greater curiosity encourages engagement in the process and an ability to sit with uncertainty, write the authors of the study, all from Duke University. "Curiosity can facilitate brain states that help us encode new information. Learning new things can be tough, but harnessing curiosity can help us savor the process of learning," they say. | | | We made history today! This morning, Scientific American podcast host Rachel Feltman spoke to NASA astronaut Matt Dominick who is ON BOARD the International Space Station. It was the first-ever live interview streamed from the cupola on the ISS! (The cupola is a room on the station that's basically all windows facing Earth.) In order to get the lighting right for the interview, the astronauts installed special window filters and used light equipment inside the cupola to compensate for the setting sun during the interview. Watch the full interview here. | | | The NWS HeatRisk map for the Western United States on September 5, 2024. NOAA/OpenStreetMap (CC BY-SA 2.0) | | | • For the last 100 days in Phoenix, Ariz., the temperature has risen above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 C). And the heat isn't over yet. | 3 min read | | | • Massive underground detectors have failed to find dark matter particles so far. And the latest results suggest that dark matter might have even less mass than scientists have been looking for. | 5 min read | | | SPONSORED CONTENT BY BIOFUTURE | Reimagine the Future of Healthcare at BioFuture, Oct. 28-30 in NYC | Join us October 28-30 in New York City at BioFuture where industry innovators, investors, and visionaries gather to assess and shape the future of healthcare! Discover therapeutic breakthroughs, cutting-edge technologies and participate in discussions around rapidly evolving fields of biopharma, digital medicine, big data, AI, TechBio, and more. Register here. | | | • From 2007 through 2021, suicide rates among young people ages 10 to 24 increased by 62 percent. From 2014 to 2021, homicide rates rose by 60 percent. Plus, there is a drastic shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists across the U.S. Child mental health is in a state of emergency, writes Steven Berkowitz, a professor of psychiatry at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. "Struggling children and teens in the U.S. need earlier interventions. Although schools are ideal places to teach social skills, they still do not offer enough activities to help young people develop resilience to cope with adversity," he says. | 6 min read. | | | What a thrill to call up an astronaut while they're IN SPACE and have a chat. Many of us editors watched the livestream and were surprised at how clear and crisp the image and sound were. Yes, we all know that communications technology is highly advanced these days, but still! We're talking to space! While setting up the call, multimedia editor Kelso Harper told Dominick that the call quality was surprisingly good. Dominick replied: "Well, we are the satellite." | How are you liking this newsletter? Email me and let me know: newsletters@sciam.com. I read all your notes and respond to many. See you tomorrow. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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