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By Matija Franklin, Elif Naz Çoker, Johnny Hugill, Rebecca Lees

Gender is one of the first categories to which children are introduced, and one of the first traits with which adults define children. As such, people hold gender-specific stereotypes and have gendered expectations. Research on the formation of gender identities and roles in early childhood has established that boys and girls are treated in a gendered way by the adults in their lives, be it parents, teachers, or even strangers.

Most adults make gendered associations and categorisations and treat children in relation to these gendered categorisations. The gendered treatment children receive introduces them to gender social norms, which shape their beliefs about what is expected of them in relation to their gender. This, will, in turn, influence how children view themselves and their capabilities. Read full article ↵

By Matthew O. Geldard.

One of the most pressing policy issues of the modern era is how to improve public health in the world’s poorest regions. Of particular concern are those diseases spread by mosquitos: the World Health Organisation estimates a total of 96 million cases of dengue and, in 2017 alone, 219 million cases of malaria. Policies targeting such vector-borne diseases (VBDs) represent nothing new. However, there seems to be a continuing inability to move the agenda from one of disease reduction to eradication: clearly, current policy initiatives are not proving effective enough.

This report aims to tackle this issue by outlining the problems associated with current policies and how they can be addressed through epidemiological innovation, with need to not only improve the efficacy of such policies, but also their cost-effectiveness and sustainability. Two innovative policies will be presented: that of manipulating the urban environment to reduce mosquito habitat and of harnessing predation pressure to better regulate mosquito populations.

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Erin Cullen, Head of Publications 2017/18

An emerging technology is a technology that is in development, or that will be developed in the next decade. It is a technology that is capable of changing the status quo, and to disrupt the business or social environment in which it finds itself. But regulation for these technologies is proving to be a challenge, and it will be necessary to find a balance between protecting society and ensuring that innovation is not stifled.

The Cambridge Science and Policy Forum, held by CUSPE in 2018 was the first in the society’s history. One of the important topics tackled by experts at the forum was opportunities for collaboration in regulating emerging technologies. Artificial intelligence and machine learning were discussed in detail as two of the new technologies that governments will soon need to consider. The impasse that can be reached between policy makers and developers was addressed, along with the perceived usefulness of regulation. The potential of ‘reusing’ existing regulation for new technologies was also discussed in great detail.

All of these articles highlight the challenges for policy makers when legislating in a rapidly changing technological environment. I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as we have enjoyed editing and working on the publications team this year.

Read the full special issue here ↵

Acknowledgements:
Thank you to the authors that agreed to have their contributions included in this mini-release. And of course a great many thanks to all the fantastic editors who worked hard in the 2017-2018 year: Hinal Tanna, Philipe Bujold, Roxine Staats, Maggie Westwater, Shan Chong, Amber Ruigrok.

By Stephanie Bazley

In an increasingly digitised world, those within STEM fields have a responsibility to communicate their research in an accessible manner to the funders and end-users of their innovation. Steps should be taken to incentivise improved scientific communication by scientists via social media, open source publishing and outreach programs. In this way, we can ensure equal access to research across society, and increased acceptance of innovation, whilst avoiding costly delays to their implementation.

The scientific field was built upon the basic core principles of collaboration and distribution. With the digital age came renewed opportunities for integration with the community. Now, the foundations of science and healthcare are once again changing, as paradigm-shifting technologies such as AI-powered healthcare solutions and genomic medicine become the norm. If our communities do not understand and accept these new services, any positive impact is significantly limited. In order to find a resolution to this problem, we need to focus on improved scientific communication and education, through re-examined frameworks for scientific impact and funding.

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MarkelAug2018Image

By Kasey Markel

The preservation of our environment is an ethical imperative and one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century. By necessity, much of the battle to protect the environment will be waged at the level of policy. However, the track record of environmental legislation shows much room for improvement, a development that will only be reliably achieved when it becomes common practice to rigorously evaluate the effects of all policies with scientifically rigorous studies, prospectively as part of the planning process and retrospectively after widespread implementation. Environmental scientists are uniquely positioned by virtue of their biological expertise, scientific training, and statistical skills to take an active role in this evaluation process.

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