Humans

We spoke to five researchers working to demonstrate the various ways that racial discrimination is embedded in the structures and procedures that underpin US society

Humans 18 November 2020
By Layal Liverpool

Marta D’Asaro

THE explosion of the Black Lives Matter movement into mainstream awareness has brought the prevalence of systemic racism and anti-Black bias into sharp focus. This isn’t confined to individual acts and attitudes. It is racism deeply embedded as normal practice in the systems, structures and institutions that underpin society. And although it remains invisible to some, a growing body of research shows that systemic racism has a hugely detrimental impact on people across the world.
In the US, where the most recent wave of anti-racism protests began, Black people are far more likely to be arrested and incarcerated than white people for the same crimes. But the issues faced in the US and other countries go far beyond law enforcement. We know that racism is also baked into housing, education, employment and healthcare systems. In the US, UK and elsewhere, for example, the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on people from Black and ethnic minority (BAME) backgrounds has put a powerful spotlight on the way societal inequalities affect health and vulnerability to disease.
And yet researchers are still working to understand how societies hold back and harm BAME communities, running experiments and analysing existing data with fresh eyes to uncover all the manifestations of systemic racism. We spoke to five US-focused scientists who investigate concealed discrimination in various aspects of everyday life, from children’s academic development to health and disease in adulthood and interactions with technology.
EDUCATIONAL INEQUITY

Daphne Henry is a developmental and educational psychologist at Boston College in Massachusetts
In the US, Black children tend to get lower scores in reading and mathematics tests compared … More

Feature-length animation Away was created solely by film-maker Gints Zilbalodis. The writing, animation and soundtrack are all uncomplicated, and the storytelling is all the better for it, says Simon Ings

Humans 18 November 2020

Away tells the story of a boy pursued by a strange, humanoid figure
Subliminal Films

Film
Away
Gints Zilbalodis
At selected cinemas, with a digital release in early 2021
A BARREN landscape at sun up. From the cords of his deflated parachute, dangling from the twisted branch of a dead tree, a boy slowly wakes to his surroundings, just as a figure appears out of the dawn’s dreamy desert glare. Humanoid but not human, faceless yet inexpressibly sad, the giant figure shambles towards the boy, bends and, though mouthless, tries somehow to swallow him.
The boy unclips himself from his … More

Talia Lavin went undercover to join white supremacy groups that were abusing her online. Her book, Culture Warlords, makes for difficult reading

Humans 11 November 2020
By Donna Lu
White nationalists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017
Reuters/Stephanie Keith

Culture Warlords: My journey into the dark web of white supremacy
Talia Lavin
Octopus Books
Book
TALIA LAVIN awoke one day to discover a group of white supremacists using encrypted messaging app Telegram to discuss if she was “too ugly to rape”. A few weeks earlier, unknown to its members, she had joined the group.
The writer and former New Yorker magazine fact checker didn’t feel prominent enough to warrant such vile comments. “I was mostly just a loudmouth on Twitter. Why was I taking up real estate in … More

Hugs, handshakes and air kisses serve the same crucial purposes as animal greetings like sniffing, eye poking and buttock grabbing

Humans 11 November 2020
By David Robson
We crave physical contact with family to reaffirm our bonds
Willie B. Thomas/Getty Images

ON 9 MARCH, Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, called a press conference to discuss his country’s response to the covid-19 pandemic. “From now on, we stop shaking hands,” he declared – before promptly reaching out his hand to greet an expert on infectious diseases.
Many of us can empathise. Social distancing sounds innocuous, but this year we have discovered how hard it can be in practice. Touchy-feely greetings, such as handshakes, hugs, kisses and nose rubbing, are deeply embedded in many cultures. These gestures aren’t merely learned, however. Look to the animal kingdom and you will see that many species – especially highly social ones – perform physical rituals when they approach each other. If our urges to touch one another in greeting seem instinctual, it is because they are.
Greetings adopted by animals can be very different to our own – they include eye poking and other gestures that might make you squirm – but understanding these behaviours can give us an insight into human salutations. Examining the evolution of greetings throws light on the subtle ways they lubricate social interactions and also helps to explain why they are so diverse. As we are a super-social species, it isn’t surprising that many of us are struggling to adjust to the new normal. But the good news is that we are proven masters at adapting our greetings to fit new situations.
Will our greetings change for good as a result of covid-19?
Andreu Dalmau/Epa-Efe/Shutterstock

Animal encounters
Mammals tend to use scents to suss each other out, which explains why … More

A young woman, buried with stone weapons 9000 years ago in what is now Peru, has led to a reassessment of the role women played as hunters across the Americas in prehistory More

When inundated with disinformation, conspiracy theories and total nonsense, how can children learn about science? By listening to Tumble, a fantastic family podcast

Humans 4 November 2020
By Simon Ings
Tumble is a science podcast aimed at children, but parents will enjoy it too
Getty Images/Johner RF

Tumble
Tumble Science Podcast for Kids

SHOULD we teach our children scientific facts about the world, or should we teach them to do science?
The answer, obviously, is both. Yet when physics, chemistry and biology struggle for independent spaces in the school timetable, it may be too much to hope that, along with the facts, children are being given any real idea of what science is like.
Teaching both the letter and spirit of science has always been difficult. I only acquired a … More

ReadThe Comedy of Error has evolutionary ecologist Jonathan Silvertown sharing old jokes and the latest science in his account of how humour evolved, why laughter is contagious and how being funny makes us sexier.

Being Human

Visit
Being Human, the University of London’s annual festival of the humanities, moves partly online this year with digital exhibitions, workshops, quizzes, talks and debates from 12 to 22 November. This year’s theme is “New Worlds”.
Listen
The Seekers Podcast, a playful and interactive series from theatre group The Wardrobe Ensemble, lets children aged 3 to 8 and their families join explorers … More

Amazon Prime’s Truth Seekers from Sean of the Dead duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost is a mash up of British comedy and ghost hunting. Let’s hope the series becomes today’s Ghostbusters, says Emily Wilson

Humans 4 November 2020
By Emily Wilson
Elton (Samson Kayo, left) and Gus (Nick Frost) hunt ghosts
Colin Hutton/Stolen Pictures/Amazon Studios

Truth Seekers
Jim Field Smith
Amazon Prime Video
COMEDY duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have specialised at writing and starring in movies (Shaun of the Dead, The World’s End) that stir together warm, beautifully drawn British comedy and classic horror themes. Their latest outing, a TV series called Truth Seekers, arises from that same delightful tradition.
The truth seekers of the title are a gang who rove around England investigating the paranormal. Given that, I queried with my editors at New Scientist why I … More