It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
The rise in remote work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has substantially increased time spent alone and worsened workers’ mental health, according to a new study based on survey data from more than 500,000 Americans. In evaluating remote employees’ mental health, the analysis moves beyond the main consequence of remote work more typically evaluated in studies to date: worker productivity. The study’s results suggest that “the shift in work location to the home carries measurable costs at the population level,” Emma Zhang and Rourke O’Brien write in a related Perspective. After the pandemic led to many people working from home, the results of studies evaluating the mental health impacts on employees were mixed. To understand remote work’s effect on human well-being better, Natalia Emanuel and colleagues analyzed data from five nationally representative US-based surveys that together spanned more than a decade and included 568,000 respondents. They compared workers’ experiences before the pandemic (2011 to 2019) with experiences from the post-peak period (2022 to 2024), excluding the acute pandemic years of 2020 to 2021. The authors found that workers in jobs amenable to remote work experienced substantially larger post-pandemic increases in time spent alone, worsened mental well-being across multiple measures, and increases in the use of mental health services and prescriptions. These effects were particularly pronounced among individuals living alone. Noting a limitation of their study, the authors said, “Given that our data end in 2024, we cannot fully capture long- term adaptations among remotable workers.” If workers made changes, such as cultivating social networks outside of work, they may not yet have reaped the full benefits by the time of the study, they added. “Across a range of remote work arrangements, both individuals and organizations may want to prioritize making remote work less isolating by, for example, coordinating in-office days for hybrid workers or encouraging informal interaction, even online,” Emanuel et al. conclude.
Data is available for the creation of data visualization images. For more information, please contact Natalia Emanuel at natalia@nataliaemanuel.com
“We want to show pre-service math teachers that data science isn’t a separate universe from the math they already study. It's built on it,” said Eric Weber, professor and chair of mathematics at Iowa State University.
Credit: Photo illustration by Deb Berger/Iowa State University.
AMES, Iowa — When Eric Weber, professor and chair of mathematics at Iowa State University, talks about data science with future math teachers, he doesn’t begin with code, algorithms or buzzwords.
Instead, he asks them to imagine the scientific method — form a hypothesis, collect data, conduct experiments — running in reverse.
“In data science, you don’t start with a hypothesis or prediction,” Weber said. “You start with the data that already exists — maybe numbers someone collected years ago, or information gathered for a totally different purpose — and you work backward. You look for patterns, connections or surprises in the data, and those clues help you figure out what questions you should even be asking. So, instead of testing a hypothesis, you’re discovering one.”
This definition is the basis for curriculum Weber and colleagues at Iowa State and the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) have designed to help prepare future math teachers to teach data science in high-school classrooms. Their work reflects a growing national consensus that data science literacy should be part of secondary education.
“Multiple professional societies in mathematics, statistics and mathematics education have released statements in support of teaching data science in high schools,” Weber said. “But while high schools are being encouraged to add data-science courses, the teachers expected to teach them often receive little to no preparation.”
In a new paper published by Scatterplot, the MAA Journal of Data Science, Weber and his co-authors argue that future math teachers are the educators best positioned to take on this role — but only if their training programs give them the tools to do it.
“Our goal is to help close that gap with the curriculum we’ve created,” Weber said.
Weber’s co-authors are Heather Gallivan, associate professor of mathematics education at UNI; Lydia Butters, a former math education student at UNI who now teaches at Cedar Falls (Iowa) High School; and Stephen Nathan Mercil, a former mathematics doctoral student at Iowa State who is now an instructor at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota.
Teaching data science by starting with what teachers already know
The curriculum, which is a five-week, self-contained module delivered within coursework taken by pre-service math teachers at Iowa State and UNI, focuses on the relationship between math and data science.
“We want to show pre-service math teachers that data science isn’t a separate universe from the math they already study,” Weber said. “It’s built on it.”
Many data-science ideas, including modeling, optimization and visualization, grow directly out of algebra, geometry and calculus, so instead of focusing on coding or software, the curriculum module uses familiar mathematical structures to introduce new concepts, Weber said.
A regression line becomes a model.
A classification problem becomes a geometry puzzle.
An optimization routine becomes a function‑minimizing exercise.
Weber said this strategy helps pre-service teachers get past the intimidation factor.
“If we can break down the initial barrier of, ‘I don’t know what data science is,’ then their ability to make that transition becomes pretty quick,” he said.
A project shaped by timing and a growing need
The idea for this project began in 2019, when Weber and Mercil first piloted the curriculum at Iowa State. The first full run happened in spring 2020, just as the pandemic forced classes online, Weber said.
The project expanded after Weber teamed up with Gallivan, whose background in statistics helped merge the two universities’ approaches. Funding from the Iowa Space Grant Consortium allowed the team to refine the lessons and offer the curriculum at both campuses starting in 2023.
“The module has been taught every spring at Iowa State and UNI since then, and each year, we add improvements based on student feedback and classroom experience,” said Weber, who is also a member of a committee assembled by the Iowa Department of Education to help write data science learning standards for the state.
To help future teachers see how data science works in practice, the curriculum uses a mix of synthetic and real‑world datasets.
One set simulates animal‑tracking data — timestamps, locations and headings — to give students a chance to explore visualization, dimensionality reduction and prediction. Another uses housing data collected by local high‑school students, allowing pre‑service teachers to practice multiple regression and think about how they might guide their own students through similar projects.
These examples, Weber and team said, help teachers understand how data‑science questions emerge from the data itself — and not from a prewritten hypothesis.
Preparing teachers for an AI-driven world
Weber said a broader goal of the project is to prepare teachers for classrooms where artificial intelligence and automated decision‑making are already part of students’ daily lives, and to help future teachers understand the relationship between AI and data science (“they’re closely related,” Weber said, “but they aren’t the same thing.”).
“Data science is the bigger field,” Weber said. “It’s about using math, statistics and computer tools to make sense of data and find patterns.”
Artificial intelligence, he explained, is about creating systems that can do tasks that usually require human thinking. AI systems learn from data, so they depend heavily on the work data science does.
The link between data science and AI comes from machine learning, a part of AI that learns patterns directly from data.
“Machine learning uses the same math and statistics that data science uses,” Weber said. “Simply put, data science helps us understand what the data is saying, and AI uses that understanding to make decisions or take action.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects data science jobs will grow 34 percent between 2024 and 2034, a rate that is significantly faster than the average for all occupations.
“Artificial intelligence is powerful, but we'll still need data scientists — humans in the loop,” Weber said. “AI systems don’t ‘think’ the way humans do; they learn patterns from large amounts of data and make predictions based on probability. Without someone who understands how that data was collected, what it represents and where it might be misleading, the results can be wrong or even harmful. Data scientists can interpret and contextualize the output of those systems.”
Early results show promise
The researchers’ curriculum has now run for four consecutive spring semesters at Iowa State and UNI, Weber said, adding that one former student is already teaching data science at a high school.
Additionally, a pre- and post-assessment administered during the first implementation showed measurable gains in students’ understanding of data science concepts, suggesting the approach is helping future teachers build both confidence and competence.
Weber said these early signs reinforce the need for continued investment in teacher preparation.
“We hope to obtain additional funding that will help us expand our work and support teachers who are already working in the field with in-service programming and classes that could earn teaching licensure renewal credits,” Weber said.
Investigating people's willingness to cooperate: Prof. Dr. Armin Falk (bottom right), Prof. Dr. Teodora Boneva (top left), Prof. Dr. Peter Andre (top right), Prof. Dr. Felix Chopra (bottom left)
Credit: Photomontage: Reinhard Bosse / University of Bonn
The study „Homo cooperans: Understanding the nature of human cooperation“ arrives at a clear result: 69 percent of study participants choose to cooperate. At the same time, the study shows that people systematically underestimate the willingness of others to cooperate. The data are based on behavioral cooperation experiments with more than 100,000 people from 125 representative country samples, which together represent 92 percent of the world’s adult population. The study is the first worldwide to investigate human cooperation on a globally representative basis. It provides new answers to one of the most important questions in the social and behavioral sciences: How willing are humans to cooperate with strangers, and which individual factors shapte this behavior.
Cooperation is a fundamental prerequisite for societal well-being. Whether functioning institutions or the provision of public goods such as clean air, public safety, or a stable climate — many of the greatest challenges of our time can only be addressed if people are willing to contribute to the common good beyond their own self-interest. It is therefore crucial to understand why people are willing to cooperate. The individual factors that determine the willingness to cooperate have “so far not been sufficiently researched,” explains Prof. Dr. Armin Falk, Professor of Economics at the University of Bonn.
At the center of the study is a decision experiment conducted in the same way worldwide. Each participating person was assigned to an unknown person from their own country and had to choose between two options: the option “Do not cooperate” yielded a secure payoff of 100 US dollars, whereas the option “Cooperate” yielded only 70 US dollars. However, if both people – independently of each other and without joint consultation – chose the cooperation option, an additional donation of 400 US dollars was triggered to combat global warming. This research design confronts participants with a social dilemma: it requires them to decide between a higher private payoff on the one hand and a less profitable but socially more valuable decision on the other. The design makes it possible to measure willingness to cooperate under comparable conditions across countries. The study reports four main findings.
First, cooperation is widespread. A clear majority of people around the world are willing to forgo money for themselves in favor of a common good — the fight against climate change. Globally, 69 percent of participants choose to cooperate. Second, the observed willingness to cooperate can be explained by individual factors. To this end, the authors test a behavioral-economic model that takes into account the role of cooperation expectations, social norms, and preferences. Expectations about how cooperative other people are turn out to be particularly important. Those who believe that others are willing to cooperate are themselves much more likely to cooperate. In addition, social norms and preferences play an important role. People who are more altruistic, more patient, and more willing to take risks cooperate more often. The research team also examines socioeconomic factors. On global average, they find no difference between men and women and no age effect. However, they observe that higher educational attainment has a positive effect on the cooperation decision. Third, the study highlights the central importance of cultural factors in explaining cooperation. Since the authors can draw on data from 125 countries, cultural influences on cooperative behavior can be studied at the global level for the first time. The results show that the behavioral model provides a good explanation for the global average, but that the strength of individual factors varies substantially across cultures. For example, while the influence of cooperation expectations on one’s own decision to cooperate is clearly visible on global average, the size of this effect differs considerably across countries. The effect of cooperation expectations on cooperation is very large in Finland, for instance, but much smaller in Egypt. Further analyses illustrate that cultural differences in the explanation of cooperative behavior are deeply rooted in historical contexts. The study thus shows that cooperation is not merely an individual trait, but is also shaped by culture. Fourth, the study illustrates that people systematically underestimate the willingness of their fellow citizens to cooperate. While actual global willingness to cooperate is 69 percent, respondents expect an average cooperation rate of only 47 percent. This pessimistic misperception is universal and is found in 124 out of 125 countries. In Germany, it is particularly pronounced. While 86.0 percent of participants in Germany cooperate, they expect a cooperation rate among their fellow citizens of only 47.6 percent — an underestimation of almost 40 percentage points. Since cooperation expectations are central to willingness to cooperate, pessimistic misperceptions can have negative consequences for the level of cooperation. However, the study also shows that misperceptions can be corrected: a simple information experiment conducted as part of the survey reduced pessimism and increased willingness to cooperate. To this end, a randomly selected group of respondents was informed that the majority of the world’s population regards climate change as a serious problem. This information increased cooperation expectations and led to an increase in cooperation.
In summary, the foundations of human cooperation are universal, but their concrete expression is strongly shaped by cultural factors. And: as a species, we are more cooperative than we ourselves believe. This insight is not only scientifically relevant, but also socially significant — because it shows that the preconditions for joint action, from climate protection to the provision of public goods, are in many areas better than is often assumed.
Publication: Armin Falk, Teodora Boneva, Peter Andre, Felix Chopra, „Homo cooperans: Understanding the nature of human cooperation“, DOI: science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec9483
Funding: The study was funded by the Foundation for Global Sustainability (formerly Deutsche Post Foundation) and supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Excellence Strategy.
Authors’ contributions: All of the researchers involved contributed equally to the preparation of the article and all aspects of the study itself, including designing the study, analyzing the data and writing the article.
The ECONtribute Cluster of Excellence: The two authors Armin Falk and Teodora Boneva are members of the ECONtribute Cluster of Excellence. Run jointly by the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, it is concerned with societal and technological challenges, including global financial crises, increasing inequality, political polarization, digitalization and climate change.
Armin Falk is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Individuals and Societies" at the University of Bonn.
While Turkmenistan’s insular, authoritarian government is taking baby steps to open the country’s economy to international trade, it continues to tighten its hold over the flow of information.
“Despite official promises to improve connectivity and digital development, authorities reportedly intensified efforts to suppress access to uncensored information by targeting Starlink satellite internet equipment as part of an ongoing crackdown on tools used to circumvent online censorship,” the report states. The report was published by a coalition comprising the International Partnership for Human Rights, the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights and the CIVICUS Monitor.
Officials have charged parents with responsibility for policing the online behaviour of their children, the report adds. Children are reportedly prohibited from posting photos of public places on social media platforms. Meanwhile, anyone who complains about public policies or authorities’ behaviour faces harassment, or worse.
In addition to the use of intimidation and other forms of punishment, officials have tightened their control over the country’s information architecture, for example keeping internet speeds slow. Authorities are also pursuing a crackdown on those who seek to circumvent government restrictions, including VPN use.
“Authorities reportedly extended its clampdown to Starlink terminals obtained from abroad, which some citizens have started using to access more stable, uncensored satellite internet,” according to the report. “In April 2026, authorities conducted raids in various regions of the country to identify and confiscate Starlink equipment from both residential and office buildings, with some individuals being detained on suspicion of installing such equipment.”
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a new, entirely bio-based material from a somewhat unexpected ingredient: yeast.
Credit: Chalmers University of Technology | Henrik Sandsjö
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a new, entirely bio-based material from a somewhat unexpected ingredient: yeast. The material is 3D printed and customised for use in architectural and interior design elements that are currently made from non-renewable or fossil-based materials, such as plaster, plastic or synthetic textiles. These may be daylight modulating and sunlight protecting screens, room partitions or wall systems.
The construction sector accounts for a large proportion of global emissions and resource consumption, which means there is a great need for renewable, resource-efficient alternatives. In a new study, a research team from Chalmers investigate how industrial residual products can be used to create new materials that can contribute to greater circularity in architecture and the built environment.
The newly developed material consists of baker’s yeast, cellulose fibres from wood, alginate from algae, glycerol from plants, and water. Together, the ingredients form a kind of hydrogel – a soft, jelly-like, malleable material – that can be 3D printed.
“I’ve always been interested in the combination of architecture and living materials, and essentially this research is about creating an architectural material made entirely from organic, renewable ingredients. By combining biomaterials with digital manufacturing, we can take a novel approach to both the design and production of architectural components,” says Malgorzata Zboinska, Professor at the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at Chalmers, and leader of the recently published study.
Zero-waste design through 3D printing
The project combines design, materials innovation and advanced manufacturing technology. The first part of the process is similar to baking, but in slightly reverse order. First, the yeast is heated to deactivate it, and then the various ingredients are mixed together to form a smooth mass. The architectural elements can then be manufactured using pressure-based 3D printing, which is carried out at room temperature. This requires neither energy-intensive heating nor additional support structures.
“3D printing makes it possible to create complex shapes without producing waste. We can design and manufacture the material directly – with a high degree of control over its shape, texture and material distribution,” says Yagmur Bektas, a doctoral student at the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at Chalmers, and co-author of the study.
With minor adjustments to the formula, the material’s transparency, colour and surface texture can be altered, making it well suited for interior applications such as daylight modulating and sunlight protecting screens, wall panels or room partitions. In the long term, the yeast material could also become an environmentally friendly alternative to plastics and other petroleum-based products, such as synthetic textiles. Depending on the composition of the formula, the material takes on a natural hue that ranges from yellow to brown tones. The colour can be altered using natural pigments or pigment-producing, colourful yeast strains. It is also possible to design different patterns, vary the transparency of the material and how it feels.
From baking and brewing to building
The use of yeast as a material component is something that has not yet been explored in architecture.
“Yeast grows exponentially. It does not require strictly controlled environments and is not particularly sensitive to contamination. Because it consists of single-celled organisms, we can produce a more homogeneous, predictable material,” explains Malgorzata Zboinska.
What makes the researchers’ new formula unique is that the yeast is not used in the usual way for fermentation, but acts as biomass. It then becomes a robust component that gives the material its volume, stability and strength. Malgorzata Zboinska also highlights the potential of using by-products from industries such as brewing and agriculture, as some of these products are often discarded. Residue that cannot be used as food or animal feed could therefore be used in architecture.
Designing with nature
Unlike traditional building materials, which are designed to last as long as possible, bio-based materials offer new ways of thinking about sustainability and material cycles. The yeast-based material is biodegradable and can return to nature after use – a key aspect of circular design.
“This challenges the traditional notion that materials must last forever, or at least have as long a physical life cycle as possible. Instead, we can think in terms of shorter life cycles and even view the ageing or degradation of the material as part of the design,” says Malgorzata Zboinska.
Self-healing or purifying materials on the horizon
Although the results show great potential, further research is needed before the material can be used widely in buildings. Future studies will assess key properties such as strength, fire safety and moisture performance, as well as scaling up digital manufacturing and developing stronger and more robust structures.
“The future of architectural ELMs, or Engineered Living Materials, is very exciting, with great potential to customise them to perform a variety of functions. This could, for example, involve self-healing materials or materials that purify the air by neutralising harmful substances and pollutants. What we have achieved so far is an important first step towards establishing a completely new type of architectural material. You could say that we are laying the foundations for future developments that combine sustainability, functionality and design in entirely new ways,” says Malgorzata Zboinska.
More about the material and how it is made:
The material consists of baker’s yeast (dry yeast), cellulose fibres (from wood), alginate (from brown seaweed), glycerol (from plants) and water. Each component contributes a specific function to the final material. Glycerol acts as a plasticiser and provides flexibility, whilst alginate contributes to the dimensional stability required for 3D printing. Cellulose further contributes to dimensional stability and acts as a structural component that provides tensile strength when the material is under load. The yeast acts as a binding agent for all the ingredients and gives the mixture its viscosity. Before mixing the ingredients to form a hydrogel, the researchers deactivate the yeast, which is necessary to stabilise the material. The hydrogel is 3D printed using air pressure and left to dry at room temperature until it achieves its final shape.
More about the study:
The scientific article ‘Novel 3D printable yeast-based materials for architectural applications’ has been published in Frontiers of Architectural Research. The authors are Yagmur Bektas, Malgorzata A. Zboinska, Cecilia Geijer, Tiina Nypelö and Zeinab Hefny. At the time of the study the researchers were based at three different departments at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and at Aalto University in Finland.
The research has been funded by the Swedish Energy Agency (grant numbers P2022-00865, P2024-02409).
Find a selection of press images in the media section in this release.
Credit: Chalmers University of Technology | Henrik Sandsjö
A new, entirely bio-based material from a somewhat unexpected ingredient: yeast. The material is 3D printed and customised for use in architectural and interior design elements that are currently made from fossil-based materials such as plastic or synthetic textiles.
Unlike traditional building materials, which are designed to last as long as possible, bio-based materials offer new ways of thinking about sustainability and material cycles. The yeast-based material is biodegradable and can return to nature after use – a key aspect of circular design.
The architectural elements can then be manufactured using pressure-based 3D printing, which is carried out at room temperature. This requires neither energy-intensive heating nor additional support structures.
Credit
Chalmers University of Technology | Henrik Sandsjö
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