Science Looks at Life

Science Looks at Life

The June 30, 2006 issue of Science magazine includes a fascinating special section entitled “Life Cycles,” which explores what current research can tell us about a number of everyday concerns. Topics include low fertility rates in developed countries, how to improve the educational and social success of disadvantaged children, critical issues for adolescents, and the ability of money to buy happiness. I’ll be writing blogs on several of these articles in coming days.

In the lead article, William P. Butz and Barbara Boyle Torrey provide an overview of exciting new developments in the nature of social science research. They highlight six research approaches that should yield important results:

• Longitudinal studies begun up to 40 years ago are now yielding important insights.
  
• Social science researchers, particularly in game theory, risk and decision science, and experimental social psychology, have developed effective ways to use laboratory experiments that can shed light on many areas of social science.
  
• Improved statistical methods are making it possible to make use of existing data without compromising the privacy of individuals.
  
• Researchers are beginning to merge data from Geographic Information Science and Geographic Positing Systems with data from traditional information sources to gain new insights into how geographic factors influence social and economic conditions.
  
• Genomics is providing new insights into human migration, the nature=nurture debate, and the racial and ethnic categories that have been used in social science.
  
• The globalization of research is helping to distinguish between and local and universal phenomena in a wide variety of social science studies.
  

We often hear vague pronouncements about the value of interdisciplinary research. Butz and Torrey provide enlightening examples of what this means in practice and exciting thoughts of what we can expect in the future.