キャリアニュース2019年８月９～14日

The news spread quickly. A student at the small liberal arts college where I am a biology professor had allegedly posted anti-Semitic neo-Nazi rhetoric on social media. Faculty members and students alike were shocked. The bubble of our close-knit community had burst; the realities of the external world were now the realities of our internal world, too. In the hours and days that followed, we all asked, “How could this happen?” Students asked another question, too: “Why don't faculty in our STEM courses discuss these issues with us?” This second question troubled me. I and other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) faculty members at my institution do explore social and political issues in our courses. But our students were telling us that, as a whole, we fell short. </br>![][1]</img> ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER > “Science needs to be studied holistically and taught with compassion and empathy.” I make a point of presenting science within a social context. I incl

Since ex-president Rousseff's impeachment in 2016, agrochemicals registered for use in Brazil have increased dramatically. The 2018 interim government was responsible for a record 450 new licenses in 1 year ([ 1 ][1]), and this permissiveness has worsened during the tenure of the newly elected Bolsonaro government. In the first 5 months of his mandate, 201 new products ([ 1 ][1]) have been made available. If this rate of approval continues, the government is on track to grant 480 licenses in a year, which would be a new record. Instead of boosting production as intended ([ 2 ][2]), the extensive use of agrochemicals—some of which are prohibited elsewhere ([ 3 ][3])—hurts human health, the environment, and the Brazilian economy. Pesticide overuse erodes ecosystem services, such as pollination ([ 4 ][4]), that depend on biodiversity ([ 5 ][5]). This service alone underpins Brazilian food production, valued at US$11 billion for 2018 ([ 6 ][6]). The Brazilian economy also relies heavily o