Research Roundup
Date: January 23, 2009
 
The near future:
  • The Edge Foundation’s Annual Question for 2009 is “What Will Change Everything? What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?" The answers from 151 thinkers—from Alan Alda to Anton Zeilinger—are available at http://www.edge.org/q2009/q09_index.html.
  • eMarketer  predicts that newspaper revenues will plummet 42.5% in the next seven years, leading to an inevitable death spiral for this traditional print medium. The cause: the “array of news and information sources on the Web” that can post information rapidly while the ink is still drying on the newspapers. See the full report at “Newspapers in Crisis: Migrating Online” and decide for yourself whether a marketing firm that specializes in digital media can be objective about this subject.
  • Want to be trendy in 2009? The Independent in England offers a Buzzword Glossary for the new year, drawn from the work of the Future Exploration Network and other trendwatchers on both sides of the ocean. Some words to watch out for: junior moment, eco-embedded, geo-fencing, enoughism, and instapreneur. For more wisdom from the trend spotters, visit Springwise for a list of 100 creative business ideas (ten each from ten different fields, including travel and tourism), each designed to “provide opportunities and inspiration in 2009 and beyond.”

Social trends, etc.:
  • According to the Harris Poll, U.S. Leisure Time Plummets 20% in 2008, Hits New Low. “Also, as leisure time shrinks, Americans appear to be indulging more in solo activities, Harris found. Four of this year’s top five choices are typically done alone: reading, watching TV, exercising, and computer activities.”

Research Reports:
  • The latest publication from the Research & Analysis Staff at the National Endowment for the Arts is Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy. This report provides an early look at reading-related data from the May 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (which also included questions about museum attendance). Download the full report at http://www.nea.gov/research/ReadingonRise.pdf or just read the press release at http://www.nea.gov/news/news09/ReadingonRise.html.
  • On January 14, the National Research Council (NRC) released a highly-anticipated report on Learning Science in Informal Environments: Places, People, and Pursuits. According to the NRC, "tens of millions of Americans, young and old, choose to learn about science in informal ways—by visiting museums and aquariums, attending after-school programs, pursuing personal hobbies, and watching TV documentaries, for example. There is abundant evidence that these programs and settings, and even everyday experiences such as a walk in the park, contribute to people's knowledge and interest in science." For more details, visit http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12190.
  • The National Governor’s Association has released a timely report on Using Arts and Culture to Stimulate State Economic Development. According to a summary from our colleagues at Americans for the Arts:
"The creative industries offer numerous benefits to state economies, and states have an opportunity to both improve livability and boost state and local economies by investing in the arts and culture. This report offers insights and examples from states across the country to help governors incorporate the arts and culture into state economic development strategies. In particular, this report provides governors with tips on how to understand and measure their creative industries, develop plans to capitalize on the benefits of those industries, and provide support that helps sustain the contributions of the arts and culture sector. It also explores the arts and culture in the context of their contributions to local community development and state tourism, providing information on how states can incorporate these aspects into their overall economic development strategies."

  • New research from the University of California at Berkeley suggests that museum-going has a positive effect on the neurological development of  young people: "Poor Children's Brain Activity Resembles that of Stroke Victims, EEG Shows". The gist of this research is that “the brains of low-income children function differently from the brains of high-income kids,” specifically in the “part of the brain that is critical for problem solving and creativity.” (“Differently,” here, is a polite way of saying “not as well.”) According to one of the principal researchers, Robert Knight of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at Berkeley, “This is a wake-up call. It's not just that these kids are poor and more likely to have health problems, but they might actually not be getting full brain development from the stressful and relatively impoverished environment associated with low socioeconomic status: fewer books, less reading, fewer games, fewer visits to museums.” The current research cannot demonstrate an actual connection between museum-going and higher-order cognitive skills ... but Dr. Knight seems to think that one exists, and perhaps his team (or others) will start to look more closely at the connection.

Other articles, essays, and recent items of interest:
  • In 2007, the Getty Conservation Institute convened an Experts’ Roundtable on Sustainable Climate Management Strategies in Tenerife, Spain. The proceedings are now available at http://www.getty.edu/conservation/science/climate/climate_experts_roundtable.html, together with a transcript of the meeting and a bibliography on climate management. Among the topics addressed by the experts: current climate management strategies and emerging trends; balancing “sustainability” and the “preservation of cultural heritage”; and whether cultural institutions such as museums, archives, and libraries can or should play a role in the debate about energy consumption.
  • Meanwhile, in other conservation-related news … Harvard physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, an expert on the environmental impact of computing, has estimated that “two Google searches and bringing a kettle of water to boil generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide. About 200 million Google searches are performed every day. That’s a lot of tea.” From the Wired Campus blog, with full details in the Sunday Times of London. Google has issued a formal response.
  • A brief report from the Kauffman foundation on gaming. “Every year, the higher education system in the United States produces about 350,000 bachelor of science students. Every year, ten million people, or twenty-eight times as many, are playing World of Warcraft.” Dr. Merrilea Mayo argues that “games have many features that cry out for application to learning,” such as well-defined goals, continuous feedback, opportunities for collaboration, the ability to promote “self-efficacy,” and a positive effect on the brain chemistry of players (an engaging video game can open the floodgates of dopamine, the brain’s natural happiness drug). This echoes many of the points made by Jane McGonigal in her recent lecture for the Center for the Future of Museums.

Useless Time-Wasters:
  • The Internet Bird Collection —photos, videos, and detailed information about more than 5,500 species (i.e., less than two-thirds of the known bird varieties).

 

 

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