Rebecca Spencer, comments in news a story about sleep research and work she is conducting on how missing nap time can affect children. She says kids who don’t get naps may lose attentiveness and learn less than children who study less but take a nap. (Washington Post, 1/24/19)

Rebecca Spencer is interviewed for a public radio segment on sleep deprivation and how scientists now think it may be associated with increased risk of a variety of health problems including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and some mental disorders. Spencer says lack of sleep has developed into a public health crisis. (KPCC, 1/30/19)

Diane Kelly, a senior research fellow in psychological and brain sciences, comments a story about how some tiny female insects found in caves in Brazil evolved what looked like male sex organs, not once, but twice. She says, “Animals evolve whatever happens to work.” Kelly also says because of the diversity of nature, “There has got to be even weirder stuff out there that we haven’t described yet. And it’s often the weird stuff that tell us things,” Kelly says. (Quanta magazine, 1/30/19)

The Century Foundation has developed a new toolkit "Fostering Intergroup Contact in Diverse Schools: Strategies for Educators" based on the classification of intergroup contact outlined by Linda Tropp, professor of psychological and brain sciences at UMass Amherst, and Dr. Suchi Saxena, consultant at the Silverman Center of Brandeis University. Tropp and Saxena describe three ways to classify intergroup contact: supportive norms in schools, cross-racial friendships, and cooperative learning strategies. Read full toolkit