Editor's note
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Last year, Danes voted ‘pyt’ as their favorite word. There’s no direct English translation, but it most closely translates to the phrases “don’t worry about it” or “stuff happens.” The Danes are onto something that could help us all feel less stressed out, psychology professor Marie Helweg-Larsen explains.
Cuba has a new constitution. Cuban-American professor Maria Isabel Alfonso explores the sweeping changes coming to the communist island. For the first time since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, Cubans may start a small business and join civil society organizations. Women, LGBTQ people and Afro-Cubans will enjoy greater legal protection. The president must now obey term limits. However, the media remains state-controlled and access to
the internet is still limited. This is how progress looks in modern Cuba, writes Alfonso: It happens in fits and starts.
So-called “cultured meat” is under development and coming to a store near you sometime soon. But are you eager to taste your first lab-grown hamburger? Moral psychologist Matti Wilks dissects some frequent objections to this new food technology – and suggests that they’re not all entirely rational.
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Nick Lehr
Arts + Culture Editor
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Top stories
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Instead of overreacting to minor slights, it’s healthier to just say, ‘pyt.’
Ezume Images/Shutterstock.com
Marie Helweg-Larsen, Dickinson College
Pyt doesn't have an exact English translation, but there's a rich strain of psychological research devoted to its benefits in everyday life.
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Cubans attend a public discussion to revamp the country’s Cold War-era constitution in Havana, in August 2018.
Reuters/Tomas Bravo
María Isabel Alfonso, St. Joseph's College of New York
Cuba will not legalize same-sex marriage, as gay activists hoped. But its new constitution adds greater protections for LGBTQ people and for women, and gives Cubans the right to own private property.
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World’s first lab-grown beef burger. Would you eat it?
David Parry / PA Wire
Matti Wilks, Yale University
Surveys suggest fewer than half of Americans are looking forward to lab-grown meat. A moral psychologist examines common objections and why for the most part they're not logical.
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Science + Technology
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Thomas H. Davenport, Babson College
A recent executive order from President Trump won't do much to help the US stay ahead of Chinese innovation and investment in AI.
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Charles Pignon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In the eastern reaches of Siberia, scientists discovered plants with exceptional cold tolerance that could be the key to sustainable bioenergy production.
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Most read on site
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Laurie Marhoefer, University of Washington
In the film, the real tensions of gay life in the 1980s – from government apathy towards the AIDS crisis, to rampant anti-gay prejudice – don't get their due.
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Raymond Huahong Tu, University of Maryland
Robocalls are common and becoming increasingly frequent. A scholar explains how they work, and why they're such a pain.
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Clifford Johnson, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The film wowed critics and fans. But its hidden power may be black lead characters who are accomplished scientists – just the thing to help inspire future generations to follow in their footsteps.
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