Social Sciences

New research challenges beliefs that the Latino population is only interested in handouts from government. Latinos in Phoenix are willing to pay for local services such as ambulance, library and youth programs--even more so than whites. --by Christine Lambrakis

Direct democracy is all about asking the public to decide which programs are worthy of funding and which are not. But Daniel Sarewitz says this is an absurd way to fund science. --by Nicholas Gerbis

So you want to build a better baseball player. How do you proceed? Maybe you'd combine the hitting eye of Alex Rodriguez with the fielding range of Derek Jeter. ASU robotics expert Tom Sugar is building a better ballplayer with a four-wheel drive transmission and a camera with a zoom lens. --by Skip Derra

Lake Tanganyika is an ecological jewel at the heart of desperate human misery. Prohibitions on fishing--designed to protect the fragile ecosystem--have angered local fishermen. These kinds of tensions between conservationists and local people are common. ASU researchers are working to strike a balance. --by Adelheid Fischer

Growing up as a Mexican-American youth in El Paso, Miguel Arciniega was taught by his father to be un caballero--a gentleman--who takes care of his family and respects his wife. But his peers encouraged him to be a macho man--sexist, violent and unemotional. Now Arciniega is studying gender roles and values among Mexican American men, and has created an academic scale to define what it means to be a gentleman or a macho man. --by Verina Palmer Martin

Historians aren't known for interdisciplinary collaborations. But Paul Hirt is getting environmental historians out into the field and working with anthropologists, ecologists and geographers. He hopes to increase their understanding of the complex interactions between humans and the landscape. --by Adelheid Fischer

The sky islands borderlands of the Southwest is a unique area harboring such a broad range of life that Conservation International has designated it a hotspot of global diversity. Once sparsely settled, the sky islands borderlands are now undergoing economic, ecological, and social upheavals. Environmental historian Paul Hirt is looking at the region's past to help citizens, businesses and governments manage its present and future. --by Adelheid Fischer

Major league baseball players like Derek Jeter make actions like catching a fly ball look effortless. But if you want to understand the complexity underlying these moves, try teaching them to a robot. By combining expertise in engineering and psychology, ASU researchers have created Catchbot, a baseball-playing robot. In the process, they have learned a lot about how people perceive and respond to a moving target. --by Skip Derra

Do TV shows like CSI taint jurors' perceptions of forensic evidence? For years, legal professionals and the mass media have claimed that a "CSI effect" is influencing jury trials. But these claims aren't backed up by real data. In fact, new research from ASU indicates that watching CSI doesn't make people any more or less likely to convict. --by Diane Boudreau

Scientists have discovered shellfish remains, tiny stone blades and red ochre pigments in a cave in South Africa. The 164,000-year-old artifacts suggest that early humans were using tools, engaging in symbolic behavior, and even eating seafood much earlier than previously thought. --by Jodi Guyot