The Youngest Victims: Children and Youth Affected by War

In 1989, the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child declared, “[state parties] shall take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by an armed conflict.” In addition to attempting to secure the welfare of children in armed conflict, the Convention went on to ban the recruitment and deployment of children during armed conflict. Despite the vast majority of sovereign nations signing and ratifying this agreement, this treaty, unfortunately, has not prevented children and youth from witnessing, becoming victims of, or participating in political, ethnic, religious, and cultural violence across the past three decades. This chapter offers an “ecological perspective” on the psychosocial consequences of exposure to the trauma of war-related violence and social disruption

How to be a weel-read young scientist: Raymond Pearl’s advice 100 years later

Almost 100 years have passed since the biomathematician Raymond Pearl published his book To Begin With: Being Pro-phylaxis Against Pedantry(Pearl 1930), a read-ing recommendation list along the lines of thelist of 100 books recommended by Sir JohnLubbock (1894) during the late 19th century orThe Western Canon (Bloom 1994), but withamoredefined target audience: apprenticesof science, specifically, the biological sciences. Neither Lubbock’s list norThe Western Canoninclude recommended readings related to thefield of science.Pearl (1879–1940) was a prominent Ameri-can author and the founder of theQRB. Hewrote on many areas of biology, and his numerous scientific contributions, through theirdissemination, have improved science literacy.For instance, two of his many publications thatare still valid today include an article published in the journalScience (Pearl 1938) in which he revealed early on the close relationship between tobacco and cancer and, no less interesting, a book about the effects of alcoholon people titled Alcohol and Longevity (Pearl1926). In the latter work, he came to the controversial conclusion that people who con-sume alcohol in moderation (defining whatis moderate has since been polemic) have ahigher life expectancy than those who do notdrink or those who drink in excess.Peer reviewe