Category: Social Science

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Mem-flation

A recent addition to the repertoire of inflationary pressures is inflation due to real or supposed shortages of computer memory and microchips. Contrary to other forms of inflation which are induced by supply shortages (like fossil fuels) mem-flation is due to heavy actual and even more proposed investments in data centers, server farms, cloud storage and AI-driven computing capacities. Quantities and quality of microprocessors, which are essential parts in all these devices, might not be able to follow this demand-driven inflationary tendency. The hype around AI, therefore, is a major element in this likely overshooting market reaction. The current market trend is likely to last for another year as the already announced investments of the big data companies have been announced including 2027. The producers of NVIDIA, Samsung, TSMC, SK Hynix, Micron, ST Microelectronics, Infineon, Intel and AMD have realized huge profits from this demand-driven mem-flation.

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Psych-inflation

The economic narrative and measurement of inflation is incomplete without the proper account of the psychology of the price building process and mechanisms. After the 2 previous oil-crises of 1973 and 1979, the panic about not having enough oil and derivatives within the coming months, has lead to prices increases almost instantly. Despite the fact that there is enough oil floating on ships and in pipelines for 3-6 months, depending on estimates, the psychological effect of being eventually short of oil creates “Psych-inflation”. Oil markets use the “Angst of disruption” to make additional profits on people and enterprises’ hoarding behavior. There are powerful interests to exploit such potential shortages as it is a suitable time to reap some extra profits, particularly for those who knew early about a likely military conflict.

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Diamonds are forever

Due to the highly condensed carbon structure of diamonds, the use of diamonds has gone beyond the decorative stage. The difference between naturally grown or developed diamonds and the lab-produced diamonds has puzzled the market of the precious miniature materials. The paper by Zhang et al. 2026 has demonstrated that at the tiny size of a nano-structure the typically found hard structure of a diamond brakes down. The size-dependent softening of the diamond at the nano-size is a puzzle, but has been resolved with the explanation that on the surface the atoms remain rather stiff, only the inner structure of the cristalline core does “wobble”. Hence, diamonds are still almost forever, unless you crush them with far too much weight or power.

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Light Locomotion

There are many politicians who have an innate tendency to move in the direction of any flash light or camera. Tenagers in the age of the “not-so-social media” have a similar reflex. More seriously, Science Advances, has presented a fully autonomous robot with such a behavior. In fact this form of light locomotion is named the “twirlbot”. It has been developed by Chi Chen et al. (2026) as a new kind of robot that can be directed using light impulses, as only energy source for moving towards the light source. The from of locomotion is inspired by nature (bionics) and more precisely the “tumbleweed” way of moving, better rolling forward, driven by wind energy. The tumbleweed-inspired rolling robot, short “twirlbot”, does not need mechanical devices, just energy in a specific frequency range of light, which provides the heat for the photoactive, otherwise passive, bilayer strips. The polyhedral geometry of the twirlbot allows omni-directional locomotion. It really resembles the light active politician or any posing in the spotlight while doing the “loco-motion” (Video Link performance by “Little Eva” in the early 60s or a late 80s version by Kylie Minogue).

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Random randomness

In textbooks or courses of statistics, just as ordinary experiences with throwing a dice, we assume the perfect dice. This means the dice is assumed to have equal probabilities to roll on each side. Further, each throw of the dice of a sequence has an independent equal chance for each number to come up. To determine a “fair” dice we would throw the dice a thousand times to check, whether the probability of each side is about equal. However, the world of dices is not perfect and temporary or persistent margins of deviation are part of the real world. The weekly lotteries demonstrate this over and over again. Playing around with different shapes of dices makes the issue of probability tangible. Well worth to explore further empirically as well as a topic for inspiration of new approaches to learning about statistics. (Image: Dices produced by “devinsdice” Berlin 2026-5-5)

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Family Archaeology

The archaeology of family bonds is an interesting branch of both archaeology and genealogy. The mixing of hunter-gather populations with settled populations seems a rather ancient fact (study link). Analytical DNA comparisons reveal that nearby groups had indeed contact and even intermarriage occurred more than 5.000 years ago (Mattila et al. 2026). The evidence is based on data from a cemetery where several persons were buried in the same grave.
The study by Blöcher et al. (2026) demonstrates that in the late phases of the Roman empire along the Roman frontier in Germany a mixing of Romans with local populations a similar process took place. Whereas genetic structures persisted until the 6th century, the Central European genome as we know it today refers back to the 7th century. The inter-generational transmission seems to be an important driver of diversity. The high infant mortality together with an earlier mortality of women than men at that time show the accomplishments of modern medicine to safe infants and mothers from the hazards surrounding family formation and survival.

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Given then Chosen

Family is first given and only later in life family becomes a matter of choice. This is a rather sequential perspective on family matters. A lot of ethnological as well as sociological research shows that the shadow of the given family can reach long into an individual’s later life. It is essential to be or become aware of the mutability of what constitutes a family. The ethnological variability across the globe of the norms and legislation that govern families is amazingly broad. The interference of religious beliefs and practices have always attempted to gain access to the nucleus of family life as an attempt to influence the “given part” of family.
It is a much more complex issue to understand and research the “chosen part” of partnership trajectories in a broader sense and from a life course perspective (Fasang et al. 2024). The social background and upbringing in a broad sense have a lasting impact on most people. However, there are enormous degrees of freedom to later on choose your friends, family or families. Societies across continents have chosen and invented particular rites of transitions between families and how to bridge networks. It is amazing that we tend to devote so little thought to this nucleus of our societies. 

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Pictures at an exhibition

The playlist on Spotify, which accompanies the exhibition “Unforgettable” in Ghent, is an interesting extension of the unforgettable artists into today and tomorrow. You may be inclined to share your opinion in the way Maria Iskariot does it in “Dat find ik lekker” or more like Sophie Straat in “Dansen met de dood”. Anyway, women artists are coming front stage and this is great news despite all the backlashes we, unfortunately, witness in the 2020s. The curator of the playlist Murielle Scherre has managed to take us, a bit like the exuberant Modest Mussorgsky in his “Pictures at an exhibition”, beyond the marvelous exhibition rooms to a broad exploration of contemporary women artists’ world of imagination in music, visuals and songs. A great intergenerational accomplishment. 

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Forgotten but Unforgettable

Many women painters and artists who worked during the 17th and first half of the 18th century have been forgotten until recently. The galleries of the time and many years later gave little attention to the women artists of that time. Most of them were relegated to be of minor importance in the course of art history. The exhibition of the Museum of the Fine Arts Ghent in Belgium has accomplished to rectify this place of women painters in art history. The fine pieces of art, ranging from painting to sculptures, were frequently signed by men, probably to achieve higher market values and become visible in the public sphere at all at their time.
The exhibition is a kind of a revelation of how difficult it was for women to move from an “object of art” to be the subject painting including painting themselves. This also dealt with the view or regard of others towards women. Additionally, the exhibition features a section on “Social Expectations”, which deals with the expectations of the Flemish and Dutch societies towards women. Family values, marriage, wealth and social status were of utmost importance.
These women painters were forgotten far too long, but have staged their comeback as “Unforgettable” in the 21st century.
(Image: “Pictura at an exhibition” taken in the MSK Ghent 2026-4)

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Jobs First

The Berlin demonstration of the 1st of May has chosen to put „Jobs First“. Jobs before profits is a widely accepted claim by trade unions to highlight the importance of work in our societies. Particularly in times of robots and AI taking jobs away, this motto is well chosen as a principal risk in 2026. The current technological innovations seem to aim primarily at the maximization of profits for companies rather than the benefits for society as a whole.  The Berlin parade on the 1st of May managed to achieve a great mobilization, which is a great success for the labor movement and a demonstration of power and solidarity when in many countries basic employment rights and even the 1st of May as a social tradition is attacked.