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The laboratory will be led by Robert Sandlersky, a specialist in energy and mass transfer and the study of other properties of landscapes via satellite imagery and Senior Research Fellow at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The HSE News Service spoke to Robert about the laboratory’s future activities.

Why do people sometimes overestimate their knowledge—more often than not, those who are not well-versed in the subject at hand? Twenty years ago, two researchers studied this phenomenon and tried to explain it from a psychological point of view. This phenomenon is now known as the Dunning-Kruger effect after the names of the researchers. According to a report presented at a seminar of the HSE Department of Applied Economics, this effect has a purely statistical explanation.

The HSE Centre for Student Academic Development has started accepting applications for the third ‘Research Initiative’ student team research project competition. Bachelor’s and master’s students from all HSE campuses are eligible to participate. The competition gives students an opportunity to not only take on research roles, but also to try their hand at working as academic managers and supervisors of a small research team. Registration will remain open until February 28.

Successful professionals in research and development are usually able to think and act as business owners

Neurobiologists from HSE University and the RAS Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology proved that the human brain unconsciously distinguishes between even very similar sound signals during passive listening. The study was published in Neuropsychologia.

After analysing the price fluctuations of almost 2,000 cryptocurrencies over seven years, Victoria Dobrynskaya, Associate Professor at the HSE University Faculty of Economic Sciences, found that there are no fundamental differences between their behaviour and that of conventional assets. Cryptocurrency follows the same principles, although its prices change much faster: processes that usually take years on traditional markets take only a month or so on the cryptocurrency market. An article on this research was reprinted by SSRN.

On February 10, Dr. Choong-Yong Ahn, Distinguished Professor of Economics of the Graduate School of International Studies (Chung-Ang University, Seoul) will take part in an online meeting of the Economic Policy Discussion Club organized by HSE University. He will talk about Korea’s economic development and the country’s astonishingly rapid and effective industrialization. Dr Ahn has spoken with HSE News Service about factors that have contributed to Korea’s success and the role of government in steering the Korean economy.

The first major Soviet publisher of children's literature, Raduga, was established a century ago and featured the debuts of many authors who would later go on to become famous, as well as illustrations by prominent artists. Based on a research paper by Marina Sazonenko, graduate of the HSE Doctoral School of Art and Design, IQ.HSE examines how — and why — the illustrations in Soviet periodicals for children changed over time.

The Sochi 2014 Olympics volunteer programme involved 25,000 people. It was the first such volunteer project in Russia and was organised with support from the government, educational institutions and non-profit organizations.

The international conference ‘Fear and the Muse: Akhmatova, Mandelstam and Their Time’ (the Akhmatova-Mandelstam readings) took place in Russia from January 17–21. Readings were held in Moscow, Tver, and St Petersburg. We talked to Kristina Landa (the University of Bologna), who presented her paper ‘Around Conversation about Dante’ at the conference.