Science Education & Policy
This isn't news anymore (see here, and here), but Bruce Alberts, Editor-in-Chief of Science has weighed in on the out-of-whack system of incentives in the biomedical sciences:
Assuming that the system supporting this career path works well, these will be the individuals with the most talent and interest in such an endeavor: young people well positioned to make the scientific breakthroughs that societies need to survive and thrive. But the current system squanders the creativity and energy of these exceptionally gifted young people through a funding process that forces them to avoid risk-…
Many a parent has been driven to the point of madness by successive "why?" questions from preschoolers, but it's a good sign that they ask and they do better if they get a detailed explanation than if you just answer 'because.'
The researchers carried out two studies of 2- to 5-year-olds, focusing on their "how" and "why" questions, as well as their requests for explanatory information, and looking carefully at the children's reactions to the answers they received from adults. In the first study, the researchers examined longitudinal transcripts of six children's everyday conversations with…
Recently I was interviewed by Pouria Nazemi, Science Editor of the Jam-e-Jam Daily Newspaper. Jam-e-Jam is the principal Iranian newspaper and is controlled by the government. In the wake of Iran shutting down its leading business newspaper last week and three pro-reform newspapers in October I thought this would be interesting to readers, since it appeared between these two events.
If your Farsi is up to par, here is the link. The interview was done via email in English so I have corrected some minor grammar but otherwise it is as we corresponded.
Pouria Nazemi…
Let me describe two very different academic careers.I.
Dr. X chose a Ph.D. advisor with a reputation for being not very demanding. Now Dr. X’s every effort is aimed at maximizing his publication record. He and his friends from grad school conspired to become junior editorial board members at good journals, and to recommend each other’s papers for publication. He chats up and proposes co-authorships to senior journal editors. His papers make for marginal advances in knowledge (for example, a new statistical test that, in certain situations, provides 1% more power than earlier tests) or no…
While more than half the academic life science researchers responding to a 2007 survey indicated having some relationship with private industry, the prevalence of such relationships – particularly direct funding for research studies – appears to be dropping.
The Results of a survey, appearing in the November/December 2009 issue of Health Affairs,also suggest that interest in commercial applications of research appears to be growing, even among investigators without industry funding. The new study is a follow-up to 1985 and 1995 surveys by members of the same team.
In late 2006 and early 2007…
DNA GENDER CHANGE NOW POSSIBLE BY BMT-RECIPIENT Y CHROMOSOME KNOCKED OUT AND X CHROMOSOME DOUBLED IN HUMANS
It is widely known that the blood karyotype of bone marrow transplant recipients reflects that of the donor and not that of the recipient. XX recpients of BMT from XY donors have a blood genotype that can become 100% XY. Likewise, XY recipients of BMT from XX donors have a blood genotype that can become 100% XX. This change of genotype is not limited to the blood. It can affect other tissues. (1-3) Some authors have noted a change in genotype from XY to XX in up to…
From a news story in today's issue of Science:
A new study finds little evidence for leaks in the U.S. pipeline for producing native-born scientists except for a steep drop in the percentage of the highest performing students taking science and engineering jobs. The findings suggest that the United States risks losing its economic competitiveness not because of a work force inadequately trained in science, as conventional wisdom holds, but because of a lack of social and economic incentives to pursue careers in science and technology.
The reason for this is supposedly the lucrative finance…
Harvard Magazine excerpts Louis Menand on "Professionalization in the academy. If you're thinking of going to graduate school, you need to read this.
This is the premise behind academic scholarship:
It is a self-governing and largely closed community of practitioners who have an almost absolute power to determine the standards for entry, promotion, and dismissal in their fields. The discipline relies on the principle of disinterestedness, according to which the production of new knowledge is regulated by measuring it against existing scholarship through a process of peer review, rather than…
Hank |
You've heard of the Discovery Channel - if you want to learn about sharks, they're the place to go. Heck, they even whacked me this summer as part of their promotional campaign.
Unfortunately, if you want to see more than you can stand about the Shroud of Turin, that's also the Discovery Channel.
Animal Planet on the one hand and Jon&Kate Plus 8 on the other. There's no question Discovery Channel is successful, in large part due to the efforts of Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav, former chief of NBC Universal's cable effort.
When most cable companies are…
The performative and improvisatory aspects of music compares favorably with the temporal, polyphonic aspects of scholarly research, says University of Illinois professor of education Liora Bresler.
Understanding that could improve both research and education, she says. Bresler, who studied musicology and was a pianist before becoming an education professor, said that knowing there was an audience to perform for "really intensifies the relationship between the music and the performer." This, she said, is analogous to how a teacher should think of a lecture or a researcher a…