Education
edyong | August 27, 2008 Yesterday, I wrote about selfless capuchin monkeys, who find personal reward in the act of giving other monkeys. The results seemed to demonstrate that monkeys are sensitive to the welfare of their peers, and will make choices that benefit others without any material gain for themselves. Today, another study looks at the same processes in a very different sort of cheeky monkey - human children.
Humans are notable among other animals for our vast capacity for cooperation and empathy. Our concern about the experiences of other people, and our natural aversion to unfair play are the bedrocks…
ejohnson | August 27, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Education & Careers and Politics channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Politics. A Georgian man squats amidst the aftermath of a Russian bombardment. From Flickr, by k.tseradze@yahoo.com
Education & Careers. From Flickr, by zone41
Reader comments of the week:
On the Education & Careers channel, DrugMonkey asks himself Should I hire a postdoc or a technician? While both will end up performing many of the same tedious tasks in a lab, they differ in relationship to the PI, eventual career track, availability…
catdynamics | August 26, 2008You are at university.
Do you like stars, and stuff?
Another rehashed blast from the past
Should you do astronomy as an undergrad? (the following is in part shamelessly cribbed from a colleague's previous freshman seminar for our majors):
Do you like stars and stuff?
If not, you probably should look for an alternative to astronomy, on the general principle that at this stage of life you should at least try to do things you actually like.
If you do, good for you. Now, do you have the aptitude?
Professional astrophysics/astronomy is not about looking at stars per se (except at occasional star…
pharyngula | August 25, 2008It's true — the cracker incident is still dribbling on in my mailbox. The email is down in volume considerably — only a few dozen angry letters a day. I'm still getting a handful of actual letters every day, and those are both comical and pathetic. Usually, they're an announcement of some ceremony that was carried out to rescue me from evil. I've also got lots of pamphlets and even a couple of books about 'eucharistic miracles', which aren't having the effect the senders intend, I'm sure — all they do is demonstrate a greater depth of insanity than I had previously imagined.
I've tossed a few…
jrosenhouse | August 24, 2008An interesting exchange took place during the Q and A of a talk entitled “Georgia Public School Board Members' Beliefs Concerning the Inclusion of Creationism in the Science Curriculum.” The speaker was Kathie Morgan of LIberty University.
The talk itself was unremarkable, even by the crushingly low standards of creationist scholarship. The premise was that there are ways of bringing creationism into the classroom, in the form of supplementary materials beyond what the state requirements mandate, that do not run afoul of any Supreme Court rulings. Morgan and her colleagues decided to…
clock | August 24, 2008I love the way Web works! So, I was on FriendFeed earlier today and I saw through this link there that Paul Jones posted a note on Pownce (on which I am registered but never check) about this article in Raleigh N&O:
An iPod Touch for each student?
A Chapel Hill middle school could become the first in the country to give an iPod to every teacher and student, an experiment that would challenge teachers and administrators to ensure the hand-held devices are used as learning tools, not toys.
It's still not clear how the iPod Touches would be used at Culbreth Middle School. And school…
nisbetmc | August 22, 2008
Scientists are the most trusted spokespeople in America. Surveys show that they are the most admired profession and among institutions, only the military scores higher in terms of public confidence. Not only are scientists trusted authorities, the public strongly associates science with social progress and economic growth.
So when a company is struggling to tell its story and get its message across to the American public, it makes sense to turn to its scientists to deliver a message. It's basic branding. Just like companies pay millions to advertise and sponsor the Olympics, Exxon Mobil has…
catdynamics | August 20, 2008The prevalent US system of offering a year of high school physics, late in high school, with some schools offering a second year of "advanced" physics, is disastrous.
Some commenters in the "So, you want to be an astrophysicist? Part 0" thread felt I was too harsh in saying a year of High School Physics was NOT ENOUGH.
In particular, they only had a year, and are now tenured professors.
Sorry folks, but this is selection bias.
There are people who could do no high school physics and get up to speed on university level physics in less than three months, though most of those would still need…
catdynamics | August 20, 2008What should a high school student do to get on a track to become an astrophysicist?
Reworked from an oldie.
So, you're in high school wondering what to do with yourself, and you think: "hey, I could be an astrophysicist!"
So, what should YOU do, wanting to get into a good university and an astro/physics major?
1) Take all the math that is offered, and do well in it.
The limiting factor for most students wanting to do astronomy or astrophysics is poor math preparation in school. You need to get as far and as fast in calculus as you can and be proficient and comfortable with advanced…
oracknows | August 20, 2008
My Academic Woo Aggregator has become even more out of date. You remember my Academic Woo Aggregator, don't you? It's my list of medical schools and major academic medical centers in North America that have adopted what Dr. R.W. once so famously dubbed "quackademic medicine" in that they've created divsions, centers, or departments of "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) or "integrative medicine" (IM), in which pseudoscientific or mystical woo is "integrated" with scientific medicine in the mistaken belief that it will somehow improve patient care. Whether it's for chasing money…
drorzel | August 18, 2008A while back, after handing in my manuscript and before SteelyKid, I asked readers to suggest blog topics. I got to a few of them already, but there's one more that I've been meaning to comment on, from tcmJOE:
I'm a physics undergrad about to begin my final year, and while I'm still thinking of physics grad school, I'm starting to feel less and less inclined to go into academia. Would you talk some more about career options for physics students outside of academia/pure research?
In many ways, I'm a lousy person to ask about this-- I went directly from college into physics grad school, with…
clock | August 15, 2008Welcome to the first experimental issue of the newest science blog carnival - Praxis. Why experimental? Because we still have to see where to set the boundaries. If it is "Life in Academia", then pretty much everything on science blogs is eligible and the effect is diluted. If we narrow it down to one topic, e.g., Open Access publishing, then there will not be sufficient posts and sufficient interest to keep the carnival alive. We'll have to define a happy middle. We want people to find each other here - folks that write about the business of science, about publishing and Science 2.0,…
pzminion | August 12, 2008Guest Blogger Danio:
Stand up and cheer for the academic standards at UC, and the LA Federal Judge whose ruling on accrediting courses taught in Christian schools upholds these standards.
A federal judge in Los Angeles has thrown out the remaining claims of Calvary Chapel Christian School, which sued the University of California alleging university officials rejected some courses for credit because of their Christian viewpoint.
What a bunch of sticklers those UC guys are! In order to qualify as an accepted college preparatory course, the UC standards require the course content to be largely…
evolvingthoughts | August 11, 2008
Steven ("Steve") Fuller is a well known sociologist of science (he began as a philosopher of science but is presently employed by the University of Warwick as a sociologist). He is widely credited for the subject and journal of Social Epistemology. He is also the guy who wrote several hundred pages of "expert" opinion for the creationists in the Dover Trial for money. Never one to waste work, he has revised it as a book. Save yourself the $20 and read Sahotra Sarkar's review in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. I particularly like the final sentences:
These excursions into fancy allow…
razib | August 11, 2008A few weeks ago I reread large portions of A Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics. There were several chapters near the end which focused a great deal on the men that Galton mentored; from his protege Karl Pearson to the eventual nemesis of the Galtonian tradition in biology, William Bateson. In particular, I was struck by the social and scientific dynamics of the first 10 years of the 20th century, when Mendelism broke onto the scene and slowly eroded the primacy of biometrical theories of inheritance. A deeper exploration of the topic can be found…
tqa | August 11, 2008
The initial phase of the California Creationist Lawsuit is over, and quality education is the decisive winner. Kevin Vicklund has Judge Otero's decision, as well as a very nice analysis of the ruling up over at his blog. If you've been following the case closely, you can probably jump right over there for the details. If you haven't been tracking the events closely, or want a quick review of the case, keep reading. I'm going to go over the history first, then I'll talk a bit about what Friday's decision means, and what is likely to happen with the case in the future.
The lawsuit (ACSI v.…
pzminion | August 7, 2008Hello Pharyngulites, Danio here in my second official stint as 'guest blogger'. Like MAJeff, I'm very honored that PZ tagged me for the task, and I hope not to disappoint.
A bit about me: I am a postdoctoral fellow at PZ's alma mater, the University of Oregon, working on zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism for studying hereditary deaf-blindness. I also have a broad interest in science education and science literacy, especially at the elementary and secondary school level, so I do a fair number of tours and demos for different student groups. I don't have as much time for more…
sa smith | August 6, 2008As I said in my chat with PZ on Blogging Heads, Im probably not the best person to talk to about the problems women face in science. Why? Meh, my parents have always encouraged me in the sciences (CONSTRUX WHOO!). They threw me on a bus, by myself, to Space Camp when I was 10. Aunts and uncles who live in The City would take me to museums and botanical gardens and state parks when Id visit them. I had great high school teachers and college professors for my science classes. Bossman has always made it perfectly clear that sexism against me is unacceptable, and to come to him if anything…
pharyngula | August 6, 2008Peter Wood has an interesting commentary in the Chronicle today. At least, it starts out well, but by the end it turns into a bit of a train wreck. The good part is a discussion of a growing deficiency in science and math training in the US. The usual ignorant reaction to this problem is to flog the students and demand more drill-and-practice in the classroom, more testing, incentives and punishments for the schools … the familiar Republican litany of No Child Left Behind, which treats the problem as a superficial one that can be corrected with more multiple-choice tests, or by marshaling…
catdynamics | August 6, 2008Academic term will start soon here, just in time for football season.
Enrollment is high, due to demographic and economic factors, but, with the slowly developing funding crunch, will the students actually show up and register?
Enrollment in institutions of higher education, in the US, is very high right now, due primarily to demographics- the echo of the baby boom is passing through the lucrative 18-22 phase - but also because of higher participation rate and because times are hard.
It is rational for people to defer entering the job market and take on the direct and opportunity cost of…