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David Dobbs on science, nature, and culture.
I write on science, medicine, nature, culture and other matters for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, National Geographic, Scientific American Mind, and other publications. (Find clips here.) Right now I'm writing my fourth book, The Orchid and the Dandelion, which explores the hypothesis that the genetic roots some of our worst problems and traits — depresison, hyperaggression, violence, antisocial behavior — can also give rise to resilience, cooperation, empathy, and contentment. The book expands on my December 2009 Atlantic article exploring these ideas.
I've also written three books, including Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral, which traces the strangest but most forgotten controversy in Darwin's career — an elemental dispute running some 75 years.
If you'd like, you can subscribe to Neuron Culture by email. You might also want to see more of my work at my main website or check out my Tumblr log.
Category: Culture of science
The balloon rises wonderfully, they're getting signals from the GPS and the camera indicating all is in good order ... and then, with the camera and rig well out of sight, the batteries on their laptops start to run out and they have to switch to another laptop: "...but the surprise was great: the Google Earth not working!"
Posted by David Dobbs at 11:01 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
If the argument that there's no way to systematically evaluate teachers -- that only the teacher's fellow teachers really know -- ever held water, it doesn't now. Education wonks have developed a number of ways to reliably measure efffectiveness The idea that it can't be, and that we shouldn't try, is unacceptable and unworkable.
Posted by David Dobbs at 12:44 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Healthcare policy
Among others: "Primates on Facebook" -- "Even online, the neocortex is the limit" to how many people we can really have as friends.
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:47 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
Is this working? Jefrey Mervis brings the word from Science ($): U.S. students using educational software do no better...
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:35 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
A blithe acceptance of clear problems and excessive costs; a constant return to what happy highlights our overspending produces; blindness to how the system's weaknesses compromise our international competitiveness and our children's future Our school system lately looks increasingly like our health-care system.
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:58 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture of science
My Darwin talk at Dartmouth on Thursday went well, and while there I had the privilege of meeting with editors...
Posted by David Dobbs at 5:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
This seems to me a sharp-eyed take. Obama's effort to be post-partisan, as it were, is not merely an attempt to split differences or accommodate both sides of an argument. He seeks to change the terms of the argument, just as he did in both the primary and general elections.
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:48 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
The Washington Post, in a story fairly typical of other coverage, says that Obama's pick for Secretary of Education will "reach out to unions, school reform gorups" and "bridge the divides among education advocates, teachers unions and civil rights groups over how to fix America's school." Or as another syndicated WaPo story put it, "Duncan is embraced by the teachers unions, which have been concerned about high-stakes testing and worry about merit pay being tied to test scores, as well as reformers, who favor charter schools and tougher standards." Apparently at least some from the teachers'-union end of this debate are offering an embrace not exactly friendly:
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:48 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
A teacher in West Virginia rallied her students to fight to keep the right to recycle -- presumably for the civic (and eco) learning experience. John Tierney argues she's missing a better teaching opportunity:
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:44 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Culture of science
From The Great Beyond Far East top in science subjects Researchers in the US have released the latest figures...
Posted by David Dobbs at 2:33 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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