Column
- Humans
It’s time to reform work hours for resident physicians
A Harvard Medical School physician and sleep researcher says rules should be changed to make sure physicians-in-training get the sleep they need.
-
Looking for a change on climate policy in Copenhagen
A Q&A with Richard A. Bradley.
-
From baby scientists to a science of social learning
Developmental psychologist Andrew Meltzoff codirects the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. In the July 17 Science , Meltzoff and his colleagues published a paper titled “Foundations for a New Science of Learning.” Meltzoff recently spoke with Science News writer Bruce Bower. What does the science of learning […]
-
A place removed from ‘the pressure of received ideas’
Murray Gell-Mann, winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on elementary particles (see Page 24 in this issue), was one of the originators of the Santa Fe Institute, an interdisciplinary research center in New Mexico that is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Gell-Mann recently addressed a group of about 150 […]
-
Balancing gains and threats in cardiovascular care
Clyde W. Yancy, a cardiologist and medical director of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute in Dallas, became national president of the American Heart Association on July 1. He recently spoke with Science News writer Nathan Seppa. Dramatic gains in cardiovascular care in the United States risk being negated by an epidemic of obesity, diabetes […]
-
Tackling toxicology and environmental health
In January, toxicologist Linda S. Birnbaum became director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, home to the National Toxicology Program, in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Birnbaum recently spoke with Science News writer Rachel Ehrenberg. What areas would you like to see the institute zoom in on? LINDA S. BIRNBAUM “If I see hundreds […]
-
Accept it: Talk about evolution needs to evolve
W atch your language! It’s a common message from Eugenie Scott, a physical anthropologist and director of the National Center for Science Education (www.ncseweb.org), an organization dedicated to promoting and defending the teaching of evolution in public schools. Scott recently spoke with Science News writer Susan Milius. So you urge scientists not to say that […]
-
Five problems in physics without the definite article
In a 2006 book that garnered much press for its silly attacks on string theory, author and physicist Lee Smolin provides a list of “The Five Great Problems in Theoretical Physics.” There are many offensive things about this list, starting with the use of the definite article in the title, which implies that people not […]
-
Intel ISEF Discussion Panel
Nobelists to students: Being wrong may be just right.
-
Professional Science Master’s is 21st century MBA
One hundred years ago (in 1908), a group of higher educators launched a new professional master’s degree called the MBA. Their aim: to meet the anticipated needs of 20th century business, which would be characterized, they thought, not by product specialty but by bigness. Today, MBA programs graduate about 90,000 students per year and are […]
-
Quest for energy efficiency needs public engagement
On April 14, the National Science Board released a draft report called “Building a Sustainable Energy Future,” offering advice on how the United States can transition to renewable and clean sources of energy. Dan Arvizu, the cochairman of the board’s task force on sustainable energy and director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, […]
-
Enjoy the indelible experience of emulating Galileo
I was tickled when Rick Fienberg, then editor of Sky & Telescope magazine, stood up at a special session at the August 2006 meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, grabbed the microphone and proclaimed that every person on Earth should look at the night sky through a telescope in 2009, as Galileo did […]
