Biology in the News Explained

“Number sense” and math ability: what assumptions drive the science?

Media reporting of new paper wrongly implies that it shows that mathematical ability is based on how good our inborn "number sense" is.

More PowerPoint means less brain power

It's always been easy to ridicule the use of PowerPoint in academia, but the current implications of its ubiquitous use could turn out to be serious.

Carnival round-up

Carnivals on education, politics, opinions, and science are all out, with some posts by Bioblog.

Sociobiology shows us why racial integration is so hard, and so important

We need to keep making an effort to interact with people not like us, because if we do not, our social brains easily fall into the trap of demonizing them. School integration is still an obvious way to do this.

Changing the cancer culture

There might just be finally enough data about cancer screening to tip the balance toward a more intelligent and nuanced way of looking at cancer.

The irrational roots of resistance to change

Resistance to change is a standard human response, and thus ubiquitous for organizations, but is usually based on irrational reasoning. (Continued from Part 1.)

We won’t fix math education without fixing math stigma

Americans lag behind other countries in math ability for one simple reason that all the government commissions in the world won't solve — because in America, it's cool to hate math.

Adapt public education to individuals, not demographics

Those obsessed with imagined (and completely unsubstantiated) gender differences in learning are threatening our educational system by integrating blatant sexism into it.

Do we have too many ‘liberal’ professors?

The argument that university faculty are indoctrinating students in left-wing ideology due to liberal bias is nothing but a straw man.

It’s not about genetics

Review of the book "Who's Afraid of Marie Curie?: The Challenges Facing Women in Science and Technology."

Jeni Fleming Trio – Minimalist Jazz

A 2007 review of the Bozeman, Montana-based jazz trio, the Jeni Fleming Trio.

Why the public doesn’t get science

We can't expect the public to be scientifically literate as long as scientists remain poor communicators.