Science Education & Policy

Piaget Enhanced- Kids And What It Means To Be Alive Shaped By Language

Jean Piaget, founder of genetic epistemology and key researcher in child development psychology, showed that kids attribute “life status” to all things that move on their own, like bikes or clouds, and even 10-year-olds have difficulty understanding the na ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 28 2008 - 12:25pm

Florida, Critical Thinking And Evolution

Here we go again, just this morning the Florida House of Representatives passed a bill that directs teachers to engage in “critical analysis” of evolution in public schools. The bill’s chief sponsor, Republican Alan Hays of Umatilla, says that evolution “ ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Apr 30 2008 - 6:20am

Whose Genome?

The term "genome" is oft-heard but seldom defined, and indeed has more than one meaning. Little wonder, then, that discussions about genome sequences and comparisons thereof can leave otherwise interested audiences more frustrated than enlightene ...

Article - T. Ryan Gregory - Apr 30 2008 - 7:31am

Revising Research Ethics In Developing Countries

Biomedical research in developing countries is the kind of ethical condundrum we all think about. On one hand, infectious diseases may cause up to half of all deaths in undeveloped nations(1), so no one needs advanced treatments more. On the other hand, th ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 1 2008 - 12:46am

Phylogenetic Fallacies: Branching From A Main Line

In Phylogenetic Fallacies: Early Branching Must Mean Primitive I focused on the misconception that an "early branching" lineage was necessarily "primitive" (i.e., very similar to a distant ancestor). This time, I want to discuss someth ...

Article - T. Ryan Gregory - May 1 2008 - 9:37am

The Trade-Offs In Using Charcoal As A Carbon Sink

There has been greatly increasing attention given to the potential of ‘biochar’, or charcoal made from biological tissues (e.g., wood) to serve as a long term sink of carbon in the soil. This is because charcoal is carbon-rich and breaks down extremely slo ...

Article - News Staff - May 1 2008 - 11:00pm

Should NSU Biology Professor Steven Aird Lose His Job For Having Standards?

"No Child Left Behind" is controversial because it pointed out something everyone knows but the people being blamed didn't actually like hearing- education in the US was not all that great at the lower levels. No Child Left Behind doesn' ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Nov 5 2011 - 12:25pm

X2 Project

I was asked by the Institute for the Future to highlight a dozen "Signals" that may point to new trends in science as part of the X2 Project: Today, science is entering another period of accelerated change, thanks to the growth of the Internet an ...

Article - Jean-Claude Bradley - May 5 2008 - 2:16pm

Terrorist Websites In The US And Canada- True Danger Or Way To Monitor Activity?

If you use one of America’s top internet service providers, you may share server space with an organization that enables worldwide terrorism, says a new study by Tel Aviv University. The findings were presented in Berlin to a closed audience of high-rankin ...

Article - News Staff - May 5 2008 - 5:24pm

Hookahs A Growing Health Problem- Study

More and more U.S. college students are smoking tobacco using hookahs, a kind of water pipe, and it’s becoming a growing public health issue, according to a new study led by a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher. In a hookah, tobacco is heated by c ...

Article - News Staff - May 6 2008 - 12:59pm