Blogs

Several years ago, I found myself at Cleveland, Ohio’s own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One of my fellow visitors pointed out an exhibit that showed a report card from John Lennon. It seems that John Lennon had a difficult time with math, which surprised us. We had both always thought that math and music went hand in hand, that learning music would help one excel in math, and that mathematical talent would help one learn a musical instrument. I thought of this recently when I observed my daughter’s Christmas concert, performed by all the students at her school who are taking lessons to learn to play a band instrument.

For years, I've used the metaphor of lifestyle diseases -- obesity, diabetes, heart disease -- to help students understand that seemingly desirable behaviors, when taken to excess, can lead to negative and entirely unintended consequences. Eat too much, enjoy too much leisure, degrade a system -- your body -- that evolved to prosper under circumstances of scarce food and regular exertion. As a metaphor, it's served to help students understand that seemingly desirable social behaviors like production, consumption and energy (particularly, fossil energy) utilization can degrade a climate system that served humanity well under circumstances of minimal resource utilization and long-term carbon (coal, oil) sequestration.

How might institutions that focus on science and engineering provide a more blended education that provides opportunities for students to study and apply what they have learned outside the sciences?

Are you Charlie Bucket enough to get the job?

My colleague from São Paulo, Fredric Litto, offers insight and counsel for those interested in exploring academic opportunities and partnerships in Brazil.

Legislators are masters of compartmentalizing. This law addresses this, and that law addresses that. And much of the time, it’s possible to construct a reasonable argument for a particular decision, taken in complete isolation.

Where I suggest something revolutionary, radical, and probably completely naive. So what else is new?

Sweet Tooth is my favorite novel of 2012. Ian McEwan's story of literature meets spies is at once completely original and totally engrossing.