The same wavelength: how language stimulates the brains of speakers and listeners in similar ways. Prof. Uri Hasson of Princeton, a philosophy undergraduate major, studies the complexity of understanding with imagination and magnetic resonance imaging. From the article: On average, the listener's brain responses mirrored the speaker's brain responses with some time delays. The delays [...]
Voices heard: humanities in the public media. How the arts of communication allow deeper and broader conversation. From the article: Eric Garcia McKinley [a History Ph.D.] will eventually try to engage with underrepresented communities, informing how Minnesota Public Radio’s journalists approach issues of identity and perspective. His academic background has prepared him for that job, something journalists [...]
From past stupidity to future intelligence: Stephen Hawking speaks, not without irony, about AI at the new Centre for the Future of Intelligence at Cambridge. From his remarks: We spend a great deal of time studying history, which, let’s face it, is mostly the history of stupidity. So it is a welcome change that people [...]
Adding to life, in physics or metaphysics: does the number of years constitute our goal, or the vitality of the years? Physicist: ... without getting out my microscope, I judge that life is a finer thing than death, and I award the golden apple to life, seeing them both with their clothes on. Metaphysician: And I [...]
STEM requires the humanities to grow: why learning classics along with coding is the best way forward. From the editorial: Promoting science and technology education to the exclusion of the humanities may seem like a good idea, but it is deeply misguided. Scientific American has always been an ardent supporter of teaching STEM: science, technology, engineering and [...]
From Greece to China, with kouros: the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an may have found their footing through Greek artisans who migrated to China, a hypothesis supported by genetic research. From the article: A separate study shows European-specific mitochondrial DNA has been found at sites in China's western-most Xinjiang Province, suggesting that Westerners may have settled, lived [...]
On science and the humanities, of and in the world: how closely related are the investigations of the sciences and the humanities? They may begin at a common origin, but they diverge and specialize with different aims in mind where world making is concerned. Science attempts to make a world that remains invariant across human [...]
Education is useless (or rather: is education useless?): a neighborly discussion about what’s worth learning, and where one should learn what's needed -- or useful -- for life. Crimpet: Hello, neighbor. Crumpet: Why are you so happy, Crimpet? You look like you won the office pool. Crimpet: Nothing as wonderful as that. But I’m glad to [...]
The 17th-C. plague in London: now we know. How DNA (and Daniel Defoe) reveal the killer bacteria's identity in one of history's longest cold cases. From the article: Testing in Germany confirmed the presence of DNA from the Yersinia pestis bacterium - the agent that causes bubonic plague - rather than another pathogen. Some authors have previously questioned the [...]
The language of numbers: how learning a language can become the model for acquiring the basics of engineering. From the article: Trying to reprogram my brain sometimes seemed like a ridiculous idea—especially when I looked at the fresh young faces of my younger classmates and realized that many of them had already dropped their hard math and [...]
