How do new things come about in biology? Darwin’s theory of natural selection explains what happens once innovations arise—to preserve and propagate those adaptations that are helpful. But it doesn’t tell us how those innovations come to be in the first place. In the absence of a good explanation, we’ve defaulted to attributing evolutionary change […]
After World War II the United States faced two preeminent challenges: how to administer its responsibilities abroad as the world’s strongest power, and how to manage the rising movement at home for racial justice and civil rights. The effort to contain the growing influence of the Soviet Union resulted in the Cold War, a conflict […]
Of all the areas ripest for disruption by big data, learning is among the biggest — and most lucrative. Online access to education is getting a lot of ink. But the far more significant story is what’s happening below the surface that hasn’t received much attention: how data is being used to identify what works, […]
“Every stone wall is unique and every stone tells a story,” says Robert M. Thorson, the author of this field guide to historic New England stone walls. Exploring Stone Walls is like being in Thorson’s geology classroom, as he presents the many clues that allow you to determine any wall’s history, age, and purpose. Thorson highlights […]
Cynthia A. Kierner is Professor of History at George Mason University, where she teaches early American and women’s history. She is the author of six books, among them Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times, published by the University of North Carolina Press. The book was awarded the 2013 Julia Cherry Spruill Prize from […]
Katherine S. Newman is the senior vice president for academic affairs for the University of Massachusetts system. A noted sociologist and widely published expert on poverty and the working poor, Professor Newman previously was Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at UMass Amherst. She came to the University of Massachusetts from the Johns […]
Kathryn Edin is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She is the author of several widely praised and award-winning books including, most recently, $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, which was written with H. Luke Shaefer and was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The book was awarded the Hillman Prize […]
A developmental and clinical psychologist, Ed Tronick co-founded the Child Development Unit at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Touchpoints Program with T. Berry Brazelton. He is currently a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and a Research Associate in Newborn Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The YouTube video of the […]
As a backyard naturalist and river enthusiast, Henry David Thoreau was keenly aware of the way humans had altered the waterways and meadows of his beloved Concord River Valley. And he recognized that he himself―a land surveyor by trade―was complicit in these transformations. In The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years, Robert Thorson narrates Thoreau’s progress […]
We’ve all been taught that through biological inheritance we acquire traits from our parents and grandparents as a result of the individual genes that they pass along to us, unchanged, barring rare mutations. But what if your grandmother’s diet could affect your health? Obviously if we accept that inherited = genetic, this doesn’t make sense. […]
The second world war would see an unlikely band of librarians, archivists, and scholars travel abroad to aid the Allies’ cause. Galvanized by the events of the war into acquiring and preserving the written word, as well as provide critical information for intelligence purposes, they set off on missions to collect foreign publications and information […]
In November 1977 more than thirty-five thousand people came to Houston, Texas. Twenty thousand visitors – mainly women – were there to celebrate the first and only national women’s conference to be sponsored by the federal government, and to endorse an agenda for women’s issues that would guide law and policy for the next decade. […]
Shannon K. O’Neil is the vice president, deputy director of studies, and Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America Studies. She is an expert on Latin America, U.S.-Mexico relations, global trade, corruption, democracy, and immigration. She directed CFR’s Independent Task Force on North America: Time for a New Focus, as well as the Independent Task […]
A leading researcher in mood studies, Jonathan Rottenberg has pioneered efforts to integrate the basic science of emotion with the study of psychopathology. He received his PhD degree from Stanford University and currently is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida. At USF, he is Director of the Mood and Emotion Laboratory, where […]
Doc Searls is a writer, speaker and consultant on topics that arise where technology and business meet. In 1978, he was a co-founder of Hodskins Simone and Searls, which became one of Silicon Valley’s leading advertising and public relations agencies. He has been a fellow with the Center for Information Technology and Society (CITS) at […]
Denise Herzing has been studying dolphin communication in the wild since 1985, when she founded the Wild Dolphin Project and began her unprecedented, long-term study of Atlantic spotted dolphins in the Bahamas. She received her Ph.D. in Behavioral Biology and Environmental Studies from the Union Institute Graduate School and is currently a professor in biological […]