Posts filed under ‘Science’
The 300-pound Gorilla in the Room: University of Arizona Philosophy Class Selects The Invisible Gorilla
The University of Arizona has selected The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons as a required text for their Philosphy Department’s Logic & Critical Thinking Course. Based on the authors’ “Gorillas in Our Midst” study, The Invisible Gorilla highlights the work of Chabris and Simons, as well as other researchers, as they investigate attention, perception, memory, and reasoning. The authors ultimately show students how and why the perception of the mind is often at fault.
Both Chabris and Simons, have received PhDs from Harvard and Cornell respectively.
“A fascinating look at little-known illusions that greatly affect our daily lives…offers surprising insights into just how clueless we are about how our minds work and how we experience the world…Bound to have wide popular appeal.”—Kirkus Reviews
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University of Texas at San Antonio Students Release Inner Animal with The Age of Empathy
Roughly seventy-five students in the University of Texas at San Antonio’s anthropology department will soon be using Frans de Waal’s The Age of Empathy to investigate shifting human behavior. The book, which examines how empathy comes naturally to a great variety of creatures, including humans, studies social behaviors in animals, such as bonding, the herd instinct, the forming of trusting alliances, expressions of consolation, and conflict resolution. The author uses these findings to assert that, contrary to popular belief, human beings are not inherently selfish and can work together toward a more just society.
Click here to read an excerpt.
Click here to read previous posts about the book.
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A Hard Nut to Crack: Students to Uncover the Universe’s Mysteries with Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking’s The Universe in a Nutshell will be a core component of UVA’s Astronomy 1270: Unsolved Mysteries in the Universe course this upcoming fall. The approximately 140 students will augment classroom material on theoretical physics topics such as Quantum mechanics, General relativity and Black holes with content from the book. The students will ultimately follow Stephen Hawking’s attempt to explain the Theory of Everything, which studies the links between all physical phenomena.
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Complimentary Copies of Animal Wise by Virginia Morell Now Available
Random House Academic Marketing is currently giving away free copies of Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures by noted science writer Virginia Morell. The author challenges the standard behaviorist model and reconsiders the boundaries between humans and animals. Morell conveys to students laboratories and field sites around the globe, and introduces both scientists and animal-cognition researchers and their work. She articulates a nuanced understanding of the interior lives of animals, proposing moral and ethical ramifications for human-animal relationships.
Please email rhacademic@randomhouse.com with your name, college and course information to request a copy.
Animal Wise has received the following awards:
A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
An ALA 2014 Notable Book
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2013
A Scientific American Best Summer Science Book
“[A] delightful exploration of how animals think….Morell makes a fascinating, convincing case that even primitive animals give some thought to their actions.” –Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Educators: Free Advanced Reader Copies of Five Days at Memorial by Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Sheri Fink Now Available
Following Hurricane Katrina, physician and Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs five days at Memorial Medical Center and draws students into the lives of those who struggled to survive and to maintain life amidst chaos. Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, investigates the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing students into a conversation about the consequences and ethics of health care rationing. Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared Americans are for the impact of large-scale disasters.
Five Days at Memorial is scheduled for to be released on September 10th, 2013. Please email rhacademic@randomhouse.com with your name, college and course information to request a complimentary advanced reader copy.
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Kristen Iversen’s Full Body Burden Now Available in Paperback
Full Body Burden by Kristen Iversen, which was chosen one of the Best Books of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews and the American Library Association, as well as being named a 2012 Best Book about Justice by The Atlantic, is now available in paperback.
A finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, Iversen’s narrative nonfiction about growing up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant, has been adopted for Common Reading at Virginia Commonwealth University, St. Bonaventure University, Fort Lewis College, California State University at Sacramento, Madison Community College, and Michigan Tech University. Iversen was recently honored by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability in Washington, DC for outstanding contributions to communities living in the shadow of nuclear weapons sites and radioactive waste dumps.
Click here to view Kristen Iversen’s presentation at the 2013 FYE conference.
Click here to visit Kristen Iversen’s webpage.
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Now in Paperback, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Watch Susan Cain’s 2012 TED Talk at www.thepowerofintroverts.com
Science and psychology is beginning to recognize how dramatically the introvert-extrovert spectrum shapes culture every bit as profoundly as gender or race. In a new paradigm-shifting book, Quiet, author Susan Cain highlights how misunderstood and and undervalued introverts often are, and gives introverts the tools to take full advantage of their personalities, while showing extroverts how they can learn from them. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with stories of real people, Quiet shows why the world will depend on the strengths of introverts in the decades to come.
Quiet has been selected for common reading at Case Western Reserve University and is now being used in several courses at these following colleges:
Bucknell University; Colby-Sawyer College; Queens University Of Charlotte; University Of North Dakota Main Campus; University Of North Florida; and Wheaton College
Here is a Message from Susan Cain: (more…)
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