Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google along with Larry Page, was photographed recently on the New York subway wearing Google Glass, the company’s latest offering to augment your mind. But will our minds be truly augmented? The Google Glass “glasses”, if connected to Wi-Fi, show information on a screen about what the user is seeing – […] … learn more→

The 2012 China Ecological Footprint Report has highlighted the cost to biodiversity of China’s rapid economic development. Biodiversity in China is under pressure because of loss of habitat. In our study area on the upper Yangtze River, this is exacerbated by a series of proposed dams. Four large hydro-electricity schemes, each involving the construction of […] … learn more→

So, I’m teaching this course on the rather absurdly broad topic of books and culture in which we explore personal reading tastes and experiences, dabble in the history of books and libraries, learn a bit about the book industry, and try our hand at book design and other approaches to thinking about books. It’s not […] … learn more→

I don’t know if I’m just the fluky exception or if this is indicative of a larger truth, but I don’t Google job candidates. I hadn’t really thought about it until the MLA conference. In the course of discussion there, someone who’s on the market talked about what hiring committees find when they Google her. […] … learn more→

There has been enormous uncertainty amongst the scientific community on just how many species there are on Earth and how rapidly we are losing them through extinction. Given that taxonomists have described roughly 1.5 million species, estimates that there might be 30 million or even 100 million species on Earth might suggest to some that […] … learn more→

The economic profession lacks a unified theory of economic growth. Textbooks and academic journals contain a plethora of models and paradigms which generate different (and sometimes contradictory) predictions about the mechanics of the growth process. Amid this intellectual confusion, an element in common to the bulk of modern growth models from Solow’s neoclassical growth theory […] … learn more→

Educators create online courses for the same reasons that they became teachers to begin with: to educate students, broaden their awareness of the world and thereby improve the students’ lives. And with massive open online courses (MOOCs), educators can now reach many more students at a time. But MOOCs offer many other benefits to the […] … learn more→

Did you know people who like mayonnaise are more likely to be good dancers? As my undergraduate research methods students are taught, correlation does not equal causation. This, and other, foundational concepts of sound methodological practice are not always adhered to by some researchers working on behalf of the National Association of Scholars. I haven’t […] … learn more→

Tired of sending out resumes and never hearing back? Maybe it\’s time to try a new approach. Check out these five unusual methods to landing an interview: Start an online campaign Remember Matthew Epstein, the man behind the “Google, please hire me” online campaign? His premise was simple: create buzz and draw attention to himself. […] … learn more→

This year, America will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, a presidential decree that effectively abolished slavery in all states in rebellion during the Civil War. The anniversary will be marked with a series of conferences, speeches, and publications in the academic world. However, the significance of this event has been somewhat […] … learn more→