A question and answer session on whether Lavoisier made an agreement with the French mathematician, Comte Joseph-Louis Lagrange shortly before being beheaded that he would blink his eyes if he retained consciousness after being beheaded and that he was executed because of his revolutionary scientific views is described. The circumstances…

A discussion of poststructuralism may be helped by reflecting on the trajectory of ideas and practices that produced it. Structuralism as an intellectual movement has had a bad press and doubtless some of that is deserved. But structuralism was more diverse and creative, and structural analysis as a procedure in social science is more important,…

This article presents comments on "Realism, Instrumentalism, and Scientific Symbiosis: Psychological Theory as a Search for Truth and the Discovery of Solutions" by John T. Cacioppo, Gun R. Semin and Gary G. Berntson. While Lau admires the authors efforts to negotiate symbiosis with seemingly incommensurate realist and instrumentalist positions in…

The ability of the American nation to remain secure in the face of both traditional military threats and international terrorism while maintaining the excellence and pace of American science and technology requires a delicate balance. It depends first and foremost on effective dialogue and joint problem solving by those responsible for maintaining…

Barbara Wootton, a prominent British social scientist and educator of social workers, examined the status of social work in the 1950s. Wootton argued iconoclastically that the social work literature presented a profession that was arrogant and far removed from the common concerns of the populations served. In addition, Wootton felt that the social…

The publication in 1906 of Alexander Smith's "Introduction to general inorganic chemistry" inaugurated a decisive change in chemical pedagogy in the US, the effects of which are still evident. The nature and extent of Smith's innovations are described through a comparison of his text to its source material and contemporaries. His…

In 1897, long before the entertainment industry made Nashville famous with country music and the Grand Ole Opry, the city was known as the "Athens of the South," with numerous institutions of higher learning. A century later, four of Nashville's oldest universities have united to promote science education in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools…

Online, open access is the superior model for scholarly communication. A variety of scientific communities in physics, the life sciences and economics have gone furthest in innovating their scholarly communication through open access, enhancing accessibility for scientists, students and the interested public. Open access enjoys a comparative…

Neuroscience and cognitive science relating to education are hot topics. They receive extensive but simplified coverage in the mass media, and there is a booming business in "brain-booster" books and products, which claim to be based on the research. Eric Jensen advocates more collaboration among scientists from the full variety of disciplines…

Amy Bower is a physical oceanographer and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts--she has also been legally blind for 14 years. Through her partnership with the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, the oldest K-12 school for the visually impaired in the United States,…

We have undertaken an integrated and collaborative approach to developing foundational skills of students in a first year, Introductory Biology course. The course is a large lecture and laboratory course with enrollments ranging from 800-1000 per year. Teaching and Learning experts were brought into the course as weekly "Foundation Skills for…

A pervasive anti-statism often blinds us to the democratic victories in the past and thus to possibilities in our future. This article argues that big government can democratize society and uses historical investigation to make the point. The study of history emancipates us from the tyranny of the present. Progressive social change has come about…

The paper presents some of the current issues in library and information science education in general and in Greece in particular. It examines the forming of professional identity of information scientists in Greece today. These issues are considered in the context of the framework set by the European Union agreements for convergence and…

While it is a commonplace in the historiography of electricity that itinerant lecturers and instrument makers were "somehow" part of the "electrical flare" of the 18th century, very little is actually known about them, about their background, their careers and their self-understanding. Yet, research focusing on these…

We report on a partnership between a librarian and two other community college teachers (a humanist and a social scientist) working to establish "networked courses" that use the model and techniques of collaborative teaching and learning in an interdisciplinary setting. In this partnership--and, in fact, in any interdisciplinary context--the role…