Historians of science have traditionally concentrated on the achievements of scientists in Western Europe and North America. The usual assumption was that one did not need to study scientific communities outside of a few key countries because they were presumed to be analogous to (though weaker than) scientific communities in the West. In general,…

The translation into French of the Encoded Archival Context (EAC) DTD tag library has been in progress for a few months. It is being carried out by a group of experts gathered by AFNOR, the French national standards agency. The main goal of this group is to foster the interoperability of authority data between archives, libraries and museums, and…

The February 2005 issue of The Science Teacher (TST) reminded everyone that by learning how scientists study stars, students gain an understanding of how science measures things that can not be set up in lab, either because they are too big, too far away, or happened in a very distant past. The authors of "How Far are the Stars?" show how the…

Robinson interviews Howard Wainer, a scientist, who graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1965 and Princeton in 1968 with degrees in mathematics and psychometrics, respectively. He taught at Temple University and The University of Chicago before moving to the Bureau of Social Science Research during the Carter Administration. Wainer…

This article highlights several programs at the National Academies that should be useful to educators in biology. These include works under the aegis of the National Academy of Sciences' Office on Public Understanding of Science, the National Academy of Engineering's (NAE's) ongoing work on improving technological literacy, and joint work by the…

In recent years, critics of the social studies have complained that instead of studying history, elementary and high school students take other social science courses, sex and health education, or driver training. Seeking to explain the origin of that supposed shift, many authors concentrate on the period from 1892 to 1937, arguing that it was…

While astronomy has recently re-emerged in many science curricula, there remain unresolved teaching and learning difficulties peculiar to astronomy education. This paper argues that mental model building, the core process in astronomy itself, should be reflected in astronomy education. Also, this crucial skill may promote a better understanding of…

During three series of molecular genetics experiments, our students engage in ungraded discussions of research articles related to their experiments. The research articles are selected less for their relevance to students' laboratory experience than for their focus on experimental design and the clarity of data presentation. By discussing these…

This article analyses the early careers of young scientists in France. Since training and early career management are designed to cater almost exclusively for an academic career, a substantial proportion of PhDs lack support to design their training in relation to the job they will look for after graduation. Even if most young scientists manage to…

The term "deep map" is the invention of writer William Least Heat-Moon, whose extended essay "PrairyErth (a deep map)" has given definition to this form. Deep-map writing is marked by its intertextual, interdisciplinary, and multivocal nature. It is also self-consciously cartographic, presenting maps, following maps, and redrawing maps. Deep…

Previous research on the relationship between age and creativity has shown that career age, rather than chronological age, correlates best with longitudinal changes in creative productivity. Recently, Dietrich (2004) proposed a new theoretical framework that integrates cognitive neuroscience with the findings of creativity research. By identifying…

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of developments in use of the Internet by science student-teachers on Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) courses in five higher education institution-school partnerships in England. These are 1-year, full-time, teacher training courses for graduate scientists. The aim of the research was to…

Scientists often have to observe and study surfaces that are impossible or impractical to see directly, such as the ocean floor or the atomic surfaces of objects. Early in the history of oceanography scientists dropped weighted cables to the bottom of the ocean. By moving across the ocean at regular intervals and keeping track of how deep the…

At the start of their first semester, 35 college freshmen were given an interview probing (a) their differentiation of scientists' ideas from evidence, and hypotheses from theories; (b) their understanding of the inherent uncertainty of scientific knowledge; and (c) their reasoning about scientific controversies. The most common responses were in…

Stories can be a valuable tool for the career researcher. Questions arise, though, about how best to approach stories analytically such that their insights can be fully realised. In this paper I apply cultural theorist Raymond Williams' analysis of cultural processes as dominant, residual and emergent (1977) to the narratives generated in a recent…