On Being Blog
Put an astrobiologist and a mechanical engineer on the same stage and what do you get? One heck of an exciting conversation about how quantum physics realm holds sway and plays a pivotal role in our everyday experiences — in everything from bird navigation to our sense of smell.
We have a producer on the ground at the World Science Festival who will be live-tweeting the conversation with Paul Davies and Seth Lloyd from The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. Watch the live video stream with us and share your takeaways from this panel, and if you’d like to hear one of them interviewed for On Being. The event starts at 8pm Eastern.
“Science can be a great ambassador. We don’t have a political agenda. We have a passion for discovery….You are the future of research.”
These were some of the closing words from geneticist Elaine Fuchs who addressed high school students live and online around the world today as part of the World Science Festival’s annual Pioneers in Science event. Kids from NYC, Chicago, South Virginia Beach, and Afghanistan engaged Fuchs with smart questions about working in the politicized field of stem cell research, about the future progress for stem cell therapies, and about how being a female scientist has impacted her work and her perspective. “There have always been more women interested in the life sciences areas of science…I didn’t feel pushed into one field or the other because of my gender.”
Fuchs emphasized the importance of support for and work in researching basic science that helps pave the way for new discoveries. She also emphasized that her ongoing passion for her work is what breaks barriers, and that students should focus on what they are passionate about. “The way along the road to discovery is long. The ability to persist in times of failure, not success, is key.” Given the many students in the room who sought her autograph after the event, and even a few hugs, she succeeded in inspiring some young minds and hearts.
—Alfred North Whitehead from Modes of Thought.
Photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video. (Taken with instagram)
What’s the line between utter brilliance and incalculable madness? Maybe it’s not a line but a shifting spectrum. Live from the World Science Festival (8pm Eastern), leading researchers discuss new studies showing that people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia tend to possess higher creativity and intelligence.
We’ve got a producer on the ground scoping out the panelists — James Fallon, Kay Redfield Jamison, Susan McKeown, and Elyn Saks — as potential guests for On Being. Watch the live video stream and share your suggestions on whom you’d like to hear on our program.
—Timothy Noah, from his post “Religion and Mobility” on The New Republic site.
You might want to read Richard Florida’s piece on The Atlantic Cities first and then follow it up with Noah’s reaction. Both are well worth reading and may lead you down all types of paths depending on your experiences and where you live, or have lived.
“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”
—Helen Keller from The Story of My Life with Her Letters
Photo by Florian Knorn (distributed with instagram)
This week’s show with physicist Janna Levin spends a great deal of time discussing her novel about Alan Turing. Tonight, Ms. Levin is helping launch a short film about the legacy of the computer scientist and code breaker called The Creator, which makes its world premiere at the World Science Festival:
“[it] follows sentient computers from the future on a mystical odyssey to discover their creator: legendary computer scientist Alan Turing. Decades ago, Turing famously asked, ‘Can machines think?’ and ever since, the notion of computers exceeding human intelligence has transfixed researchers and popular culture alike.”
Photo by Pedro Figueiredo/Flickr, cc by-nc-nd 2.0
Moving beyond the debate of whether Facebook or other Internet use causes depression, researchers at Missouri University Institute of Science and Technology found that students who show signs of depression clearly have different patterns of Internet use. These students are more likely to share large files, send email, and chat online. Also, they are more likely to switch from application to application in a random manner, which is thought to reflect a difficulty with concentrating, and is one marker of depression.
Researchers hope this data can be used someday to help diagnose mental disorders by unobtrusively monitoring and analyzing the Internet behavior of a wider population. It may even alert the user when their usage starts to reflect a depressive pattern.
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The poet Christian Wiman is giving voice to the hunger for faith — and the challenges of faith — for people living now. After a Texas upbringing soaked in a history of violence and a charismatic Christian culture, he was agnostic until he became actively religious again in his late 30s. Then he was diagnosed with a rare form of incurable blood cancer. He's bearing witness to something new happening in himself and in the world.
Disruption is around every corner by way of globally connected economies, inevitable superstorms, and technology’s endless reinvention. But most of us were born into a culture which aspired to solve all problems. How do we support people and create systems that know how to recover, persist, and even thrive in the face of change? Andrew Zolli introduces "resilience thinking," a new generation’s wisdom for a world of constant change.
The best way to nurture children's inner lives, Sylvia Boorstein says, is by taking care of our own inner selves for their sake. At a public event in suburban Detroit, Krista Tippett draws out the warmth and wisdom of the celebrated Jewish-Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist. And, in a light-hearted moment that is an audience pleaser, Boorstein shares what GPS might teach us about "recalculating" and our own inner equanimity.
How do we prime our brains to take the meandering mental paths necessary for creativity? New techniques of brain imaging, Rex Jung says, are helping us gain a whole new view on the differences between intelligence, creativity, and personality. He unsettles some old assumptions — and suggests some new connections between creativity and family life, creativity and aging, and creativity and purpose.
An enchanting hour of poetry drawing on the ways family and religion shape our lives. Marie Howe works and plays with her Catholic upbringing, the universal drama of family, and the ordinary time that sustains us. The moral life, she says, is lived out in what we say as much as what we do — and so words have a power to save us.
