Tag Archives: literacy

What you don’t know about the Boston Tea Party

Sometimes we approach history with doubt, especially when it comes to stories about Native Americans. In grade school I heard North America was largely unpopulated until settlers arrived: a story quite different than the ones my relatives told. Reading about … Continue reading

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Mind Different from Brain?

Consider the mind, rather than the brain. I asked readers in the last blog to think about the mind rather than the brain because Samuel Morton’s skull measurements in the 1860s asserted that American Indians have smaller skulls, hence smaller … Continue reading

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Nip and Tuck for Your Brain

You can get a prescription to enhance your libido and lengthen your eyelashes, so why not a pill to help your memory? That’s the discussion around our dinner table: should doctors prescribe drugs that could improve cognitive skills?

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Coffee

I love the science section published each Tuesday in the New York Times. And I hate it, too. A delicious story emerged this week about folks who live on the island of Ikaria, off the mainland of Greece.

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Spam, Spam Spam

I am as well cheerful to share my familiarity. That’s what the message says. When I created my blog the designer—Melissa Shavlik—set up the communication so I would hear from readers.

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Making Memories

Exploring how we invent stories—and then stick to them—confounds journalists and scientists alike: how can we separate fictions from fact? I am keenly interested in how we make decisions—especially decisions built on information we gather from media that affect how … Continue reading

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Not Quite, Sherlock

We teach students to be critical—to look beyond the obvious. Question assumptions. Just like Sherlock Holmes, whose exploits are finding new audiences in 2013, we should look beyond the surface.

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I’m Not a Monkey

There’s a delicate balance between teaching and learning; between giving instruction and taking over the task. And it takes a nimble soul to figure out when to let someone falter or fail. A student sent an email recently to make … Continue reading

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Defining Race

The conversation turned to race. My talk Wednesday at the Newberry focussed on Native and scientific perspectives, particularly over Kennewick Man–the 9300-year-old skeleton discovered in the Columbia River. During the question and answer session one guest asked if Kennewick Man … Continue reading

Posted in american indian, authenticity, ethics, Family, framing, human origin, Indian, journalism, Kennewick Man, native american, Native Science, news bias, repatriation, science, science communication, Uncategorized, writing | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Science Censored

Imagine you could cure a disease but the government refused to allow you to study the data. That’s what happened at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) according to the latest issue of Scientific American. The CDC … Continue reading

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