online archive

Academia and science

From The Chronicle of Higher Education, Decline and fall: Two loyal Antioch alumni dreamed of returning to their college town. But when they did, they saw up close an institution in its ugly death throes; the battle over Jacques Derrida's papers began even before the philosopher died. It ended in victory for his family — and a black eye for the University of California at Irvine; The Purloined Bibliography: An assistant professor discovers that some major scholars have plagiarized his online work; the latest way to discriminate against women: In our litigious era, one group that's not suing colleges for discrimination would have a remarkably good case; and the Athletics Department of the Future: More academic tie-ins. Increased accountability. Less down time. Welcome to college sports, circa 2017.

Oxford University staff are logging on to Facebook and using evidence they find on student profiles to discipline students. Trans-Atlantic Rift: British academics' threat to boycott Israel perplexes American colleagues. In an urgent effort to save a critical mass of scholars unlike any initiative undertaken since World War II, the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund is finalizing plans to rescue hundreds of Iraqi professors beginning in the coming months.

From CT, a review of Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools by Karen M. Johnson-Weiner. Will conservatives leave education reform behind? At an American Enterprise Institute event, conservatives considered whether to throw their support behind reforming No Child Left Behind, or let the law continue to hobble along as an unfunded mandate. Professors in Colorado receive death threats for teaching evolution. Sexual selection, plumes and plumage: How the industrial accident in Chernobyl has helped evolutionary theory.

A review of Law and the Brain. Research finds culture influences brain cells: Brain's mirror neurons swayed by ethnicity and culture. From Scientific American, Race in a Bottle: Drugmakers are eager to develop medicines targeted at ethnic groups, but so far they have made poor choices based on unsound science. Erasing Memories: New research shows that people can learn to suppress memories. It also suggests new avenues for treating post-traumatic stress disorder. Spite is a uniquely human emotion: Experiments show that even our closest relatives, chimpanzees, are not capable of being spiteful – raising questions about altruism too. Funny, I Only Like Him When He’s Upwind: Surreptitious odors may be the key to wild and sexy behavior in fruit flies, mice, and people.