Mindboggling: Preliminaries to a science of the mind by Roy Harris. Do you have a mind? Answers to this question have divided Western thinkers for centuries, and still do. Mindboggling sets out to identify a nucleus of basic issues about the mind, and present the main arguments for and against in each case. Targeted to a lay readership, each chapter discusses a different theory, myth or idea about the mind. Anticipate wails from theorists whose theories have been given short shrift. Mindboggling is available on Amazon, from Bookshops or direct from Publishers.
Science on Television by Bienvenido León.
The book is a clear and systematic guide to the narrative and rhetorical techniques used by science documentary filmmakers. The book is priced at £18.50, but for direct orders we are offering a 20% discount.
Motivating Science is a collection of articles from the first five years of The Pantaneto Forum. We are offering a 20% discount for direct orders.
Editorial
In “Communicating concern via TV; Our view of Nature”, Jeffrey Thomas describes the use of the David Attenborough television series The Life of Mammals as the core for an introductory science course – Studying Mammals for the Open University. Thomas carried out a survey of students who took the course and found that though the programmes were effective in helping students to understand the subject, there was a tendency for teleological preconceptions – of seeing Nature as progressive or directional – to become entrenched.
Exploration of the connection between Art and Science by way of museum exhibitions is an effective way to promote and communicate science to the public. In “Art and Science at an Exhibition: much more than simply Pictures”, Sergio de Régules describes an exhibition created by the Universum Science Museum and the Mexican National Institute of Fine Arts. The exhibition is deliberately designed to keep text to a minimum in order to concentrate on stimulating visitors to read “between the lines” and make connections between Art and Science at the aesthetic level.
There are many examples of science in the theatre from Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo (1937-39) to Tom Stoppard’s Hapgood (1988), to name just two. In “Geophysics on Stage: bringing Earth into scene. The Ingv Science Theatre experiences”, Tiziana Lanza et al describe an innovative project to use the theatre as a science education tool for students.
The proceedings of the Science Matters conference, which we reported in Issue 28, October 2007, have been published and are available from the publishers – World Scientific.
Nigel Sanitt Editor
ISSN 1741-1572
Contents
Articles
Communicating concern via TV; Our view of Nature, Jeffrey N. Thomas
Art and Science at an Exhibition: much more than simply Pictures, Sergio de Régules