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 from Amazon (including Kindle), 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. The book is also available on Amazon Kindle.
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. The book is also available on Amazon Kindle.
Editorial
“Focusing on interdisciplinary teams instead of interdisciplinary people reinforces standard disciplinary boundaries rather than breaking them down.” In thinking about people rather than projects, Sean Eddy introduces the idea of “Antedisciplinary Science” – the science that precedes the organization of new disciplines and is inhabited by individual scientists who have crossed borders into other disciplines, an innovation which merits encouragement.
In “A Wee Lesson in Science Communication”, Emma King describes her time as a Ph. D. student taking part in the Science Communication programme at Edinburgh University, Scotland. This course is offered to doctoral students and, according to King, is of benefit not only to graduate students taking the course but also to those who benefit from the events and activities that arise out of the module.
In “There and not there: Human relationships with technology”, Margaret Lloyd highlights the “reality to being online which we know to be false.” This movement between physical and virtual spaces renders technology transparent. From mobile phones to The Matrix, Lloyd analyses the history of relationships between man and machine as the virtual world encroaches more and more on the physical world.
Moving on from the “deficit model” of the Public Understanding of Science (PUS), where scientists “fill” the gap in knowledge of ordinary citizens, Charalambos Tsekeris and Ioannis Katerelos describe the social and political changes that have led to the importance of accountability and transparency in science. “Reconsidering the Understanding of Technoscientific Knowledge” reflects on the move within PUS beyond public engagement and participation to a “critical broadening” of science and technology studies to the social, economic and political spheres.
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
“Antedisciplinary” Science, Sean Eddy
A Wee Lesson in Science Communication, Emma King