Recently I wrote about a webinar with Francis Su in which he discussed his career and the wisdom he has shared with students and peers. He mentioned the idea of finding the levers in your field, the opportunities to effect change. Last week, NIH Director and BioLogos founder Francis Collins announced that he would no longer accept invitations to conferences with all-male panels. Even though it will likely require minimal effort on his part, given his position he can likely apply significant leverage with a decision like … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Finding the Levers in Biomedicine
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Science Corner: The Prizes are in Bloom
Last fall I wrote about the Abel Prize ceremony because I was intrigued by the maze constructed for the occasion. I didn't intend to cover every winner, but I thought that Karen Uhlenbeck becoming the first woman to receive the honor warranted attention. Her work laid the foundation for a whole new branch of mathematics--geometric analysis--and she also provided critical tools to mathematical physicists for working with the Yang-Mills equations, which are central to the Standard Model of particle physics. Beyond her … [Read more...] about Science Corner: The Prizes are in Bloom
People of Color, Outward Appearances, and Academia: Lessons from 80s Pop Culture
In the late 1980s, there was a popular television show called 21 Jump Street. Johnny Depp and friends portrayed cops in their twenties. Because they were too young looking to be taken seriously, they went undercover in high schools to take down drug dealers, gangs, etc. By today's standards, the show was painfully bad—a guilty pleasure which few people will admit to having watched. (Personally I, um’ only heard about it from a friend.) Still, it raised some interesting questions about the importance we place on … [Read more...] about People of Color, Outward Appearances, and Academia: Lessons from 80s Pop Culture
The Best Christian Book of All Time: One Year Later
About a year ago, we announced our call for nominations for the Best Christian Book of All Time, and you —our readers —responded with great enthusiasm. From a nomination pool of over 140 worthies, we first narrowed the bracket to 64 contenders, voted out lesser lights (such as Luther, Calvin, Chesterton, Aquinas —I hope they make something of themselves some day!), and crowned our winner: Augustine's Confessions, the Best Christian Book of All Time.[1] You may have heard of the runner-up, a short tract by C.S. Lewis … [Read more...] about The Best Christian Book of All Time: One Year Later
Which Bible do you use?
At church on Sunday, a friend leaned over and asked me what Bible I was using. It happened to be the ESV Study Bible; she asked because of the many (and long) footnotes, margin references, etc., but this is only one of the Bibles that I use on a regular basis. In my experience, academic types tend to have strong opinions about their Bibles, especially on a few key points. Then again, maybe this is just me: Which translation (if any)? Bible translations come in many varieties, with several different … [Read more...] about Which Bible do you use?