CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia remain one of the best fantasy works for children in the twentieth century. This book from Meg Shaffer uses that template for inspiration to depict a magical world accessible only through a special spot hidden in the West Virginia backwoods. The story starts when two young men are lost, only to be found six months later in good health. No one is quite sure what transpired, not even the teenagers…
For anyone, leadership is a journey, not a destination. It’s more of an art than a series of steps to implement. We all break down as much as we build up. It helps to have intelligent partners to dialogue with, but those are often hard to come by. Good books certainly provide helpful sparring partners to hone one’s style. This book seeks to help leaders advance their personal leadership by advancing how they build leaders…
For scientists and researchers, conferences provide opportunities to learn, network, and see what others are doing outside of their own lab or institution. They also give opportunities to disseminate one’s work and receive feedback from a wider audience. Thus, they serve as crucial gateways to accelerate a career. Like everything else, however, there’s a learning curve, and conferences cost someone money. It’s in any scientist’s best interest to learn how to get good at the…
Because of the COVID pandemic, the name Tony Fauci has become incredibly politicized. To some, he is a villain who took over the country through a pandemic. They cynically blame him for all of America’s woes from the coronavirus. To others, he’s a hero for speaking life-conveying truth in a public-health crisis when most others equivocated. I’m in the latter camp, and this book, a memoir mixed with an apologia, certainly explains his perspective on…
For a graduate student, making a CV – shorthand for Curriculum Vitae, a longer form of résumé – can be a daunting task. Those of us who have seen the CVs of eminent scholars might be intimidated that our first CV will look comparably weak. The CV offers an opportunity to define a professional identity, but when someone with power sees that someone else has violated unwritten rules, the CV could be quickly thrown into…
In psychiatry, “serious mental illness” is substitute language for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. These two difficult diseases account for much of the homelessness that American cities see. Thus, these two diseases also account for much of where tax dollars go. The utterly tragic part, however, is that decent biomedical treatments exist for these diseases; in America, the infrastructure to treat them does not. Why? And what can be improved? This book, originally published in 1988…
The course of my life changed in 2001-2003, years shortly after I graduated with my undergraduate degree from college. I had always thought I’d spend my work-life trying to help people think better about God, religion, and their lives. During this time span, however, I began to suffer from bipolar disorder, a form of mental illness more serious than, say, depression or ADHD. Nothing in my life before had prepared me to deal with this…
Increasingly, Christian churches have become echo chambers that only amplify a given leader’s viewpoint. Their messages resemble denominational perspectives or, recently, boost an interdenominational framework loosely resembling political ideologies. To many, like myself, such a framework conveniently forgets about the diverse, historic nature of Christian theology. Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, was once a megachurch but shrank in membership as decades wore on. It revived itself through becoming a conversational center where people participated…
This short, accessible work outlines a typical tech transfer office at a university. Research universities drive innovation across entire industries and local economies, and smart companies can figure out how to leverage partnerships for commercial successes. The university office that facilitates that is called “tech transfer.” These offices received increased momentum when a federal act in 1980 allowed universities to license their innovations for profit while under federal funding. At 31 pages, this book is…
Reality-based thinking isn’t popular in American society today. From policy and religion to social media and town halls, science is viewed with increasing suspicion. While it’s easy to blame entrenched economic and social interests, we in the scientific community must look at ourselves in the mirror, too. Too often, all our presentations are too abstract for the general public to understand. Too often, we hide behind science’s authority instead of admitting our limitations. In turn,…