Interests

Announced at the Science Faire: A $150-million philanthropic effort to empower a diverse cadre of promising early-career scientists to stay on track to become scientific leaders of tomorrow; The $90-million Let Everyone Dream campaign to expand STEM opportunities to under-represented youth; A $25-million Department of Education competition to create science- and literacy-themed media that inspires students to explore 120 universities and colleges committing to train 20,000 engineers to tackle the “Grand Challenges” of the 21st century; A coaltion of CEOs called Change the Equation committing to expand effective STEM programs to an additional 1.5 million students this year more »

Astronomers have expanded the search for extraterrestrial intelligence into a new realm with detectors tuned to infrared light. Their new instrument has just begun to scour the sky for messages from other worlds. The idea dates back decades, Wright pointed out. Charles Townes, the late UC Berkeley scientist whose contributions to the development of lasers led to a Nobel Prize, suggested the idea in a paper published in 1961. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: In spite of everything, there's pressure to let something loose that I might know that someone else has still to learn, or something I've noticed that someone else hasn't thought of, and that might tickle the imagination or stimulate the intellect or conjure a useful memory and make someone’s else's day a tiny bit brighter. more »

Stanford scholar Dan Jurafsky found that the words used in online restaurant reviews provide a surprising source of insight into human psychology. While positive reviews of expensive restaurants were rife with sensual and sexy metaphors, the good food at cheap restaurants prompted references to drugs. more »