By: Greg Horne and Melissa Jacquart On Friday, March 22nd, Mary Domksi spoke to the Rotman Institute about one of her current research questions: how are we to understand the blending of mathematics and empiricism in Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica (1687)? For those unfamiliar with the Principia, it is perhaps one of the most [...]
As part of the Rotman Institute Speaker Series, each year one speaker is chosen as the Rotman Institute Lecturer in Philosophy and Science. This year, the Rotman Institute had the pleasure of hearing from Professor John D. Norton as the 2012/2013 Rotman Lecturer. Norton is currently the Director for the Center for Philosophy of Science, [...]
BU Conference: “How HPS can contribute to science education” 5/5 The effort to incorporate HPS into K-12 science curricula will require substantial support from the scholarly community. Anyone who has ever taught knows that teachers have hardly a minute to spare. Teaching is mentally and physically challenging and teachers are constantly forced to do more [...]
BU Conference: “How HPS can contribute to science education” 4/5 Defining what place HPS should take in official guidelines is not an easy task. But it is of primary importance, and academics have a role to play in it. In the context of U.S. primary and secondary education, a national framework (pdf) provides guidelines [...]
BU Conference: “How HPS can contribute to science education” 3/5 On the second day of the conference, I attended the working group session aimed at addressing the question, "How can history and philosophy of science contribute to students’ understanding of science, as well as help create scientific literate citizens?" The discussion focused on how K-12 programs [...]
BU Conference: "How HPS can contribute to science education" 2/5 The breakout meeting I attended focused on how HPS might be used to improve science education in the areas of : ethics of science, the role of science in a democratic society, and the evaluation of scientific evidence. By finding ways to include these topics [...]
This past December four Rotman graduate students, Yann Benétreau-Dupin, Melissa Jacquart, Craig Fox and Reuven Brandt participated in “How Can the HPS Contribute to Contemporary U.S. Science Teaching”. This two-day event, funded by National Science Foundation (NSF), consisted of a public conference that was part of the Boston Colloquium for Philosophy of Science, and a [...]
My carrots come from Baden, my beets from Alymer, my flour from Arva, and my quinoa from, well, the grocery store. An article on quinoa from this morning's Globe and Mail (published yesterday online) reminds health food nuts like me that, like meat-eaters, my favorite foods come at a high cost. For lovers of quinoa, the [...]
Recently, the Vancouver Sun reported on an ongoing legal case that potentially has important implications for neuroethics and the law. Kenny Ng, the patient at the center of the controversy, was injured in a car accident seven years ago and diagnosed, after rigorous clinical assessment, as being in a vegetative state. His wife would like [...]
S. Matthew Liao, director of the bioethics program at NYU, recently drew attention to important issues related to the use of propranolol to treat combat related post-traumatic stress disorder. In an interview published in the New York Times, Liao stated that a growing area of interest in the ethics of psychiatric therapy is the use [...]
