The Minds
For a couple years, I wrote a weekly profile for the Boston Globe called “Meeting the Minds.” It featured some of New England’s premier thinkers in science, mathematics and medicine, and it was a great privilege for me as a journalist. Some memorable Minds:
Boston Globe, Dec. 29, 2008
The Visualizer
We’re overrun with data. Mathematician Martin Wattenberg makes it usable by making it beautiful. Read
Boston Globe, Dec. 22, 2008
The Eight Types of “Intelligence”
In 1973, Howard Gardner ignited academia when he argued for his Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Twenty-five years later, Gardner looks back on the problem with that word, “intelligence.” Read
Boston Globe, Dec. 8, 2008
The Mercy Doctor
In 1978, Dr. Stephen Bergman wrote a satirical novel about the horrors of being a medical intern. Two million people bought it. Thirty years later, did it really change anything? Read
Boston Globe, Nov. 28, 2008
Funding A!
What happens when you really do get the money to do what you want in science? You get James Collins. Read
Boston Globe, Nov. 17, 2008
Object Episodes
Sherry Turkle, an MIT psychologist, has pioneered the question of how objects affect our identity. Read
Boston Globe, Nov. 10, 2008
The Brain Artist
Bevil Conway was an artist. Then he became a neuroscientist. Then he showed me what the color purple sounds like in a monkey’s brain. Read
Boston Globe, Oct. 27, 2008
The Kid Underwater
Brian Skerry always dreamed of being an underwater photographer for National Geographic, a job that only two people in the world have at any one time. This is the story of how he became one of them. Read
Boston Globe, Oct. 20, 2008
The Bias Buster
According to Harvard’s Mahzarin Banaji, you’re prejudiced. And you might not even know it. Read
Boston Globe, Oct. 13, 2008
The Extinct Bird Nerd
Michael Reed is pissed off about extinction. So he haunts his students. Read
Boston Globe, Oct. 6, 2008
The Curious L.
How does fabric drape? Paint dry? Paper crinkle? This guy gets Harvard to pay him to ask those questions. Read
Boston Globe, Sept. 22, 2008
The Sweet Astronomer
Noreen Grice has dedicated her life to making astronomy accessible for the blind. I think Meryl Streep should play her in the movie. Read
Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 2008
The Cooking Theory of Evolution
Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham has a theory on what makes us human: cooking. It’s something to chew on. Read
Boston Globe, Aug. 25, 2008
The Chic Geek
Jeff Lieberman is one of those MIT MediaLab polymaths who can’t just be good at one thing, they have to be great at like 20 things. And now he has his own TV show, Time Warp. I’d hate him if he weren’t so damn likable. Read
Boston Globe, Aug. 18, 2008
Look Up
Tom Kunz, a real-life bat man, wants to define a third ecological system. It’s an idea so simple it might just work. Read
Boston Globe, Aug. 11, 2008
Getting Deep About Sleep
A story about one of the world’s foremost sleep experts, Harvard’s Charles Czeisler, filled with repeatable anecdotes that add up to a really good excuse to take a nap. Read
Boston Globe, July 28, 2008
Heidi of the NICU
How a sweet woman, Heidelise Als, revolutionized neonatology in a very simple way: she listened to the babies and not the doctors. Read
Boston Globe, July 21, 2008
The Bird’s Guide to Real Estate
Nicholas Rodenhouse discovered that bird’s choose where they’ll live based on recommendations from their peers. Sound familiar? Read
Boston Globe, July 7, 2008
Spider Woman to the Rescue
Catherine Craig, a spider expert, is trying to save the forests of Madagascar from slash-and-burn agriculture by teaching the locals to harvest its native silk. Read
Boston Globe, June 9, 2008
The Shit-Kicker
When the NIH gave Harvard Medical School a ton of money to get its shit together, there was only one man for the job: Lee Fucking Nadler. Read
Boston Globe, March 24, 2008
The Taste Tester
Rats, tequila, and the science of taste. Read
Boston Globe, March 17, 2008
It’s All Puzzles
Kiran Kedlaya is a math savant and a crossword puzzle savant. So, naturally, he’s a professor at MIT. Read