Physicists across the US are pushing for universities to do a better job of teaching science and M.I.T. has made a striking change.

The physics department has replaced the traditional large introductory lecture with smaller classes that emphasize hands-on, interactive, collaborative learning.

Last fall, after years of experimentation and debate and resistance from students, who initially petitioned against it, the department made the change permanent. Already, attendance is up and the failure rate has dropped by more than 50 percent.

Click through to the original article …

The Healthy Brain Program: click through for Pointers to a Healthy Brain …

The Healthy Brain Program, an initiative of the Brain Foundation, aims to assist Australians to keep their brains healthy into old age, through the provision of community education and research.

The program aims to address issues such as:

* People are living longer, and the prevalence of degenerative brain disorders is increasing.
* There is little information available about how to keep the brain healthy compared to the wealth of information about a healthy body and heart.
* There is a need for a coordinated approach to education on key indicators and risk reduction strategies.

The program aims to:

* Increase community awareness of the potential for improving the long term health of the brain through lifestyle changes and risk reduction strategies.
* Promote recognition of risk reduction strategies.
* Motivate the attitudinal changes needed for the development of a healthy brain lifestyle.

Scientific American: Daniel Tammet is the author of two books, Born on a Blue Day and Embracing the Wide Sky, which comes out this month.

He’s also a linguist and holds the European record for reciting the first 22,514 decimal points of the mathematical constant Pi.

Mind Matters editor Jonah Lehrer chats with Daniel Tammet about how his memory works, why the IQ test is overrated, and a possible explanation for extraordinary feats of creativity.

Read this interview …

Why do business leaders stay awake at night?

When I’m consulting to business leaders that’s the first question I ask my clients: Why did you lose sleep last night?

Click here to see the top ten most common replies …

From SWIMMING WORLD:

David Long of Fairport Area Swim Team wrote this piece as a college admission essay, and plans on attending Colgate University.

Long’s piece, reprinted below, is about how swimming is a thinking man’s sport. It truly gives you time to contemplate your life while training.

My sport is thinking. Others go out to the baseball diamond, others to the track, and yet others to the basketball court; I go to the pool to swim and think. While my practice routine changes from day to day, the one common theme is thinking; thinking during the hour-long car ride into Fairport, thinking during the two hour practice, thinking on the way home, thinking at night in bed.

Don’t get me wrong; I certainly love the swimming and time with my friends, but …

• Click through to read the rest of this article …

BBC News: An atheist advertising campaign has been launched on buses across Britain.

A fund-raising drive for the promotion, carrying the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”, raised more than £140,000.

The campaign, which will also feature on the London Tube, is backed by the British Humanist Association and prominent atheist, Professor Richard Dawkins.

Click for original story …

January 1, 2009 – The 2008 Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award has been given to Stephen Hawking.

The award is annually bestowed upon a respected scientist or public figure who has warned of a future fraught with dangers and encouraged measures to prevent them.

The 2008 award is in recognition of his continuous warnings that global catastrophic risks will eventually come and therefore it is unsafe and unwise for all of humanity to be on a single planet.

“It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species. Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.”

“In the long term, I am more worried about biology. Nuclear weapons need large facilities, but genetic engineering can be done in a small lab. You can’t regulate every lab in the world. The danger is that either by accident or design, we create a virus that destroys us.”

“I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.”

At considerable risk to his frail health, Hawking inspired mankind to live on more than one planet by entering Zero G. You can watch him experience Zero G at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmurxp8m9Dk. Our Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka will soon be following Hawking’s example.