It has been a while since the last post, but that will not the case hereafter. The holidays have come and gone and it is time to get to work.
Bill Clinton said "In today’s knowledge-based economy, what you earn depends on what you learn." The New York Times has a recent article on how learning at colleges is changing and how this may be the beginning of the end for the large lecture hall environment. Great quote – “Just as you can’t become a marathon runner by watching marathons on TV,” Professor Mazur said, “likewise for science, you have to go through the thought processes of doing science and not just watch your instructor do it.”
Great news in USA Today about a developing glut of solar panels and the logical drop in their cost. You know – its that whole guns vs butter thing that economics classes were selling years ago. This drop in price will only create more battles between eco-minded upper-middle class homeowners who can pay for the $10-20,000 solar panels but who also live in neighborhoods where changes to the exterior of their house have to pass some type of subdivision architecture review committee.
Also, although we knew it was coming, folks in the UK have just recently announced the birth of the first baby born without the BRCA-1 gene because of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. Previously the procedure had been used in connection with genes for cystic fibrosis and other diseases that arguably are more likely to shorten a life span than breast cancer. Nonetheless, we will see more laboratory controlled genetic selection in the future and hopefully that will mean our grandchildren will worry less about their risk of developing cancer.