Science Times roundup
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008All three above-the-fold cover stories in the NYT Science Times this week hit on different aspects of what’s becoming a major interest of mine – the interface between the harder sciences and more right-brained aspects of being human.
The main article is about mindfulness meditation being used in therapy. I find this interesting, but the article points out that the science supporting whether it is beneficial is pretty thin at this point, and there’s a risk of it becoming a fad.
Next is an article about a new curriculum at Binghamton University (NY) aimed at putting the sciences and humanities in dialogue. I was not encouraged by the inane statement by one of the creators that “There are more similarities than differences between the humanities and the sciences,” but otherwise it looks very good.
But perhaps most intriguing was an article on a woman who is marketing a placebo for parents to give to their children when all else fails (more…)
Tags: academia, humanities, meditation, mindfulness, New York Times, placebo effect, psychology, psychotherapy, science, spirituality