Of course “everybody’s doing it” is one of the most powerful forces. This makes sense. I wonder how effective it will be at increase STD testing. I both hope it works and doesn’t. Hope because knowing one’s status is important. Hope not because it’s poopy to be motivated into action because of earning a badge for others to see.
0
The Mountain View and Paris walls are my favorite.
Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous?
A cool piece. Some may find it offensive just because of the title. But it’s an interesting idea.
Thoroughly confused: why?:o
University Attendance Scanners Make Some Uneasy
This is ridiculous. Freshmen just need to learn how to do school. Without the school forcing it.
I just rickroll’d my sister. I love her.
Does Your Language Shape How You Think?
Reminds me of Professor Boroditsky. I recently posted an article about language written by her. In humbio, she reviewed most of the examples presented in this NYTimes Magazine piece. The question isn’t yes/no if language shapes thought. The questions are how and to what extent.
Amazing as usual.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| I Have a Scheme | ||||
|
||||
Science as superstition: selecting medical students
- I know the author of this paper as Professor Barr! Waaay cool. I’m going to shoot him an email right after this post.
- Oh how true this article seems.
- I love reading this after my first week at Mills!
Some quotations I appreciate:
It found consistent evidence that performance in the premedical sciences is inversely associated with many of the personal, non-cognitive qualities so central to the art of medicine.
A number of others have found the psychological profile of students who perform best in the premedical sciences to be the reverse of what one might hope for in a physician. Writing in the 1970s, Witkin found students who were most successful in the sciences, “have an impersonal orientation: they are not very interested in others”.
With an intellectual diet abundant in chemistry, biology, and physics but lacking essential psychological nutrients, we may have weakened the ability of many physicians to practise the art of medicine.
Great physicians base their professional practice on a threshold of scientific knowledge they have acquired throughout their career. Upon this foundation they build an artistic display of communication, compassion, empathy, and judgment. In selecting students for the study of medicine, we must be careful to avoid superstition, and to adhere to the evidence that equates as metrics of quality a preparation in fundamental scientific principles and the non-cognitive characteristics that are conducive to professional greatness. [emphasis mine]
Connect with me:
