I didn’t write a book a decade or so ago, titled Seeds at the time. It was going to be about, well, seeds. I had in mind a book that would cover topics such as the biology of seeds and…
A Long Farewell
A moment took me by surprise this afternoon, although I should have expected it. I am no longer the Director of SFU’s Semester in Dialogue. After 12 years, it was time to pass the torch. I’ve known this was coming…
The Engaged University
My university now has three campuses, one of them being downtown where I currently work at the Centre for Dialogue. The original Simon Fraser University opened in 1966 at an isolated site high atop Burnaby Mountain near Vancouver. We established…
Teaching More, or Teaching Better?
A cranky column by Margaret Wente appeared in the Globe and Mail last week, complaining that professors don’t teach enough. It blended a few sketchy statistics together with a warmed-over discussion of teaching loads, an issue that has been around the block…
Unintended Consequences
Most of us are aware by now that antibiotics are overprescribed for human use and overused in animal feed to increase livestock weight. The consequences are tragic; disease-causing bacteria develop resistance when repeatedly exposed, and many antibiotics have become ineffective.…
Leonard Radinsky
Leonard Radinsky It was a fossil skull and some latex that provided my first exposure to experiential learning in school, in which information and experience merge into creative ideas, values are probed and transformed, character molded, and motivation to…
A Scientific Disjoint
I’ve been fortunate to work in a double bubble. As a university scientist, I’ve been immersed in a culture that promotes open discussion of issues and results, and as Director of SFU’s Centre for Dialogue I work in an environment…
Jonathan Swift, Socrates, Bees and Dialogue
I’ve never been overly impressed with the Socratic method as dialogue, although it was described as such in the 399 BCE book Dialogues, in which Plato recorded conversations between Socrates and his disciples. These are sharp exchanges with pointed and…
Toxic Soup
The honeybee crisis continues; one-third of all colonies die each year around the globe, and we know why. It’s not one factor, and our deepening understanding of the multiple stressors that are killing bees has clarified the extent of our…
Eat, Pray . . . Scientist?
I learned a surprising thing from an unusual source the other day. The unusual source was Elizabeth Gilbert, in her novel The Signature of All Things, about a fictional 19th century woman who studied moss. Gilbert is best known for…