Early mythologies express a deep reverence for the mystery of birth. The stars, the mountains, and the oceans are all described as having been issued from some wonderful and hidden generative force. Human birth is in many ways equally mysterious. Modern science enables doctors to detect conception shortly after it has occurred and to visualize…
With so many claims about education products and practices, what does it mean to be “research-based”? Join us as we dive into the debate. Matt gripped his pencil in a clenched fist, armed to wage war against his math homework. Four months of tutoring had yielded little progress, and he had once again hit a…
I remember my mother’s vegetable garden when I was a child, corn plants tall like skyscrapers. I remember when I fell out of a tree and everyone from the neighbor’s barbecue rushed over to see if I’d broken a bone. Remember, remember… the verb itself is poetic, connotating the essence of experience. The notion of…
Medicine today possesses tools capable of peering into the most hidden and seemingly inaccessible parts of the body. We can snake cameras through the chambers of the heart and the vessels of the lungs, see embryos in the womb, and even observe electric flashes of thought dance across the brain. In the midst of this…
A cheerful English voice, crisp and elegant, asked her the question again. “How many coins do you have there, Signora?” Signora Gaddi stared at the coins in her hand for a long time, and then looked up to smile apologetically at the doctor. It was a soft smile, warm, but tenuous and sad. The corners…
The photographs and worn books that adorn Dr. Marian Diamond’s office are a sharp contrast to the spare concrete corridors of the Valley Life Sciences Building at the University of California at Berkeley. And Dr. Diamond herself, an elegant woman with silver hair and a warm smile, is a pleasant contrast to the competitive and…
