Welcome to the 16th edition  of Scientia Pro Publica, the blog carnival  that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days.

What are some of the fascinating topics you can explore and discuss with this group of bloggers?

Science & Us

The Evolving Mind: What’s the point of daydreaming?

Credit: Johan Stigwall, via Flickr

Generally Thinking: What is the brain impact of different types of meditation (focused, open monitoring, compassion)?

The Emotion Machine: Can blogging help you control your environment and manage stress?

Greater Good Magazine: Want to live longer and bettter?

Collective Imagination: Can you share a powerful uncanny experience?

Science & Friends

via LiveScience

Lab Rat: Pros and Cons of having amphibian skin?

Science in Paradise: Do sharks get cancer?

Mauka to Makai: Can bunnies offer new light on what comes after Viagra, how to deal with nuclear feces, and new sources of electricity?

Kind of Curious: Did dinousaurs migrate? dead or alive?

Migrations: Do beliefs on evolution affect one’s ability to appreciate birding?

Science & Society

Science & Soul: Can we reverse corn monoculture trends?

Genomics Law Report: If a Direct-To-Consumer genomics company goes bankrupt, what happens to your data? does HIPAA cover it?

And this concludes today’s edition.  Kelsey will host next edition (December 7th) at Mauka to Makai;  you can submit posts using this handy form. And if you’re interested in hosting Scientia at your blog, contact Grrlscientist!

Quick heads up: the latest edition of Encephalon brain & mind blog carnival is Here, nicely hosted by Neuroskeptic.

The Neuroanthropology blog team has just published one of the most complete and high-quality editions of Encephalon brain & mind blog carnival in months. Enjoy!:
Encephalon #71: Big Night

Three excellent new editions of these blog carnivals:

- Encephalon at Neuroskeptic: brain and mind topics.

- Grand Rounds at Running a Hospital: overall health and medicine, this week with special theme “when things go awry”.

- Change of Shift at EmergiBlog: nursing and related healthcare topics.

I will be hosting the December 9th edition of Grand Rounds blog carnival. Please email me your excellent health & medicine posts, indicating Grand Rounds in the subject line:

afernandez at sharpbrains dot com

Thank you!

Mike hosts a great new edition of Encephalon neuroscience & psychology blog carnival, available here: #59 edition.

Fyi, Kim at Change of Shift will publish the next edition of MetaCarnival next Monday, December 1st.

Welcome to the first edition of MetaCarnival: a Carnival of Carnivals (announced here), the new, monthly, and interdisciplinary gathering of blogs and blog carnivals.

Let’s picture all participants in the shadow of an expansive sycamore tree, conducting a lively Q&A lunch discussion.

General Advice

Q: What would you recommend to live as long as possible, and as healthy as possible?
- Hourglass (biology of aging): Try Not To Stab Yourself Repeatedly. Or smoke. Or eat that much fast food…you get the idea.  “The vast majority of people are quite comfortable engaging in habits that cause great harm to the old person they will one day be, cutting off years or even decades of health.”

Q: Can blogging help, too?
- I and the Bird (birds): Indeed. Just read about these life-changing moments in the Kenyan highlands, brought together spontaneously as a collaboration between researchers, conservationists, bloggers. And, yes, birds.

Sports (Well… Brain and Sports)

Q: Tell me something interesting about athletes and “The Zone”.
- Encephalon (neuroscience and psychology): why don’t we review this recent study on the Momentum Chain in Sports. You can conduct your own mini experiment while watching TV: watch the reactions of the players and the teams right after “precipitating events” to see if they actually lead to game-changing moments.

Medicine

Q: Should patients be patient?.
- SurgeXperiences (surgical experiences): Patience in indeed a virtue, especially Read the rest of this entry »

An excellent new edition of Encephalon neuroscience blog carnival, hosted by Mind Hacks. Enjoy!

If you are a blogger or read blogs often, you know that there are a good number of excellent blog carnivals focused on specific themes. If you are interested in medicine, you know what carnival to visit. Education, the same. Biology, neuroscience, nursing, birds, aging, philosophy…a variety of topics are very well covered in the blogosphere.

What you probably haven’t come across is a high-quality “metacarnival” or “carnival of carnivals”, where you can read the best blog posts ACROSS topics, subjects, disciplines.

This is why a few blog carnival “organizers” are launching next Monday a monthly rotating “MetaCarnival” to feature the most interesting posts from a variety of high-quality blog carnivals.

Participating blog carnivals so far, alphabetically: Read the rest of this entry »

We read today how Panel Urges Schools to Emphasize Core Math Skills (Washington Post). Now, there is a more fundamental question to consider: what should the schools of the XXI century look like and do?.

To create a much needed dialogue, I asked one the most thoughtful education bloggers around to share her (I guess it’s “her”) impressions with us. Enjoy!
—————

What do we want our schools to do, and for whom? 

–By eduwonkette

“Schools,” Stanford historian David Labaree wrote, “occupy an awkward position at the intersection between what we hope society will become and what we think it really is.” What do we want our schools to do, and for whom?

Schools, like most organizations, have many goals. These goals often compete with and displace each other. Relying heavily on the work of David Labaree, I will discuss three central goals of American schools – social efficiency, democratic equality, and social mobility. Throughout the history of American education, these goals have been running against each other in a metaphorical horserace. While they are not mutually exclusive, the three goals introduce very different metrics of educational success. More often than not, they sit uncomfortably with each other.

Read the rest of this entry »