Why were 17th-century pies so bizarrely shaped?
May 6, 2015
My friend Tom Nealon, bookseller and food and cookbook historian, came to me with an intriguing question: could I think of any reason why mid-17th century pies were so oddly shaped? I asked him a number of questions and gave it some thought, but a possible answer hit me while I was loading paper into a photocopier, and it reminded me of something visible on my daily commute through Boston.
[Stuffed (7): An Investigation Into Pie Shapes]
#food #culture #engineering #piesGender differences and design
April 11, 2015
I was invited to give a talk at the Matter[ing] by Design symposium at Parsons/New School, and I spoke about gender differences and design, including Lego, snowboards, artificial hearts, and engineering education. My talk starts at the 19 minute mark, but I highly recommend the talk that follows mine (at 35min) by Genevieve Bell, an anthropologist, who was then at Intel.
#gender #design #engineering #education #lego #speakingLessons from engineering for law education
April 2, 2015
At Olin College, we've spent a lot of time thinking about how to reshape engineering education in the face of both technological and cultural changes. In the summer of 2014, I was invited down to Elon University School of Law to be on a panel about experiential education, to talk about how we might apply what we've learned about teaching engineering to reconsidering how we might teach law. I also wrote a companion article for the Elon Law Review, "Preparing for the Future of Law: Lessons from a New Engineering School". Here's the abstract:
Like a number of other professions, the field of law is undergoing a significant upheaval due to a confluence of social and technical factors; in particular, there has been an imminent rise of technologies to supplant (or augment) many of the activities of practicing lawyers. In response to these changes, law schools have the opportunity to redesign their curricula and pedagogical approaches to be more responsive to the needs of their students, helping them to develop the skills and abilities that will serve them well in this new world. This article outlines some ways of thinking about and creating these new educational experiences, informed by the author’s experiences as one of the early faculty at the Olin College of Engineering, an undergraduate institution that was created to address similar challenges in the profession of engineering.
You can read the whole article here. [PDF]
#engineering #education #speaking #writing #law #futureZombie bone-eating harem-keeping worms
February 1, 2015
When whales die, they fall to the bottom of sea, nourishing a wide variety of life: they’re the dark inverse of coral reefs. One of these species, Osedax, is a favorite of mine—it’s a treelike worm that settles on whale skeletons, and dissolves the bone to get at proteins and fats for nourishment. I wrote about them, how hagfish dissuade sharks, and the mystery of the missing males for the brilliant folk at Primer Stories, who created this gorgeous illustrated essay.
Zombie bone-eating harem-keeping worms
#creatures #writing #scienceOn 'making' and caregiving
January 23, 2015
I wrote about how we overvalue making and undervalue caregiving for my newsletter, and The Atlantic asked permission to publish a version at their site. I'm really delighted at how strongly this piece has resonated with people all over the world.
#culture #technology #writingTags