Christopher X J. Jensen
Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

NY Times way behind the times on Nature versus Nurture

Posted 18 Apr 2011 / 0

Two recent articles [1, 2] in the New York Times took on the old “Nature versus Nurture debate” in the context of the new “parent wars” spurred by Amy Chua‘s book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother“. Too bad no one told the authors of these articles that the “Nature versus Nurture debate” was over Read More

Articles, Development, Gene by Environment Interactions, Genetics, Human Nature, Web

Being Clean Might Make You Allergic

Posted 10 Apr 2011 / 0

Recently, Scientific American‘s “Science Talk” podcast featured a valuable interview with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researcher Kathleen Barnes called “Can It Be Bad to Be Too Clean?: The Hygiene Hypothesis“. In the interview, Dr. Barnes explained the state of contemporary research into the “Hygiene Hypothesis”, which suggests that the reason we are seeing an Read More

Coevolution, Host-Pathogen Evolution, Mismatch theory, Radio & Podcasts

Sex and Slime on Fresh Air

Posted 07 Apr 2011 / 0

Today’s episode of Fresh Air with Terry Gross featured a nice interview with Ellen Prager, a marine biologist who just published a book entitled Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Oceans’ Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter. The Fresh Air segment, “Under the Sea, Sex Is Slimy Business“, covered a number of really interesting marine Read More

Marine Ecosystems, Radio & Podcasts, Sex and Reproduction

Pratt Envirolutions trumpets green initiatives during Pratt’s Green Week celebration

Posted 01 Apr 2011 / 0

This week Pratt’s Envirolutions club took its campaign for waste reduction on campus to the annual Green Week celebration. Tabling for two days, the club had two main projects. The first was a continuation of a campaign kicked off earlier in the semester to promote CulinArt’s Green Container program and other sustainable cafeteria initiatives. The Read More

Envirolutions, Food, Resource Consumption, Sustainability, Sustainable Pratt