Is There a Doctor in the House?

Hi Everyone.  Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days, but I’ve been on the road.

Dr. Levin

This past weekend I accompanied my wife to Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, where she successfully defended her PhD dissertation in Neuroscience.  It’s been a long 7 years and a lot of late nights, but she finally did it and I could not be prouder.  I was able to sit through the public portion of the defense and although I still have a great deal of trouble following along it is hard not to be humbled by the amount of time and effort that went into this project.  I know we historians like to think that we explain things, but the good folks in the science world really do EXPLAIN the world around us.  [Here is the abstract for Michaela's most recent publication in the Journal of Neurophysiology, which outlines her project.]  It’s unfortunate that so much of our public discourse centers on the kind of science popularized by Oliver Sacks, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and others.  I don’t mean to diminish their contributions, but their books do not reflect the daily grind that takes place in laboratories across the country.

Crater Book

On Monday I had a conference call with the marketing staff at the University Press of Kentucky.  As it stands, the book should be in their wearhouse by mid-June and available on the shelves one or two weeks later. A few of you have asked if books will be available at this year’s Gettysburg CWI conference.  It’s going to be a close call.  As an incentive you can now purchase the book with a 40% discount.  Just click through the image in the sidebar and use the code at the point of purchase.

…and thanks to the 18 people who have already ordered it.