External News

Biologist and past fellow Deborah M. Gordon's decades-long study of the collective behavior of harvester ant colonies has provided a rare real-time look at natural selection at work.

In ancient Greece, the city-states that waited until their own harvest was in before attacking and destroying a rival community's crops often experienced better long-term success.

It turns out that ant colonies that show similar selectivity when gathering food yield a similar result. The latest findings from Stanford biology Professor Deborah M. Gordon's long-term study of harvester ants reveal that the colonies that restrain their foraging except in prime conditions also experience improved rates of reproductive success.

Read the rest of the story in the Stanford Report.

“The Art of Data Visualization” by PBS Arts: Off Book takes a look at the world of data visualization, from infographics to Google Maps.

From the Stanford Report:

Former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry says it is possible to dramatically reduce nuclear weapons and the dangers they pose, but the effort has stalled and even reversed, leaving the world at greater risk.

Perry, speaking recently to a group of fellows at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (CASBS), said that after years of progress toward nonproliferation, there are new indications that some nations, including the United States, are working toward building up their stockpiles. Read the rest of the story.

Here are a few more photos of the event.

Each year the Archaeological Institute of America's (AIA) chooses the work it deems most worthy of recognition in that year. For 2012, the James R. Wiseman Book Award Committee chose Michael Dietler's Archaeologies of Colonialism: Consumption, Entanglement, and Violence in Ancient Mediterranean France a book largely written at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford (CASBS). Stating...

During his 2009 fellowship year, Jean-Claude Croizet worked on improving working memory efficiency and student achievement. The study published online in APA’s Journal of Experimental Psychology: General shows ways to help students test scores and stimulate intellectual growth.

“People usually believe that academic achievement simply reflects students’ inherent academic ability, which can be difficult to change,” Croizet said. “But teachers and parents may be able to help students succeed just by changing the way in which the material is presented.”

The Huffington Post wrote about the study and the Learning Channel posted a video showing a classroom activity that uses the idea of a "favorite no" as a teachable moment.

Sociologist and CASBS Fellow Kathleen Gerson speaks to CBS News about the growing trend of women delaying or rejecting marriage. Kathleen's piece starts about the 13:00 minute mark.

This year's "10 Ideas" issue from Time Magazine focuses on how our world is changing and paradoxes of modern life. They've chosen Eric Klinenberg's work on living alone to kick off the special section highlighting "10 ideas that are changing your life." Klinenberg's article "Living alone is the new norm" is based on his work detailed in Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. Going Solo is the result of Klinenberg's 2008 fellowship year and was recently added to CASBS's Tyler Collection.

Andrei Markovits, CASBS Fellow 2009, was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Presented by the German Consul General in Chicago, Markovits was praised for his mentorship of German academics and commitment to fellow colleagues throughout his career and across institutions.

The Order of Merit, instituted in 1951 by Federal President Theodor Heuss, is the only honor that may be awarded in all fields of endeavor to individuals for services to the nation. The award recognizes achievements in the political, economic, social or intellectual realm and for all kinds of outstanding services to the nation in the field of social, charitable or philanthropic work.

For media expert and former fellow Kathleen Hall Jamieson Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania campaign years are when her particular expertise is most in demand. Recently she spoke with Bill Moyers about campaign misinformation and shared her political analysis of the Republican debates and other recent events.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson on Campaign Misinformation from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

A transcript is also available on truthout.org

"More people live alone than at any other time in history. In prosperous American cities — Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Minneapolis — 40 percent or more of all households contain a single occupant. In Manhattan and in Washington, nearly one in two households are occupied by a single person."

Living alone evokes independence rather than visions of  loneliness these days and in "Going Solo", a new addition to the CASBS Tyler Collection, Sociologist Eric Klinenberg explores one of the greatest demographic changes in the United States.

This weekend the New York Times published his Op-Ed "One's a Crowd."