Experimental Conversations

Discussions of the use and limits of randomized control trials, considering the power of theory, external validity, gaps in knowledge, and what issues matter. The practice of development economics has undergone something of a revolution as many economists have adopted new methods to answer perennial questions about the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs. In this book, prominent development economists discuss the use and impact of one of the most significant of these new methods, randomized control trials (RCTs) and field experiments. In extended interviews conducted over a period of several years, they explain their work and their thinking and consider the broader issues of how we learn about the world and how we can change it for the better. These conversations offer specialists and nonspecialists alike a unique opportunity to hear economists speak in their own words, free of the confines of a particular study or econometric esoterica. The economists describe how they apply research findings in the way they think about the world, revealing their ideas about the power of theory, external validity, gaps in knowledge, and what issues matter. Also included are interviews with RCT observers, critics, sponsors, consumers, and others. Each interview provides a brief biography of the interviewee. Thorough annotations offer background and explanations for key ideas and studies referred to in the conversations. Contributors Abhijit Banerjee, Nancy Birdsall, Chris Blattman, Alex Counts, Tyler Cowen, Angus Deaton, Frank DeGiovanni, Esther Duflo, Pascaline Dupas, Xavi Gine, Rachel Glennerster, Judy Gueron, Elie Hassenfeld, Dean Karlan, Michael Kremer, David McKenzie, Jonathan Morduch, Lant Pritchett, Jonathan Robinson, Antoinette Schoar, Dean Yang

Conversing with others has given insights to different perspectives, helped build ideas, and solve problems. Academic conversations push students to think and learn in lasting ways. Academic conversations are back-and-forth dialogues in which students focus on a topic and explore it by building, challenging, and negotiating relevant ideas. In Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings authors Jeff Zwiers and Marie Crawford address the challenges teachers face when trying to bring thoughtful, respectful, and focused conversations into the classroom. They identify five core communications skills needed to help students hold productive academic conversation across content areas: Elaborating and Clarifying Supporting Ideas with Evidence Building On and/or Challenging Ideas Paraphrasing Synthesizing This book shows teachers how to weave the cultivation of academic conversation skills and conversations into current teaching approaches. More specifically, it describes how to use conversations to build the following: Academic vocabulary and grammar Critical thinking skills such as persuasion, interpretation, consideration of multiple perspectives, evaluation, and application Literacy skills such as questioning, predicting, connecting to prior knowledge, and summarizing An academic classroom environment brimming with respect for others' ideas, equity of voice, engagement, and mutual support The ideas in this book stem from many hours of classroom practice, research, and video analysis across grade levels and content areas. Readers will find numerous practical activities for working on each conversation skill, crafting conversation-worthy tasks, and using conversations to teach and assess. Academic Conversations offers an in-depth approach to helping students develop into the future parents, teachers, and leaders who will collaborate to build a better world.

In this book, 36 famous chemists, including 18 Nobel laureates, tell about their lives in science, the beginnings of their careers, their aspirations, and their hardships and triumphs. The reader will learn about their seminal discoveries, and the conversations in the book bring out the humanity of these great scientists. NMR spectroscopy, computational chemistry, the drama of buckminsterfullerene, the story of the Pill, the politics of atmospheric chemistry and the resonance theory, the beginnings of molecular mechanics and modern stereochemistry are examples of the topics discussed first-hand by, in all likelihood, the most appropriate persons.

Candid Science V: Conversations with Famous Scientists contains 36 interviews with well-known scientists, including 19 Nobel laureates, Wolf Prize winners, and other luminaries. These in-depth conversations provide a glimpse into some of the greatest achievements in science during the past few decades, featuring stories of the discoveries, and showing the human drama behind them. The greatest scientists are brought into close human proximity as if readers were having a conversation with them. This volume departs from the previous ones in that it contains interviews with mathematicians in addition to physicists, chemists, and biomedical scientists. Another peculiarity of this volume is that it includes nine interviews from another project, the collection of the late Clarence Larson, former Commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission and his wife, Jane (”Larson Tapes”). Contents: H S M (Donald) CoxeterJohn H ConwayRoger PenroseAlan L MackayDan ShechtmanCharles H TownesArthur L SchawlowLeon N CooperAlexei AbrikosovLuis W AlvarezWilliam H PickeringWilliam A FowlerVera C RubinNeta A BahcallRudolf E PeierlsEmilio G SegrèHarold AgnewClarence E LarsonNelson J LeonardPrincess ChulabhornLinus PaulingMiklós BodánszkyMelvin CalvinDonald R HuffmanAlan G MacDiarmidAlan J HeegerJens Christian SkouPaul C LauterburGunther S StentJohn E SulstonRenato DulbeccoBaruch S BlumbergArvid CarlssonOleh HornykiewiczPaul GreengardEric R Kandel Readership: General readers and scientists. Keywords:Nobel Prize;Famous Scientists;Larson TapesReviews:“I recommend this volume, eminently suited for reading or browsing, not only to historians of science but also to practicing mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, chemists, physiologists, physicians, and other scientists, especially beginning ones, as well as to students, who will certainly enjoy these inspiring stories by some of science's leading luminaries.”Angewandte Chemie From the Reviews of Previous Volumes “… the conversations encapsulate a time that is past and leave the reader with a comforting glow. The main protagonists have told their tales, and the author has conducted his interviews with sympathy and collected his material with care …”Nature From the Forewords to the Candid Science Volumes “… the Hargittais are to be congratulated on yet another masterful Candid Science volume.”Candid Science V, Arvid Carlsson Nobel Laureate “… share … common hopes for a fruitful future for science and humanity …”Candid Science IV, Arno Penzias Nobel Laureate “… it will stimulate the reader to think in new directions.”Candid Science III, Herbert A. Hauptman Nobel Laureate “… these volumes are exceedingly worthwhile and can be enjoyed by all, young and old.”Candid Science II, Arthur Kornberg Nobel Laureate “… one is sharing in a conversation …” ”Candid Science, Lord Porter, Nobel Laureate Nobel Laureate

The vocabulary of wine is large and exceptionally vibrant -- from straight-forward descriptive words like "sweet" and "fragrant", colorful metaphors like "ostentatious" and "brash", to the more technical lexicon of biochemistry. The world of wine vocabulary is growing alongside the current popularity of wine itself, particularly as new words are employed by professional wine writers, who not only want to write interesting prose, but avoid repetition and cliché. The question is, what do these words mean? Can they actually reflect the objective characteristics of wine, and can two drinkers really use and understand these words in the same way? In this second edition of Wine and Conversation, linguist Adrienne Lehrer explores whether or not wine drinkers (both novices and experts) can in fact understand wine words in the same way. Her conclusion, based on experimental results, is no. Even though experts do somewhat better than novices in some experiments, they tend to do well only on wines on which they are carefully trained and/or with which they are very familiar. Does this mean that the elaborate language we use to describe wine is essentially a charade? Lehrer shows that although scientific wine writing requires a precise and shared use of language, drinking wine and talking about it in casual, informal setting with friends is different, and the conversational goals include social bonding as well as communicating information about the wine. Lehrer also shows how language innovation and language play, clearly seen in the names of new wines and wineries, as well as wine descriptors, is yet another influence on the burgeoning and sometimes whimsical world of wine vocabulary.

Novel collection of essays addressing contemporary trends in political science, covering a broad array of methodological and substantive topics.

Contrary to the negative assessments of the social order that have become prevalent in the media since 9/11, this collection of essays focuses on the enormous social creativity being invested as collective identities are reconfigured. It emphasizes on the reformulation of ethnic and gender relationships and identities in public life.