What Have We Learned

In the tradition of The Power of Habit and Thinking, Fast and Slow comes a practical, playful, and endlessly fascinating guide to what we really know about learning and memory today—and how we can apply it to our own lives. From an early age, it is drilled into our heads: Restlessness, distraction, and ignorance are the enemies of success. We’re told that learning is all self-discipline, that we must confine ourselves to designated study areas, turn off the music, and maintain a strict ritual if we want to ace that test, memorize that presentation, or nail that piano recital. But what if almost everything we were told about learning is wrong? And what if there was a way to achieve more with less effort? In How We Learn, award-winning science reporter Benedict Carey sifts through decades of education research and landmark studies to uncover the truth about how our brains absorb and retain information. What he discovers is that, from the moment we are born, we are all learning quickly, efficiently, and automatically; but in our zeal to systematize the process we have ignored valuable, naturally enjoyable learning tools like forgetting, sleeping, and daydreaming. Is a dedicated desk in a quiet room really the best way to study? Can altering your routine improve your recall? Are there times when distraction is good? Is repetition necessary? Carey’s search for answers to these questions yields a wealth of strategies that make learning more a part of our everyday lives—and less of a chore. By road testing many of the counterintuitive techniques described in this book, Carey shows how we can flex the neural muscles that make deep learning possible. Along the way he reveals why teachers should give final exams on the first day of class, why it’s wise to interleave subjects and concepts when learning any new skill, and when it’s smarter to stay up late prepping for that presentation than to rise early for one last cram session. And if this requires some suspension of disbelief, that’s because the research defies what we’ve been told, throughout our lives, about how best to learn. The brain is not like a muscle, at least not in any straightforward sense. It is something else altogether, sensitive to mood, to timing, to circadian rhythms, as well as to location and environment. It doesn’t take orders well, to put it mildly. If the brain is a learning machine, then it is an eccentric one. In How We Learn, Benedict Carey shows us how to exploit its quirks to our advantage.

The theme of this volume, What Have We Learned? Ten Years On, provides a wonderful tour of the ways in which emotions research has advanced the way in which we conceive of work and its possibilities for adding value to life.

Top economists consider how to conduct policy in a world where previous beliefs have been shattered by the recent financial and economic crises. Since 2008, economic policymakers and researchers have occupied a brave new economic world. Previous consensuses have been upended, former assumptions have been cast into doubt, and new approaches have yet to stand the test of time. Policymakers have been forced to improvise and researchers to rethink basic theory. George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate and one of this volume's editors, compares the crisis to a cat stuck in a tree, afraid to move. In April 2013, the International Monetary Fund brought together leading economists and economic policymakers to discuss the slowly emerging contours of the macroeconomic future. This book offers their combined insights. The editors and contributors—who include the Nobel Laureate and bestselling author Joseph Stiglitz, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen, and the former Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer—consider the lessons learned from the crisis and its aftermath. They discuss, among other things, post-crisis questions about the traditional policy focus on inflation; macroprudential tools (which focus on the stability of the entire financial system rather than of individual firms) and their effectiveness; fiscal stimulus, public debt, and fiscal consolidation; and exchange rate arrangements.

This book presents a 20-year historical overview and comprehensive study results of the aquatic environment affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. The book analyzes water remediation actions, using current science and mathematical modeling, and discusses why some were successful, but many others failed. This book will interest engineers, scientists, decision-makers, and everyone involved in radiation protection and radioecology, environmental protection and risk assessment, water remediation and mitigation, and radioactive waste disposal.

After a quarter of century of rapid technological advances, research has revealed the complexity of cancer, a disease intimately related to the dynamic transformation of the genome. However, the full understanding of the molecular onset of this disease is still far from achieved and the search for mechanisms of treatment will follow closely. It is here that Nanotechnology enters the fray offering a wealth of tools to diagnose and treat cancer. In fact, the National Cancer Institute predicts that over the next years, nanotechnology will result in important advances in early detection, molecular imaging, targeted and multifunctional therapeutics, prevention and control of cancer. Nanotechnology offers numerous tools to diagnose and treat cancer, such as new imaging agents, multifunctional devices capable of overcome biological barriers to deliver therapeutic agents directly to cells and tissues involved in cancer growth and metastasis, and devices capable of predicting molecular changes to prevent action against precancerous cells. Nanomaterials-based delivery systems in Theranostics (Diagnostics & Therapy) provide better penetration of therapeutic and diagnostic substances within the body at a reduced risk in comparison to conventional therapies. At the present time, there is a growing need to enhance the capability of theranostics procedures where nanomaterials-based sensors may provide for the simultaneous detection of several gene-associated conditions and nanodevices with the ability to monitor real-time drug action. These innovative multifunctional nanocarriers for cancer theranostics may allow the development of diagnostics systems such as colorimetric and immunoassays, and in therapy approaches through gene therapy, drug delivery and tumor targeting systems in cancer. Some of the thousands and thousands of published nanosystems so far will most likely revolutionize our understanding of biological mechanisms and push forward the clinical practice through their integration in future diagnostics platforms. Nevertheless, despite the significant efforts towards the use of nanomaterials in biologically relevant research, more in vivo studies are needed to assess the applicability of these materials as delivery agents. In fact, only a few went through feasible clinical trials. Nanomaterials have to serve as the norm rather than an exception in the future conventional cancer treatments. Future in vivo work will need to carefully consider the correct choice of chemical modifications to incorporate into the multifunctional nanocarriers to avoid activation off-target, side effects and toxicity. Moreover the majority of studies on nanomaterials do not consider the final application to guide the design of nanomaterial. Instead, the focus is predominantly on engineering materials with specific physical or chemical properties. It is imperative to learn how advances in nanosystem’s capabilities are being used to identify new diagnostic and therapy tools driving the development of personalized medicine in oncology; discover how integrating cancer research and nanotechnology modeling can help patient diagnosis and treatment; recognize how to translate nanotheranostics data into an actionable clinical strategy; discuss with industry leaders how nanotheranostics is evolving and what the impact is on current research efforts; and last but not least, learn what approaches are proving fruitful in turning promising clinical data into treatment realities.