(6,000 words)
This online EDGE edition with streaming video is available at:
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge283.html
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THE THIRD CULTURE
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MADDOX BY HIS SUCCESSOR
By Philip Campbell
It has been said of the archetypal Great Man (by Nietzsche) that "he is colder, harder, less hesitating and without fear of opinion". To me, whether Maddox was a Great Man or not, that seems a fair description. Nietzsche also said that such a person "wears a mask: there is a solitude within him that is inaccessible to praise or blame." Maddox was as capable as anyone of openly enjoying people's company or, when necessary, of good poker-like negotiation. He was someone for whom collegiality mattered, but for whom it was ultimately impersonal. He was a good judge of people, often supportive, never (as far as I know) betraying the interests of his staff whereas, in professional contexts, he could be ruthless and always retained a cool-headed detachment. These qualities, combined with his journalistic virtuosities, made him a controversial editor but also a great one.
PHILIP CAMPBELL succeeded John Maddox as editor of Nature in 1995.
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HOW TO PREVENT A PANDEMIC
By Nathan Wolfe
My organization and its collaborators have recently set up virus monitoring stations in China, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Yet this is just a beginning. To establish a worldwide safety net, we would need to monitor thousands of people exposed to animals in dozens of sites around the world -- not only hunters but also people working on farms and in animal markets. It is important that the American government make pandemic prevention a priority and devote more resources to expanding disease surveillance in people and in wild and domestic animal populations throughout the world.
NATHAN WOLFE is the Lorry Lokey Visiting Professor of Human Biology at Stanford University and directs the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (www.gvfi.org). His research combines methods from molecular virology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and anthropology to study the biology of viral emergence.
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ARTICLES OF NOTE
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NATURE
Obituary: John Maddox (1925-2009)
John Maddox, who died on 12 April, was editor of Nature during 1966-73 and 1980-95. He transformed the journal from a collegially amateurish publication into one that was challenging and professional in its assessment of science and in its journalistic reportage.
Walter Gratzer
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THE BOSTON GLOBE
Inside the baby mind
By Jonah Lehrer
It's unfocused, random, and extremely good at what it does. How we can learn from a baby's brain.
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ABC NEWS
GOOD MORNING AMERICA
April 26, 2009
Swine Flu Hits Mexico
Dr. Nathan Wolfe of the Global Virus Forecasrting Initiative talks about the flu.
GMA: And joining us now is one of the world's most foremost virus hunters. When a bug moves from animals to humans in some exotic corner of the globe, Dr. Nathan Wolfe and his team at Gobo al virus forecasting initiative drop in try try to study and contain it. Good morning to you.
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NATURE
Tech titans plan to save the planet
Former Google philanthropy chief targets climate change and the Middle East.
Declan Butler
Epidemiologist Larry Brilliant, who helped to eradicate smallpox, is to leave his job as head of Google.org, the search giant's philanthropic arm, to lead the Skoll 'Urgent Threats Fund', created this month by Jeffrey Skoll, former founding president of eBay and head of the Skoll Foundation.
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NEW YORK TIMES
EDITORIAL
Photos From Saturn
Most of us tend to lose track of space missions, especially unmanned ones. Even a shuttle launch slips by almost unnoticed -- a far cry from the old days when the whole planet paused to watch Gagarin or Shepard or Glenn jump skyward in what now look like pressurized tin cans. Such is the hectic gradualism of modern life. What brings this thought to mind is a new collection of photos from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn since mid-2004.
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NEW YORK TIMES
OPED PAGE
Don't Waste Time Cutting Emissions
By Bjorn Lomborg
WE are often told that tackling global warming should be the defining task of our age -- that we must cut emissions immediately and drastically. But people are not buying the idea that, unless we act, the planet is doomed. Several recent polls have revealed Americans' growing skepticism. Solving global warming has become their lowest policy priority, according to a new Pew survey.
Moreover, strategies to reduce carbon have failed. Meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, politicians from wealthy countries promised to cut emissions by 2000, but did no such thing. In Kyoto in 1997, leaders promised even stricter reductions by 2010, yet emissions have kept increasing unabated. Still, the leaders plan to meet in Copenhagen this December to agree to even more of the same -- drastic reductions in emissions that no one will live up to. Another decade will be wasted.
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BOOKS FROM EDGE
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WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT
Edited by John Brockman
With An Introduction By BRIAN ENO
The world's finest minds have responded with some of the most insightful, humbling, fascinating confessions and anecdotes, an intellectual treasure trove. ... Best three or four hours of intense, enlightening reading you can do for the new year. Read it now."
San Francisco Chronicle
"A great event in the Anglo-Saxon culture."
El Mundo
Harper Perennial
http://www.amazon.com/What-Have-Changed-Your-About/dp/0061686549
Praise for WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT?
"The splendidly enlightened Edge website (www.edge.org) has rounded off each year of inter-disciplinary debate by asking its heavy-hitting contributors to answer one question. I strongly recommend a visit." THE INDEPENDENT
"A great event in the Anglo-Saxon culture." EL MUNDS
"As fascinating and weighty as one would imagine." THE INDEPENDENT
"They are the intellectual elite, the brains the rest of us rely on to make sense of the universe and answer the big questions. But in a refreshing show of new year humility, the world's best thinkers have admitted that from time to time even they are forced to change their minds." THE GUARDIAN
"Even the world's best brains have to admit to being wrong sometimes: here, leading scientists respond to a new year challenge." THE TIMES
"Provocative ideas put forward today by leading figures." THE TELEGRAPH
The world's finest minds have responded with some of the most insightful, humbling, fascinating confessions and anecdotes, an intellectual treasure trove. ... Best three or four hours of intense, enlightening reading you can do for the new year. Read it now." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"As in the past, these world-class thinkers have responded to impossibly open-ended questions with erudition, imagination and clarity." THE NEWS & OBSERVER
"A jolt of fresh thinking...The answers address a fabulous array of issues. This is the intellectual equivalent of a New Year's dip in the lake - bracing, possibly shriek-inducing, and bound to wake you up." THE GLOBE & MAIL
"Answers ring like scientific odes to uncertainty, humility and doubt; passionate pleas for critical thought in a world threatened by blind convictions." THE TORONTO STAR
"For an exceptionally high quotient of interesting ideas to words, this is hard to beat. ...What a feast of egg-head opinionating!" NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE
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This online EDGE edition with streaming video is available at:
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge283.html
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Edge Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit private operating foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
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EDGE
John Brockman, Editor and Publisher
Russell Weinberger, Associate Publisher
Karla Taylor, Editorial Assistant
Copyright (c) 2008 by EDGE Foundation, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Published by EDGE Foundation, Inc.,
5 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022
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