I’ve just returned from a few days on Sea Island on the coast of Georgia (the US version) at what might have been viewed as a boondoggle: to give a talk about my career in science and enjoy a few days and some nice meals in warm sunshine in mid-February. But the occasion turned out to be more stimulating than expected, with eleven other talks, most of which included interesting stories told by interesting people. Among these were Ricky Jay, the magician, historian, and collector of the recondite and bizarre; Robert Pinsky, the poet, translator of Dante, and former Poet Laureate, talking about his Favorite Poem project; Bruce Schneider, a cybersecurity expert at Harvard’s Kennedy School; and Steve Coleman, a saxophone player and philosophical musicologist.

But I am writing to draw your attention to another speaker, Mahzarin Banaji, a psychology professor at Harvard, who addressed topics that are relevant to two of our forthcoming classes—on the reliability of science this Wednesday and on equity in science on March 7th. Banaji has worked extensively on bias and perception, factors that play large roles in evaluation of scientific results and in the evaluation of sciences for jobs, grants, and prizes. I will talk a bit about what she had to say in both of those classes, but i’d ask you to take a few minutes in advance to read a news story about the kinds of things she studies (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27067-2005Jan21.html)
and to view a short (one minute) movie about a test of perception that she tested on her audience in Georgia:

If you want to read more about Mahzerin, look at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahzarin_Banaji

Looking forward to Wednesday.