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Showing posts from November, 2017

It's (Almost) the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

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Thanksgiving break is over, and we're in the final stretch, where everything final is coming up or coming due: final papers, final projects, final exams. We've got three weeks of cramming, composing, and silently sobbing ahead, and some days it might seem simpler to toss your computer out the nearest window than finish that essay. But don't despair. The exultation you'll feel from watching your computer smash against the concrete is small (and temporary!) compared with the constructive stress relief offered by these books: Everyone could use a magic bullet now and then -- and Success under stress: Powerful tools for staying calm, confident, and productive when the pressure’s on by Sharon Melnick is full of them. Kelly McGonigal explores the advantages of stress in The upside of stress: Why stress is good for you, and how to get good at it , while Mequilibrium: 14 days to cooler, calmer, and happier by Jan Bruce, Andrew Shatté, and Adam Perlman shows you how to ef

On Their Shoulders: A Talk with Dr. Christine M. Darden

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Now is your chance to meet one of the researchers featured in Margot Shetterly's New York Times best-selling book, Hidden Figures . Dr. Christine M. Darden -- mathematician, data analyst, and aeronautical engineer -- began her NASA career as a "human computer" before becoming an engineer and, eventually, the first African-American woman to serve as a senior executive at the Langley Research Center. Darden's talk with detail how she developed a love for mathematics in high school geometry, the highest level of math she took in high school, and how it was then that she formed a dream of becoming a mathematician. She will also share her story of how, being led by her dream and the requirements of her father, she catapulted her career as a high school math teacher into a 40-year career with NASA as an internationally known researcher and leader in sonic-boom minimization research, while also earning a D. Sc. Degree from George Washington University in Mechanical Eng