Publications of Moti Nissani: A Sampler
Click below a selection. For additional,
hard-copy references, click Resume
and Contact Information.
What is Science?
(A Commonsense,
Eclectic, Portrayal of
the Nature of
Science)
Greenhouse Effect (or: How and why does
the
majority allow a few tycoons to wreck the planet and the global economic system?)
Best Way of Saving Us (The greatest obstacle on the road to justice, peace, and environmental sanity is not greed but psychology; not governments and tycoons, but well-meaning reformers!) (para leer un extracto en español, haga clic aquí, por favor)
Best Kept
Secret of the Twentieth Century
Roots of
Environmental Decline
A New Behavioral Bioassay for an Analysis of Sexual Attraction and Pheromones in Insects (A 1975 essay showing for the first time that sex mosaics can be used to study sexual attraction, that Drosophila melanogaster males probably know a female by her smell, and that the probable anatomical location of scent production is the posterior integument)
Elephants: 1. Review Article:
Theory
of Mind and Insight in Chimpanzees, Elephants, and Other Animals? 2.
Film Script: The
Inner Life of Elephants
When Theory Fails (aka: conceptual conservatism; belief perseverance;
cognitive inflexibility): 1. Cognition &
Instruction Essay. (The
original study of 19 science Ph.D.'s., and its astounding, scarcely credible,
demonstration that we tend to cling to spurious convictions, despite conclusive hands-on proofs to
the contrary, and that in the process of doing so, we can even force our very
observations into the Procrustean Bed of our convictions). 2. Conceptual
Conservatism: An Understated Variable in Human Affairs?
(an informal exploration of the devastating impact of
conceptual rigidity in human affairs:
"When
faced with choice between changing one's mind and proving there is no need to do
so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof"--John Kenneth Galbraith
History of
Science: The Plight of the Obscure Innovator in Science
(A cautionary historical tale for young scholars or artists who think they have
a chance of making great discoveries. No one, my friend, will beat a path
to your door--unless you are well-connected. If you are one of those rare
people who will not play the political game, your only likely reward will be the
elation of the search and discovery, and the hope that you have done something meaningful with your life.)
History of
Science: The Mendelian Paradox (Mendel most
likely did fudge his data--and had every right to, given the sorry record of the
history of science)
Language Teaching
(We could teach languages to both native and non-native
speakers so much better than we do now)
Science
Education: Lab Exercises and Instructional Materials on the Nature of Science
(The science laboratory could provide--if we just cared
enough about our students--wonderful opportunities for teaching science!)
Science
Education: Persistence of Misconceptions in the Science Classroom (Contemporary traditional science instruction up to--but not including-- the
graduate level is a scandal; and yet science could be taught well!)
The Curbside Solution
(If you agree with Tom Paine that your mind is your
church, if you want to see the world clearly and do something with your life,
you ought to give television, newspapers, and radio the slip)
Book Online: Lives in the Balance: the Cold War and American Politics, 1945-1991 (The only holistic, fully interdisciplinary, history of the Cold War, containing fresh insights about subjects as diverse as freedom, totalitarianism, American foreign policy, roots of human irrationality and misbehavior, and reform strategies--all still as relevant today as they were in 1992, when the book first appeared)
American
Intervention in Guatemala (1944-1990):
Lessons From
the Past: The Spartan-Athenian Rivalry
(History's uncanny proclivity of repeating itself suggests that it is
either impossible, or excruciatingly difficult, to alter its course without
altering human nature or, at the very least, the educational system)
Interdisciplinarity: 1. Case for 2. Definition 3. Essence of (paper written for students) (A series of articles which cuts through much of the confusion surrounding the subject, disposes of such verbal and conceptual misnomers as "transdisciplinarity, pluridisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity . . ." and offers a commonsense definition of interdisciplinarity, a way of ranking interdisciplinary enterprises, an explanation of where interdsiciplinarity can be found, and an extensive discussion of the pluses and minuses of interdisciplinarity)
Bruxism: 1. Hypertext. 2. A taste-based approach. 3. When the Splint Fails: English; Español (The first thing to do, if you suffer from teeth clenching or grinding--or from any other health problem--is to take charge of your health and educate yourself. Your average dentist is not in a position to educate himself about the subject, and the remedies he dispenses are almost always useless--or worse than useless! These links will help you take charge)
Fiction: Study Artificial Intelligence, Young Man (If I had to do it all over again, I'd study artificial intelligence--conscious, intelligent machines could well be our best hope of living a legacy behind us, if and when we destroy ourselves. Moreover, the blueprints for the next generation of conscious beings--if such things could indeed be constructed--could be put together a bit more carefully than ours were)