Citizen Science No. 5 by Jamie Zvirzdin The Power of the Placebo Effect,Part I: Magic Feathers and Medical Transparency Dumbo! C’mon, fly! Open them ears! The magic feather was just a gag! You can fly! Honest, you can!” I can recite many Disney movies almost word for word, but I also recall that the 1941 version of “Dumbo” made me acutely sad and anxious. And no wonder: a poor baby elephant with big ears is mocked by others at the…
Online home of The Freeman's Journal and Hometown Oneonta
Advertisement
jamie zvirzdin - Page 4
This isn’t a hand-wringing article about the moral decrepitude of cheaters, however; it is a wake-up call to teachers and educational administrators to change the game. Our expensive, competitive, performance-based emphasis on exams and grades have created a conflict-of-interest situation for students.…
While the analogy of “panning for science” has as many holes as a sieve, it is true that we humans are easily fooled by false scientific claims. Hope springs eternal: If it worked for them, surely it will work for me, too, we think. But a testimonial is not science. Real scientists—and citizens who understand science—will stop and sift the gathered data very carefully before joining the ranks of eager squealers.…
The vast majority of us want to be wise, we want to be safe, and we want to be good to our planet and each other, especially our kids. But false alarms stress us out: How can we keep our families and flocks safe from both wolves and little boys who cry wolf?…
Citizen Science No. 1 by Jamie Zvirzdin Introduction to Citizen Science: Finding Intellectual Security Imagine you’re sitting in science class. On the paper before you, there’s a homework problem you don’t understand. You raise your hand to seek clarity, but the teacher responds, “Oh, that problem is easy! Just use your intuition.” The teacher then rattles off a bunch of specialized words—science jargon—you just learned. “Thanks,” you say out loud, but your muddied thoughts are joined by the cold chill…
Morning Coffee Miracle: A Return to the Power of Local Community By JAMIE ZVIRZDINRICHFIELD SPRINGS – When I first visited my husband’s family in Richfield Springs back in 2007, my new grandma-in-law, Joyce Zvirzdin, told me what a thriving place Richfield Springs had been, how bustling the downtown area used to be—the restaurants, the spas, the shops, the cafés. I told her I wished I could have seen it. Fast-forward to May 31, 2021, when the whole Zvirzdin family went…
‘Subatomic Writing’ AuthorChallenging Old Notionsof Science Communication By TED MEBUST OLNEY, MD – Sitting alone in the back corner of the Richfield Springs Public Library, science writer and researcher Jamie Zvirzdin diligently crafted her latest publication, presumably with coffee in hand. It was October of 2018, six months since Zvirzdin and her son, Max, were forced to flee from Managua, Nicaragua following an outbreak of political upheaval that had flooded the capital’s streets with police and protestors. Her husband, Andrew,…
