The academy, once celebrated as society's vital center of intellectual life, has become in many respects a business enterprise whose primary concern is to keep itself in business, leaving the culture of ideas to languish. We might recover - or create - it in interstitial spaces and in interludes we seize for ourselves.

If you think the groves of academe are all stuffiness, elbow patches and greying old men... think again. Academia Obscura is an irreverent glimpse inside the ivory tower, exposing the eccentric and slightly unhinged world of university life. Take a trip through the spectrum of academic oddities and unearth the Easter eggs buried in peer reviewed papers, the weird and wonderful world of scholarly social media, and rats in underpants. Procrastinating PhD student Glen Wright invites you to peruse his cabinet of curiosities and discover what academics get up to when no one's looking. Welcome to the hidden silly side of higher education.

Includes new research and comprehensive reviews of recent trends in behavioral neuroendocrinology, including sexual and maternal behavior and brain sexual differentiation. Presents a combination of historical perspective with diversification of the field, driven both by ideas and by innovative methodologies. Illustrates the wide-ranging impact of the field of behavioral neuroendocrinology on our understanding of the interaction among brain, hormones, and behavior. Provides information on the integration of hormonal, neurotransmitter, and functional neuroanatomical mechanisms underlying species-typical reproductive behavior, including clinical implications.

Born into a wealthy, secular New York Jewish family, a student of the Ethical Culture School in New York, later educated in theoretical physics at Harvard, Cambridge (UK) and Göttingen (Germany), appointed professor at UC-Berkeley and Caltech, J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) was on the forefront of the rise of theoretical physics in the United States to world-class status, contributing to the century-altering success of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. As the scientific leader of that project, Oppenheimer played a key advisory role in government, helping to forge the post-war military-industrial-scientific alliance that poured huge resources into post-war “big science.” Because of his position, Oppenheimer became for the public the heroic cultural icon of American science, but he also became a target and a tragic victim of the cold-war fear and nuclear war preparations underlying the McCarthy era. This biographical study focuses on Oppenheimer’s cultural and intellectual rise as a theoretical physicist as well as his role within the trajectory of the nation’s rise to scientific leadership and the post-war forces that confronted American science. This biography is nearly unique in that it includes discussions for general audiences of Oppenheimer’s work and contributions to theoretical physics, including his famous prediction of black holes sixty years before their confirmed discovery. “Now David Cassidy brings us the best account of Oppenheimer’s life in science with J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century.” — T. Powers, New York Review of Books “Cassidy covers this ground admirably in his thoughtful biography of Oppenheimer.” —Scientific American “Cassidy’s book...is probably the best single study of Oppenheimer to date.” — B. Bernstein, Physics World “Cassidy’s biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a concise, well-written book about the life of the famous 20th century scientist... A worthwhile read for anyone with an interest in the coming of age of American physics and how the weaknesses and strengths of one of its leaders shaped the relationship between science and the government for decades to come.” — Physics and Society “This biography is a detailed and beautifully written work. Cassidy expands beyond the traditional scope of a biography and expertly explores the surrounding environment that shaped Oppenheimer’s life.” — Atomic Archive “This excellent biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer places the eminent physicist in the context of twentieth century America... Cassidy... provides excellent insights into the life and times of this complex man. Unlike many other biographers of Oppenheimer, Cassidy assesses his role as a twentieth century theoretical physicist.” — Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues “A superbly researched biography... There is no doubt that Cassidy gives us a valuable perspective on Oppenheimer’s life. The author is shy neither of editorializing nor of making judgments about the personalities who appear in the story... These comments are almost unfailingly fair and justified by the evidence.” — Times Higher Education “Cassidy... has written a book that neither praises Oppenheimer nor buries his reputation but, rather, puts some tarnish upon the icon.” — G. Herken, Science

Nearly 150 years of women's progress is charted in this compilation of significant women's obituariesWith entries dating from 1872 to 2013, the latest in TheTimes' series of anthologies of its obituaries focuses attention on almost two centuries of groundbreaking achievements by more than 100 women, from around the world. Mary Sommerville (d. 1872), the pioneering mathematician and scientist with whose obituary the anthology begins, would have been astonished by what many of the other women remembered here achieved—not least one of the more prominent graduates of the Oxford college that was named Somerville after her—Margaret Thatcher (d. 2013). The collection also recalls the lives of actresses, aviators, botanists, doctors, British royalty, musicians, Nobel Prize winners, novelists, travelers, U.S. First Ladies, and many other prominent women.

A professor and private detective is called in by an Oregon lawman for help with a high-profile murder . . . A mild-mannered college professor is an unlikely candidate to hunt down the killer of the town’s richest man and his movie star paramour. But because of a chance encounter years before, Max Blake, a former newspaper reporter-turned-professor and part-time private detective, is called in, and forced to form unusual and sometimes dodgy alliances, as he investigates the vicious killings with the city’s police chief. To make things worse, there’s a complicated history between Max and the chief—and the leading suspects are members of the city’s police force. The trail winds through the incredible mansion called Raptor’s Ridge and the streets and alleyways of Oregon’s state capital, and eventually spills into the beautiful but deadly High Desert near the town of John Day. When the killer is eventually cornered and violence explodes in unexpected ways, Max must use all of his wits and daring, plus a little bit of luck, to remain alive during a deadly night of terror . . . and eventual reckoning. Fans of the author’s Max Blake Westerns series will be delighted to discover this new and thoroughly modern Max—the great-great grandson and namesake of the legendary federal marshal who forms the basis of five previous novels.

"This whimsical musical about nutty mischievousness in an English girl's school and a cheerfully oblivious head mistress is full of the light hearted charm and sprightliness of British boarding school humor. The play takes the form of a series of miscellaneous pranks performed by the girls of Morrissey Hall, climaxing in a hilarious battle between students and faculty. Through it all is the imperturbably sunny and optimistic headmistress, trying to remain the center of sanity in the midst of the girls' comic and benign lunacy"--Publisher.