The March/April, 1999 issue of The Sciences (published by the New York Academy of Science)has a number of interesting articles, some of which touch on topics that appeared in Tips recently. There is a short piece discussing an article from the November issue of Neuropsychologia that demonstrated that people who are naturally ambidextrous had 10% lower reading scores and 15% lower math scores than those who were right handed or left handed. The participants were tested when they were 11 for math, reading and handedness. Some brain speculations are presented for an explanation but no brain data were examined, as far as I can tell. The author talks about "hemispheric indecision" as a possible cause of the problem. To quote the article "Crow now suggests that ambidexterity arises when a developing brain takes too long to decide which hemisphere to favor." The journal also has an interesting article by Richard DeGrandpre, a psychologist and author of Ritalin Nation: Rapid-Fire Culture and the Transformation of Human Consciousness. In the article he complains that "Many neuroscientists are all too quick to call a blip on a brain scan the reason for behavior." He criticizes the confusing of correlation and causality in brain scan research and the dualist assumptions of the brain scan researchers (as well as the media). Finally, there is an interesting discussion of the relationship between science and religion as part of the book reviews of 3 books written on this topic. The review is by Margaret Wertheim, who has written herself about the relation between science and religion. I recommend all of these as good reads! Jeff Nagelbush [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ferris State University Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
