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2 Notable Moves in University-Press Publishing

April 26, 2011, 6:00 pm

By Jennifer Howard

Gregory M. Britton, the new editorial director of Johns Hopkins University Press.

The last few days have produced news of some important job shifts at university presses. Last Friday, Johns Hopkins University Press announced that it has hired Gregory M. Britton, head of the Getty Trust’s publishing programs, as its new editorial director. And today Yale University Press made public the news that Steve Wasserman, the former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, would be coming on board as editor-at-large, with a focus on general-interest books.

The Chronicle asked Britton, the new Hopkins editorial director, what had appealed to him about the job. “I am drawn to the opportunity to help shape a list that is both broad and deep in its scholarly reach,” he said in an e-mail. “My hope is to extend that reach to the intellectual edges of the fields they publish. Hopkins has a tradition of innovation, and I want to make that the hallmark of its book program. I also see this as an opportunity to influence Hopkins’ move into digital publishing for books and non-book publishing projects. This is a challenging time for scholarly publishers, and I admire how Hopkins has been proactive in meeting those challenges.”

The Hopkins announcement praised Britton’s work in both the print and digital realms. At Getty, it said, he “expanded publishing partnerships with European museums, launched the Getty Research Journal, and created an ambitious digital initiatives plan.” Before that, as director of the Minnesota Historical Society Press, “he oversaw a significant expansion of the publishing program and a resulting increase in sales and visibility.” Britton replaces Trevor Lipscombe, who recently left to become the director of the Catholic University of America Press.

“Britton shares our staff’s enthusiasm for the traditional values and aesthetics of print publishing, and his expertise will help us navigate the exciting digital future of books,” Kathleen Keane, the press’s director, said in the announcement.

Up the road at Yale, press director John Donatich, underscored Wasserman’s engagement with books and publishing. “Steve’s fascinating and varied career has put him at the center of public intellectual life in America,” Donatich said in the announcement. “He will bring great things to Yale Press’s unique program in publishing serious and scholarly works to the trade.”

In addition to editing the LAT‘s book section, Wasserman has held a number of other influential jobs in publishing. For instance, he has been editorial director at Hill & Wang and at Times Books and publisher of the Noonday Books imprint at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Most recently he’s worked as a literary agent at Kneerim and Williams, where he represents Christopher Hitchens, Michael Gorra, and other well-known writers. Yale noted in its announcement that Wasserman would continue with the agency but would not represent its clients in any dealings with the press.—Jennifer Howard

Photograph courtesy of J. Paul Getty Trust

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  • herbo2333

    “Following instructions correctly shows competence and respect–and may be an important part of the job. ”
    Its a fine advice and deserves consideration and impacting; if serious job hunting is required !

  • iris411

    I really don’t know the difference from resume and CV. Would you care to enlighten me on this? Why do you see them different?

  • enadin

    I was a grad student at a top research university in the US. on the street corners around the campus were stoplights; the stoplight posts had buttons affixed to signs stating “this button activates a tone for the hearing impaired. it will NOT activate the light signal.” I got SUCH a kick watching the world’s elite scientists push those buttons day after day, year after year. Sometimes the overachievers think they know everything and refuse to even READ the simple directions.

  • rebelgirl

    At the end of Crito, the laws tell Socrates that “you leave this place a victim not of laws, but of men.” When Socrates says “willingly,” doesn’t he mean no one does wrong having thought through the implications of actions clearly? (I always thought that was more moral suasion than analysis anyway: surely even Socrates knew a few plagiarists, and worse.)

  • raza_khan

    Okay… here is my issue with the artcile on a professional level.

    Currently, as part of my promotion project, I am looking at elements of our program learning outcomes. I have data and preliminary results for 400 students over 2 years of study. However, I would find it unthinkable to compile my thoughts together and write an article for Chronicle that is read and commented too nationwide and internationally as well.

    As much as interesting are the findings of the article, I find that it very premature work and should not have been considered for any publicatoin (local, regional or national) unless it has been duplicated and replicated at least 3 to 4 times over several years….

    Raza
    __________________________
    Raza Khan, Ph.D.
    dr.raza.khan@gmail.com

  • mbelvadi

    But what about the person who realizes that there is such a huge disconnect between the value of learning and the functional purpose of the gpa, that they can separate in their minds the act of cheating to boost the gpa in order to achieve the “secular” aims of a univ degree, while at the same time trying to actually learn as much as they can to achieve their “spiritual” aims. I never cheated, but I suffered through enough stupid long-paper and “group project” assignments that had absolutely nothing to do (that I could perceive) with the real and valuable material I was learning in the lectures and readings that I can completely sympathize with the pragmatist who might see the learning process and the gpa as completely orthogonal goals.

  • mbelvadi

    But if everyone did as you say, how would anyone ever earn tenure? Their publication rate would be far too low!

  • sfeasterlewis

    This is an interesting study. I would like to see more on the topic. Students who cheat on tests do so for a variety of reasons — including they haven’t studied or they don’t feel well. Actually they are breaking two Commandments — “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness [lie].” Pressure on teachers and students is huge. Some teachers cheat when they give students the answers to standardized tests and lie about the scores in order to look good.. Are we letting our students get away with not learning the content? Are we letting some teachers get away with giving out answers to standardized tests (in the name of getting good scores)? They — students, their parents, teachers, principals, and parents — should strive to meet these two standards, which are appropriate for everyone, everywhere.. Have you ever lied about an action or stolen answers or ideas from someone else? Hmmmm.

  • mcphslibrary

    How about the people who don’t believe in god, how do they fare? Or how about the ones who have read the bible and realize that ‘that god’ is neither A nor B but a combiniation of the two….how do they do on the study?

  • robjenkins

    Thanks, ccprofmo. I appreciate your support. If enough of us say this loudly and often enough, perhaps we can reverse the trend away from liberal arts education toward job training. Perhaps one point we need to be making is that a quality liberal arts education IS good job training.

    Best,
    Rob

  • raza_khan

    I find that our education system is broken and ineffective and we at community college feel the brunt of this. The fundamental underlying issue I believe is the disconnect and perhaphs intentional lack of communication across to the “other side”

    We all know well that there are excellent students and excellent teachers in the K-12 system across the country. However, we all realize that No Child Left Behind has prompted the teachers to preach to the test and for the K-12 system to ensure no one student is “left behind” even though it may be in the child’s best interest.

    So, why is that an issue for us at the community colleges? … Other than the obvious “duh!” reply, we now are forced to cater to the community needs and one of them is to provide developmental courses to students who have passed high school, earned their diploma but are really not academically ready for college. I can probably say with a high certainity (or higher confidence interval) that 99% of community college faculty members have yet to sit down with high school teachers in bi-annually or even annually meetings to discuss what is required of students as pre-requisites.

    The same is true when it comes to community colleges and the 4-year institutions. The issue I see is is not academic preparation but as to how we prepare our students. At community colleges, we offer smaller class sizes, teaching is the major responsibility for the faculty and we offer a lot of support to our students. However, the ball game changes at 4-year where you may have 400-student classes, where faculty members are teaching only one class and are bogged down in research as part of tenure process or better yet may be teaching the class from overseas via webcam or may even have TA’s teach the class too!! Also, there is slightly to moderately less intensity of focus on student support at 4-year institutions.

    We first may have to look at what is not working on our campus. Then, we must be willing to talk to our partners – those where our students come from and those where they go to at all academic levels. Short of that, we are doing a great injustice to our younger generation.

    My above observations are based on teaching at a doctoral, comprehensive, 4-year and 2-year colleges in the last 13 years at DC, CO, IL, NE, OR, CA and now at MD.

    best,

    Raza
    _____________________________
    Raza Khan, Ph.D.
    dr.raza.khan@gmail.com

  • elfnes2

    I wonder what you really think . . .?

  • seniorprofessor

    Several budgetary studies have shown that these kinds of funds (including BCA, etc.) do help the non-profitable sports programs but do not flow or flow in minuscule amounts into academics. Typical is the case of Boise State University which now has its hand out to taxpayers to pay for a new stadium (much of it for the benefit of the wealthy alum business community) while academic programs are being cut back for a lack of state funding, etc.

    Some of this money gets taxed but the creative accountants manage to hide most of it under the “education” tax-free boxes long enough to escape, then it goes back to Athletics, Inc. It’s high margin money too since the workers are not paid; only the coaches are in 7-8 figure salaries.

    College Athletics, Inc. is taxpayer fraud waiting to be exposed.

  • badger74

    Until they start writing checks to cover their attendance, room & board, books etc. the athletes are getting paid pretty well. The total value at an our of state or private university is upwards of $50,000 per year–tax free to the student/athlete. That’s about $75,000 before tax equivalent. Yes, they work hard for that in the income sports such as football and basketball. But for every player that gets the scholarship deal there are 100 that would love to take their spot. So there already is a market clearing amount being paid.
    What the extra money will do is allow some of the smaller PAC 12 schools such as WSU compete without needing to ask the students or state for more money.

  • michalb

    Can’t say much about faculty meetings, but I’ve been a keen observer of the social geography of the classroom for a long time, and I think A’s in front and C’s in back is a little too simplistic. I’ve observed consistently across many kinds of contexts that there are Front-of-the-room A students and Back-of-the-room A students, and the Back A’s are often the better critical thinkers (nothing like a little alienation to sharpen the senses).

  • hasslera

    I’m nearsighted. I always sit up front.

  • goodeyes

    This also happens in auditoriums.  Faculty that sit far in the back send a message that others must do their loads of service work.  They like to complain but never actually hlep solve any problems. 

  • 11272784

    I have always figured the ones in front were the ones willing to pay attention. Being a new faculty member is a lot like going to class; show up, take notes, and do the work.

  • flintlock

    What about those faculty who are trying to kneel behind the president?

  • et001247

    Thank you for this reminder of why I left college teaching!

  • syllabus_geek

    I can only speak to the college student equivalent, and for the most part, the A’s were in the front and the C’s were on the sides.  In my callow opinion, I recommend always sitting in the second or third row; unless you’re at the movie theater.

    @chronicle-6759d0996526ddc8e27aa550f0b806b1:disqus If you teach online, I say some how get a live feed and tweet live about it! ; )

  • 22122118

    If your president (or provost) is by his or her disciplinary background a historian, remember that the choice of one’s location in any plenary assembly is informed by the example of the National Convention (1792-95) in France. On the right, and this was a carry-over from the previous Legislative Assembly (1791-92), liberal or constitutional monarchists, who by the time the Convention began meeting were few and far between; effectively, this became a conservative, if not reactionary, position (e.g., readers of Edmund Burke). On the left, and at the rear on the high seats, radical republicans, many of them members of the Jacobin Club (readers of Jean-Jacques Rousseau). In the center, and in the front, a miscellany of deputies of varying ”moderate” opinion for whose votes both the “right” and the “left” competed.

    Maybe more to the point, the radical Jacobins at the left rear are remembered as “The Mountain.” Those in the middle were deemed, variously, “The Plain,” “The Marsh,” or “The Swamp.” Those on the right aren’t remembered at all.

    So choose your seating with these origins of parliamentary geography in mind. Sitting with “The Mountain,” in addition to increasing one’s chances for seizing control of a legislative body–vide Danton, Robespierre, et al.–also allows an easy escape should the political battles turn lethal, as they frequently did in the early 1790s, or should the speechifying become intolerable, a far more likely circmstance in faculty meetings today than in sessions of the Convention.

  • jmwh7018

    Interesting – I sit in the back because I have hearing problems, and any noise behind me makes it difficult to hear the person addressing a room.  There are plenty of reasons to sit in the front or back of a room that have nothing at all to do with a person’s temperament…

  • david_brown

    I always sat in the back as an undergraduate, and usually got A’s. I get slightly claustrophobic and feel more comfortable sitting near an exit. So perhaps judging people by where they sit ranks right up there with making judgments based upon hairstyles, skin color, clothing, height or weight.

  • jwbatey

    Listen.  Learning to listen is more important than where to sit.

  • kphagen

    Sherlock Holmes mistrusted anyone who sat with his back to the light, thinking it meant the person had something to hide. After learning he had wrongly suspected a woman due to her seating choice he stated, “And yet the motives of women are so inscrutable. You remember the woman at
    Margate whom I suspected for the same reason. No powder on her nose — that
    proved to be the correct solution. How can you build on such a quicksand? Their
    most trivial action may mean volumes, or their most extraordinary conduct may
    depend upon a hairpin or a curling tongs.”

  • gabrielinaz

    I once heard that those who sit in front are more detail oriented while those who sit towards the back are more concerned about the big-picture.  However, I am an administrator and have precious little empirical evidence for this concept. 

  • darccity

    Rules for new faculty who ever hope to get tenure:
    1. Never solicit advice from a faculty colleague, unless you are prepared to do whatever he or she advises. Instead, if you want to learn the inside dope about surviving at the institution, just get them talking about various subjects. However, don’t ever ask questions in the form ”What should I do ….?”
    2. You don’t need to invite faculty over to your home, but you do need to talk with them one on one or at small groups going to impromptu lunches. Most faculty love to talk about themselves anyway. I cannot count the times that tenure-track faculty with decent publications never knew they were dead in the water simply because tenure committee members at the department and college level didn’t know who they were. The latter won’t get you tenure, but it sure can blow your chances. Women especially tend to work in their office during lunch times while wiser colleagues chew the fat over pizza. Tenure is not a reward rationally decided by enlightened administrators. It’s your colleagues who have the most say, and they won’t give the keys to their castle to someone they don’t know or trust.
    3. Thinking you know and understand senior faculty because they are congenial and appear to like you. These are very complex creatures with several faces they can show. Your fate will never matter to them unless you can either benefit them (co-author research, help bring in grant money) or are a potential threat to them (possibly show them up or take resources and perks away if you get tenure). The faculty who is nicest to you may be your greatest opponent, while the gruff, uncivil colleague may have your support (he is just that way with everyone).

  • Juan2X

    And this ladies and gentleman reflects the highest levels of intellect in this country….How about one might sit in the back to observe and not to come off as an arrogant a – hole at his/her first meeting?  of course that CAN’T be it… that’s not the macho western way.

  • daniel_von_flanagan

    Thank you for this intriguing link.

  • okieinexile

    I always sat in the back of my math classes.  I got As but was surrounded by friends who got Ds.  I suppose this means my friends were important to me but I didn’t let them affect my grade.

  • crankycat

    In a faculty meeting sit next to someone who can clue you in to the back story to what’s going on. Pay attention. Learn where the toes are – avoid stepping on them. And learn the names of the administrative staff who can help you actually get things done.

  • ufenglish

    So unfair. New folks often sit in back and are quiet out of deference. I look to see affect and engagement. Hecklers sit in front, too!

  • bbaylis

    Several have commented about the similiarities between administrators judging faculty and faculty judging students. In my forty years in the academy, I would have to agree with those evaluations. In one of my first faculty fall workshops, a second year faculty member inquired of his more senior colleagues, how they got students to pay attention to assignments and deadlines. One of the more senior faculty members stood up and said, “It shouldn’t surprise us that students don’t pay attention to us. We’ve just sat through three hours of hearing how many of us have ignored deadlines and requirements. The students are just imitating us.
    In regard to A students in the front and deadbeats in the back, I would like to offer another take on the subject: Distance Education begins at Twelve Feet 
    http://bybaylishighered.wordpress.com Scroll down to the third posting on this page for the Twelve Feet explanation.

  • robjenkins

    I’ve always found that you have to arrive pretty early, for any kind of meeting, to get a seat in the back.

  • markcarnes

    We sit at the back of the room because we’ve learned to do so from our students.  As Anna, that great pedagogue, explained, before she became entangled in a harassment scandal with her celebrity student, ”If you become a teacher, by your pupils you’ll be taught.” 

  • undercovermother

    good point

  • undercovermother

    Nearsightedness was the sole reason why I sat up in front in every classroom from 4th grade on. In retrospect I believe being forced to sit in front is what MADE me a good student. And ultimately a university professor…

  • totoro

    I like to sit in the back to see the whole room and who is asking questions etc. Or I sit right in the middle of the room if it’s really big. Sitting at the front usually means looking up at the screen and not knowing who is speaking from the audience.

  • raymond_j_ritchie

    As any student knows, the safest place to sit is in the top left-hand corner.  The arrangement for the senior faculty is quite revealing about what sort of place you are in.  If they sit all at one long table facing the rest of you beware.

  • manoflamancha

    Poppycock…don’t you people have anything better to do?

  • http://hiresteve.com/ Steve Foerster

    Then it doesn’t matter because your administration isn’t going to give a crap about you no matter what.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_F2SYSF4QW43HUOOU4P5HCONPCA anne

    I will add that in the states where it is legal, record all your conversations. From the second that you start your interview to the last second that you will be in that job. Hire a lawyer before you sign a contract and keep that lawyer aware of anything that does not seem right to you. Remember, the university has a lawyer and he/she is consulted on anything before they talk with you…
    Just keeping away from all the cliques it does not mean that you will not be attacked. It can happen that the cliques will attackyou just because you are doing your job.

  • raza_khan

    Hi Gene

    I believe that we are comparing apples to watermelons with no disrespect intended to oranges…  watermelons are the way to go during a summer. ….

    Okay.. back to the topic….A faculty meeting in a large rool or in an auditorium is not the same as classroom unless you are referring to a clasroom from the 60s.    A classroom is where we “engage” the students into dialogue, question-answer sessions, group sessions so of course those who are more comfortable in such participation tend to sit front.  Do they get higher grades… well,  show me the research and then justify some of the diverging data….  In faculty meeting, it tends to be “annoucement session” with very little opportunity of what I refer to a true dialogue session.  Okay.. once in a blue moon… there may be group sessions….  That is the reality at almost all colleges …. of course there are those faculty who just do not even show up – which I believe is not excusable regarrdless of the meeting agenda.

    Raza
    ___________________
    Raza Khan, Ph.D.
    Dr.Raza.Khan@gmail.com

  • graced

    My concern is that these technologies diminish the meaning of being physically present to family, friends, or colleagues. I witness this daily as students and faculty walk across campus, often side by side, while talking and texting, or walk around in their heads, iPod-oblivious to the physical realities around them.

  • ucc_business

    The article doesn’t mention using computers for education’s core business – student learning.  Software is now available from companies like Knewton and Grockit to provide content and formative assessment and student collaboration in a Mobile, 24/7 environment. Adaptive/Collaborative Learning will change and greatly improve learning and the results.  It will attack college’s biggest problems, retention and graduation rates, particularly for community colleges and for the under-prepared students.

  • profkevans

    It could be possible that quite the opposite occurs; a more widening instead of narrowing of circles in which true debates and dialogues can begin? 

  • http://unicq.net/ Huijia Phua

    Completely agree. That’s why a couple of us international students studying in the US set up a community site to reach out and help our fellow prospective students learn about studying and life here in general. In time, we hope to facilitate communications between college officials and students on our platform. Appreciate everyone’s kind support for our student-driven initiative here: unicq.net

  • 11272784

    The Nematodes…wasn’t that a psychedelic band around 1969?

  • http://twitter.com/ValentinoBenito Valentino Martinez

    When you get past 60 years of age, as I have, the drama of the coming end seems to find its way to the heart of the matter–that that remote thought that the end of me is really quite near.

    Not only is it a sobering thought it is a motivating thought that what always mattered to me matters even more now.

  • Socratease2

    That idea of “death deacceleration” may have been an unchallenged mathematical/statistical finding for a while but seems that a 5 year old could have told you that sounds wrong. It takes really smart people to act that confused.

  • darccity

    Solutions:
    1. Cryogenic freezing (worked for Woody Allen)
    2a. Suspended animation during space flight, like they do in all the movies (caution: don’t wait we must to abandon Earth following global climate change or nuclear war — spaceships will be full).
    2b. Space travel near speed of light so we age much less rapidly (like Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes). Or use an inflinite probability machine to visit the restaurant at the end of the universe
    3. Do a Logan’s Run to the surface if your hand ever starts glowing (avoid ray gun fire though)
    4. Transfer your consciousness to a robot or computer to become immortal (Star Trek episodes)
    5. Reincarnate, coming back in a more favorable time and existence if karma is favorable
    6. Have slaves build a pyramid with a secret chamber
    7a. Switch to a religion with the true deity and follow its dictate so you can spend eternity in heaven
    7b. Switch to a religion whose messiah is due during your lifetime (consult actuarial tables, scriptures, and prophets or alternatively use introspection to realize that a messiah is sure to come during your lifetime). Then follow step in 7a above and follow the shining path to the rapture
    8. Build a time machine and travel far enough into the future to when they have cures for aging
    9. Late in life, move to Sweden, learn language, master the game of chess, and get cast in a movie (not involving dragon tattoos). Then play Death for your life. Tip: be wary of the Nabbakov Gambit and don’t let the Grim Reaper distract you with discussion of existential philosophy.
    10. Determine if you are already immortal. Wrong way to test: stab yourself in heart and see if you die. Right way to test: notice that you’ve never died before, so you could be immortal. Continue testing each year. Empirically, you notice that test on yourself never observes a dead response. Not so for your scientific control group: other people your age. Notice the control group dying off and at an increasing rate but you never do (don’t ever believe doctors who say you are dying — they don’t realize you are immortal). Of course the Social Security data is flawed because we know from Twilight Zone (also retold in Star Trek and Highlander) that immortals simply change the IDs and relocate whenever their current spouses age too much.

  • Guest

    I’m just now reading The Last Mortal Generation: How Science Will Alter Our Lives in the 21st Century, first published in 1999 by the Australian polymath Damien Broderick.  His account hooked me with the notion that senescence may not be inevitable, but “a sentence botched by a DNA spelling mistake.”

    There’s a lot to be said for the notion that, as a species, we’ve only begun to mature psychologically and intellectually about the same time the grim reaper comes knocking on our door.  

  • EllenHunt

     It’s true, what you said. But having some background in the area, I think that Damien is blowing smoke. Or DNA program unfolding is a one-way program that was never intended to do anything but run out. Getting immortality, or even very long life (500 – 1000 years) out of it will be very difficult.

    We know how to make cells immortal, that’s easy. It’s called cancer. Keeping the whole organism alive for far too long is a very different trick requiring a lot of cell death.

  • EllenHunt

    Ahem. Mathematical purist chirping in here. The statement “The older you get, the more likely you are to die.” is not correct. Your odds of dying are always 100%, no matter what age you are.

    The older you get, the more likely you are to die in the coming year (or some other defined time span) is correctly stated. Yes, I know we mostly all understand the difference, but these things bug me. A “Monk” character trait, like my being bothered by those postmile markers on the road which are never at even multiples.

  • darccity

    That’s why it is called a mortality RATE! Or to mix rates with eventual outcome, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” You are taxed each time interval or for each purchase or activity (though loopholes can exempt you). But since a huge proportion of people who’ve ever lived are currently alive, eventual death of all today (and as yet unborn) requires a world where “androids dream of robotic sheep” to posit (rewatch Blade Runner for the context).

  • Guest

    EH: >a one-way program that was never intended to do anything but run out.>>

    Intended by whom?

    I don’t speak for him, but Broderick can blow smoke with the best of them, for sure.  The first sentence of his now 13-year-old text is a quote (epigraph) by Roger Gosden: “No one but a crank would say that a cure for aging is just around the corner.”  And elsewhere: “scepticism is understandably more prevalent than optimism.”  He goes on, discussing S. Jay Olshansky at U of Chicago, to say: “Olshansky argues that so many of us now live far beyond our reproductive years because the rugged engineering built by evolution into the species is bolstered, but only up to a point, by technology’s protective environments.  We are like race cars: not _designed_ to fail, just not fashioned for extended operation.”

    My own academic background is in rhetoric (a discipline with no content), but I have an insatiable appetite for popularizations of contemporary science.  Why do non-cancerous entities live such various “normal” life spans: from a summer’s day to three years, to 20, to 120, to those ancient turtles Galapagosing around their island?

    We often hear the statement that human DNA is, like, 98% the same as that of chimps, but I want to know how similar we are to Mayflies and turtles.  If I could rewind my own bio-program, I would start my professional life over as a specialist in common knowledge.

  • dank48

     Actually, as the error-message haiku (and I wish I knew the author) points out,

      Three things are certain:
      Death, taxes, and data loss.
      Guess which has occurred.

    And the seven billion or so of us now living are not a “huge proportion” of the hundred billion or so Homo sapiens sapiens who have lived. It’s a popular but erroneous UL that most people who’ve lived are still alive.

    I could be wrong, but I think the question is whether androids dream of electric sheep. And it seems to me that, while my interest in the play is as strong as ever, as various people I care for step from the stage, the production–however randomly written in reality–sometimes seems to have been written so that, when it comes time for my own exit from the scene, I just won’t mind all that much.

  • 11182967

    The usual explanation for mortality deceleration has been that beyond a certain age the major “non-aging” causes of death–combat, auto accidents, sudden heart attacks, and even many cancers have been “out-lived,” and thus there is nothing much left to die from except “old age” (I’ve survived neurosurgery at age 21, a major wreck at 41, and prostate cancer at 56, eg).  But a little thought suggests that it has been modern medicine rather than some natural process which enables more of us to live to that old age and, particularly, to linger, often horribly, once old age arrives. 

    Further, the proportion of persons who die at a particular old age must surely increase as people age beyond a certain point: ie, the odds of a person dying at age 105, given the relatively small number of such people, must surely be higher than the odds of a person dying at age 80.  This too would seem to be in part a function of modern medicine.  Even the most devoted practititoners and family members are unlikely to try to keep the 105-year-old alive, no matter how sound her underlying health, by using all available extraordinary measures.  But even a healthy 80-year-old is likely to get a “healthy dose” of life-saving or life-extending medical assistance.

    Actuarial analysis like the Gompertz Law describes, however accurately, an end result.  The interesting stuff, however, is what leads to the results.   

  • Nicholas

    Here’s an idea: stop trying to prolong life in nematodes and start trying to do it for people!

  • dwheelermd

    I think “criminal species” can easily be blamed on the writer, and will not reflect badly on the scientist. Thanks for the alert on the ESA meeting! –David Wheeler

  • msuttles

    First year criminology students, or second year depending on the classes and professors, know that criminal profiling points to those who get arrested, not to who the criminals are.

    This would have been a great article all by itself without attempting to reinvigorate near-ancient positivist thought that argues deviance and crime are intrinsic. Comparing humans to the natural world, which was a main element to rationalize positivist thought in the early 1800s, can, and did, only lead to criminal labeling.

    This article, sadly, will give the established order all the ammunition they need to revitalize outdated, and logically deficient, criminology theories.

    The author has a great article here on natural science; I wish he would have left it that way rather than comparing two opposite worlds. I can practically guarantee that I will hear of this from one of my students once the corporate media gets wind of it. FYI, I actually had to correct one of my students once who tried to pass off the Stockholm syndrome as a scholarly theory of criminal behavior. But then that’s why we’re here, to teach.

    Overall informative article dwheeler, but social science could do without the criminology camparison to the natural world. I guess in hind sight I should be grateful though, now we’ll have more discussion.

    My best regards,
    Morris

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