Results 1 - 50 of 361
|
Page 1 of 8
|
|
Results per-page: 10 | 20 | 50 | 100
|
Paul Davies on ‘What’s Eating the Universe?’
Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and best-selling author is Regents’ Professor of Physics and director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University. His research has explored quantum gravity, black holes, early-universe cosmology, and astrobiology as it relates to the origin of life. In 1995 he became the third physicist to be awarded the Templeton Prize, both for his groundbreaking research and his work engaging philosophers, religious leaders and the public around questions of the universe’s origin and nature. Nate Barksdale, lead writer for the John Templeton Foundation’s “Possibilities” newsletter, recently spoke with Davies…
Q&A: Five Questions with Betül Kaçar
Betül Kaçar is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona in the departments of Cell Biology and Astronomy. Her research investigates molecular mechanisms of evolution, the origins of life, and the distribution of life throughout the universe. Her research team uses a new approach that infers ancient DNA sequences using phylogenetics, engineers these reconstructed DNA inside microbial genomes, and reanimates them in order to study ancient enzymes in modern organisms. Kaçar’s work at the University of Arizona and previously at Harvard University has been supported by multiple grants from the John Templeton Foundation, including the latest $357,843 grant “Molecular…
High school debate turns to the Big Questions
Does science leave room for free will? High school debaters have some ideas. More than 9,000 students, coaches, and parents converged in Birmingham, Ala., the last week of June for the National Speech and Debate Association’s national tournament. On Friday afternoon, in one of the tournament’s climactic events, high school students from South Dakota and Missouri faced off in the 1,000-seat BJCC Theatre to debate whether science leaves room for free will. It was a profound enough topic on its own, but the event was also noteworthy as the national championship debut of a new kind of high school debate,…
Into the Unknown: Foundation Reports from the Edge of Physics
Four new scientific reviews tackle the origins of space, time, and the universe—and the mystery of why the cosmos seems ideally suited for human life. What happened before the Big Bang? Is our cosmos precisely tuned to foster life? Is time an illusion? What are the building blocks of reality? On Friday, November 12, science think-tank the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi) will publish the first in a new series of reports that unravel these and other perplexing questions. “These reports cover some of humanity’s deepest and oldest questions about where we come from, who we are, the fate of the…
Strategic Priority Q&A: Health, Religion, & Spirituality
Please note: The information in this article reflects our strategic priorities at the time of writing and may change over time. To confirm our current funding interests, please view our Funding Areas. This conversation is the fourth in a series of conversations about the Strategic Priorities that the John Templeton Foundation will be funding over the next five years. This interview with Kimon Sargeant, Vice President, Programs, was conducted and edited by Christina Van Riper, Executive Associate, Programs. To get started, why don’t you share a little about your story – what brought you to the Foundation? What made…
Strategic Priority Q&A: Programs in Latin America
Please note: The information in this article reflects our strategic priorities at the time of writing and may change over time. To confirm our current funding interests, please view our Funding Areas. This conversation is the second in a series of conversations about the Strategic Priorities that the John Templeton Foundation will be funding over the next five years. This interview with Alexander Arnold, senior program officer in Philosophy & Theology, was conducted and edited by Alyssa Settefrati, Communications Specialist. What are the ideas and goals behind Programs in Latin America? It helps to understand what the general idea…
Strategic Priority Q&A: Intellectual Humility
This conversation is the first in a series of conversations about the Strategic Priorities that the John Templeton Foundation will be funding over the next five years. This interview with Richard Bollinger, program officer in Character Virtue Development, was conducted and edited by Benjamin Carlson, director of strategic communication. What is intellectual humility? Many people agree that the core definition has to do with recognizing and owning one’s own limitations and recognizing that one’s perspective is incomplete and at times even incorrect. Where there’s some disagreement is how much more you add to that concept. For example, some people include…
How to Think Better: Five Questions with Nathan Ballantyne
Nathan Ballantyne is a philosopher at Fordham University in New York City who focuses on questions about improving human judgment and inquiry. His 2019 book Knowing Our Limits offers a multidisciplinary approach for thinking about controversial topics. In 2018 he received an Academic Cross-Training fellowship from the John Templeton Foundation to build interdisciplinary experience in social psychology and cognitive science. Ballantyne spoke recently with Nate Barksdale, lead writer for the John Templeton Foundation’s “Possibilities” newsletter, about his epistemological journey and his recent work. How did you get interested in your field? As an undergraduate student, I commuted from my parents’…
Q&A: Five Questions with Jeffrey Rosen
Journalist and legal commentator Jeffrey Rosen is President and CEO of the National Constitution Center (NCC) in Philadelphia and led the development of the John Templeton Foundation-funded Interactive Constitution. Rosen is also a professor at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He spoke recently with Nate Barksdale, lead writer for the John Templeton Foundation’s Possibilities newsletter, about how the NCC has responded and adapted to the COVID-19 era, as well as the big questions being raised by the personal and collective challenges of the pandemic. How is the COVID-19 crisis affecting the National Constitution…
Foundational Questions In Cosmology
Why is the universe the way it is? Ancient societies over told creation stories to answer that question, which seems to be as old as human civilization itself. Cosmology seeks new answers. Millennia later, the urge to understand the integrated whole of reality, and humans’ place in it, remains undiminished. Indeed, in some respects the universe turns out to be far more vast and astonishing than our ancestors imagined — making questions of its origins and structure even more compelling areas for investigation. Exploring these kinds of big questions is a central aim of the John Templeton Foundation, so we support a number of projects…
National Series of High School Debates on the Big Questions
Expanding Big Questions Debate
Training Faculty to Tackle the Big Questions of Today and Tomorrow
A new round of fellowships will equip tenured philosophers and theologians to dive deeply into the empirical sciences From the origin of the universe and the emergence of life to the meaning of human existence, certain “Big Questions” are so big that they transcend individual disciplines and beg to be examined from multiple perspectives. In order to help spur more fruitful interdisciplinary engagement, the John Templeton Foundation is offering a new round of $220,000 fellowships to provide recently tenured philosophers and theologians the opportunity to spend up to three academic years in “academic cross-training” in deep engagement with the empirical…
WOW, WHY, HOW?
Post by post, Orbiter is building an online archive of wonder as it explores the big questions of the natural and social sciences When describing his mission as managing editor of ORBITER magazine, Mark Moring considers the principal characters in the original Star Trek series. “I think about Spock, who was obviously intensely interested in the science, the technology, and the nuts and bolts of how things worked,” Moring says. “But he never really asked the questions of why things work the way they do. Kirk, on the other hand, was bold to the point of being reckless, sometimes making…
Strategic Priority Q&A: Science of Virtues
Please note: The information in this article reflects our strategic priorities at the time of writing and may change over time. To confirm our current funding interests, please view our Funding Areas. This conversation is the third in a series of conversations about the Strategic Priorities that the John Templeton Foundation will be funding over the next five years. This interview with Sarah Clement, Senior Director, Character Virtue Development, was conducted and edited by Benjamin Carlson, Director, Strategic Communication. To get started, why don’t you share a little about your story – what brought you to the Foundation? What…
Arete Big Questions Accelerator
Q&A: Five Questions with Matt Warner
Matt Warner is president of Atlas Network, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization connecting a global network of more than 500 free-market organizations in over 90 countries to the ideas and resources needed to promote individual freedom and to identify and remove barriers to human flourishing. Warner is the project leader for the John Templeton Foundation-funded grant Doing Development Differently, which works with think tanks in dozens of countries to identify and support “locally grown solutions to poverty.” This interview was conducted and edited by Nate Barksdale, lead writer for the John Templeton Foundation’s “Possibilities” newsletter. How did you first get…
Q&A: Five Questions with Jason Marsh
Jason Marsh is the executive director of the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) at the University of California, Berkeley, and the founding editor-in-chief of the center’s award-winning online magazine, Greater Good. The GGSC sponsors research into social and emotional well-being and provides resources to help people apply this research to their personal and professional lives. Marsh was recently featured in TIME magazine’s “Apart. Not Alone” series responding to the COVID-19 crisis in a list of “27 People Bridging Divides Across America.” The GGSC has published an online Guide to Well-Being during Coronavirus, including advice about approaches for practicing character virtues…
Big Questions Debate, The Final Round
The Big Questions Debates [Planning Phase]
Developing the Exploration of Big Questions with Under 18s in the UK and Internationally
Raising the profile of Science and the Big Questions (SABQ) research and researchers
The Big Ideas Series: Production, Distribution, and Evaluation, The World Science Festival (WSF)
Special Issue and Sections in ‘The New Atlantis’ Dedicated to Big Questions
PRX’s Big Questions: New Podcast Voices in Science and the Big Questions
Expanding the Dialogue: Reaching a New Generation of University Audiences with Science and the Big Questions
Dr. Matthew Walhout Joins John Templeton Foundation as Vice President, Natural Sciences
West Conshohocken, PA – Dr. Matthew Walhout, former Dean for Research and Scholarship and professor of physics and astronomy at Calvin College, has joined the John Templeton Foundation as Vice President, Natural Sciences. In this role, Dr. Walhout serves on the Program Leadership Team, working closely with the President to develop strategic alignment across the Foundation’s funding priorities in Science and the Big Questions. The Science and the Big Questions funding area supports innovative efforts to address the deepest questions facing humankind and includes programs in natural sciences, human sciences, philosophy and theology, and public engagement. The natural sciences department…
Strategic Priority Q&A: Cultural Evolution
Please note: The information in this article reflects our strategic priorities at the time of writing and may change over time. To confirm our current funding interests, please view our Funding Areas. This conversation is the fifth in a series of conversations about the Strategic Priorities that the John Templeton Foundation will be funding over the next five years. This interview with Paul Wason, Vice President, Life Sciences & Genetics, was conducted and edited by Caitlyn Frazier, Communications Intern. To get started, why don’t you share a little about your story. What brought you to the Foundation?…
Opening Up on Open Science
The director of the Center for Open Science speaks with Templeton.org about the “reproducibility crisis” and his organization’s plans to help scientific research stay true to its values. In late August, subscribers to the email list of the Association for Psychological Science got the latest roundup of studies published in the field’s preeminent empirical journal. Every one of the studies had a badge next to it indicating “Open Data,” meaning that the researchers were making available all of the underlying data to others to examine and probe. The Open Data badge is just one initiative from the Center for Open…
EXPANDING “SCIENCE FOR SEMINARIES”
Equipping tomorrow’s clergy to discuss scientific findings and technological advances — and the big questions they raise Today the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the John Templeton Foundation announce a $6.1 million grant to expand their work with the Association of Theological Schools to make more scientific material available to Christian seminary students in their core courses. The major dollar investment is matched by a five-year time commitment — both on the high end of the Foundation’s usual grantmaking practices — because of the strategic success of the project’s first phase, as well as the exciting prospects for its…
Video: Why Intellectual Humility Matters
What is intellectual humility? And how might practicing this virtue help to make people more thoughtful, open, and happy? A new video produced by the John Templeton Foundation in partnership with Freethink media company shares insights from the latest research and scholarship to shed light on these questions. Watch to learn more: "Intellectual humility goes back to one of the core purposes of what Sir John Templeton was trying to achieve," says Richard Bollinger, program officer in Character Virtue Development for the Foundation. "He believed the nature of reality was too big for any one person or one discipline to…
Promoting the Philosophy of Religion at Rutgers University
Cross-Training to Understand Confucian Culture
A multidisciplinary investigation of ‘How China Became Chinese.’ Ryan Nichols joined the faculty of Cal State Fullerton in 2006, gained tenure four years later, and became a full professor of philosophy in 2014. He quickly notched up an impressive track record as a scholar, teacher, and book author, with expertise in Chinese philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and the cognitive science of religion. But in 2018 Nichols went back to school, becoming a full-time undergraduate and graduate student at Fullerton and at UCLA, to pursue a specially-tailored program in the social and biological sciences. Nichols’ project was enabled by a…
Big Ideas Series Production, Distribution, and Evaluation, The World Science Festival (WSF)
Mariano Artigas Memorial Lecture (MAML)
Science Friday Big Questions Digital Video Series
Big Questions Online Pilot and Planning Grant
Strategic Priority Q&A: Religious Cognition
Please note: The information in this article reflects our strategic priorities at the time of writing and may change over time. To confirm our current funding interests, please view our Funding Areas. This conversation is the sixth in a series of conversations about the Strategic Priorities that the John Templeton Foundation will be funding over the next five years. This interview with Nicholas J. S. Gibson, Senior Program Officer, Human Sciences, was conducted and edited by Benjamin Carlson, Director, Strategic Communication. To get started, why don’t you share a little about your story – what brought you to the…
End of Year Message from President Heather Templeton Dill
Dear Friends, Curiosity is one of the core principles that guides our work at the John Templeton Foundation. How can we live meaningful and purposeful lives? How does our social context inform decisions that we make or the way we interact with each other? How does basic science research contribute to human flourishing – even when it takes years to get results or to transform our understanding? These questions drive our curiosity because they focus on the role that humans play in making the world a better place. This year, perhaps more than others in recent memory, reminded us why…
World Science Festival Big Ideas Series
New $5.34 Million Grant to Examine the Neuroscience of Free Will
Think about a decision you’ve made — a big one like where to go to college, or a tiny one like whether to pick up your phone. People take for granted that they act according to their decisions, and that our actions only begin once we’ve made a conscious choice. But is it really true? Several fascinating experiments have suggested otherwise. Beginning this year, a 17-member international team of leading neuroscientists and philosophers will undertake an ambitious four-year set of studies to expand our understanding of decision and action, funded by a $5.34 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation…
Examining the Big Questions in Big Samples: Using the Psychological Science Accelerator to investigate JTF priorities
Big Ideas Track, The World Science Festival
Biola University’s Center for Christian Thought
John Templeton Foundation to Invest $325 Million in Strategic Priorities
West Conshohocken, PA – Over the next five years, the John Templeton Foundation will devote a total of approximately $325 million in philanthropic funding to 12 Strategic Priorities, the Foundation announced March 12. “With the launch of these strategic priorities we are focusing our giving in hopes of achieving greater impact, which means accelerating more discovery and inspiring more curiosity,” said Heather Templeton Dill, President of the John Templeton Foundation. “We are committed to funding innovative research into the fundamental structure of the universe, human flourishing, human character, and the nature of religious belief and practice. And we are deeply…
Evolution and Development of Prosocial Cultures
Big Questions Online, Publishing and Growth
Activating and Demonstrating Greater Curiosity by Learning to Ask Questions
Aeon Magazine – 24-month publishing program focussed on Science and the Big Questions
Exploring the Big Questions with Aeon
A new two-year project will fund dozens of essays and longform pieces published in one of the most innovative and engaging journals of science and thought. Founded in 2012, Aeon is a digital magazine that provides a forum for writers, thinkers, and scientists to discuss ideas at the cutting edge of science, philosophy, society, and the arts through longform essays, idea pieces, and videos. With editorial offices in Melbourne, London, and New York, Aeon is structured as an international non-profit, relying on individual donations and grant funding to make its articles freely available to an aggregate audience of about 1.3…
