Closing the Divide

Binghamton University's New Humanities Initiative intends to bring together the analytical tools of the humanities (delving into and comparing texts) and the sciences (statistics and experimentation) to close the cultural divide between the disciplines, writes Natalie Angier in the New York Times. The program, started by a biologist and an English professor, posits that a crossover approach to science will demystify it. "There is a kind of basic illiteracy on both sides and I find it a thrilling idea that people might be made to take pleasure in crossing the border," says George Levine, who reviewed the Binghamton program.