Interesting Profile of a UC-Berkeley Professor Said to be a YouTube Sensation

The San Francisco Chronicle published the story below on Sunday. But the Chronicle keeps certain stories for subscribers only for a couple of days. So here are some excerpts. By way of background, UC-Berkeley puts lectures on YouTube for some classes. The story refers to such a class. One YouTube lecture is embedded below the story excerpts.

Marian Diamond - Anatomy Professor a YouTube Hit

Debra Levi Holtz, Sunday, December 5, 2010

Each fall, Marian Diamond walks into UC Berkeley's Wheeler Auditorium holding a round hatbox, a gift from the staff of Lawrence Hall of Science, where she used to serve as director.

The 84-year-old professor stands on the stage dressed in an elegant blazer and vibrantly colored scarf, her white hair drawn back in a French twist. She pulls on rubber gloves and removes a chunk of coiled gray matter from a plastic container inside the hatbox.

What happens next has been watched nearly a half-million times on the university's YouTube channel, where Diamond's introductory anatomy lecture is the most viewed video.

...Forget about PowerPoint presentations. After decades in the classroom, Diamond lectures the old-fashioned way - by writing on a blackboard. She expects her students to take notes with pen and paper so they can better absorb the information. iamond's discoveries in neuroscience have captured international attention and revolutionized how scientists view the brain's potential to develop at any age. Yet the best proof of many her theories may well be the woman herself, possibly UC Berkeley's oldest lecturer and certainly one of its most popular...

Full story at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/05/MNHA1GL0HN.DTL