In a recent column, I expressed the hope that the coronavirus epidemic, by exposing the incompetence and mendacity of the Trump regime, will bring it to an end. Joe Biden will win in a landslide next November and initiate a new progressive era, with bipartisan support for universal health care, climate-change mitigation and economic equality. […]
Up and down the Pacific Coast of Guatemala, the sea’s edge gives way to volcanic sand, and zones of life that change with the tides and currents. Come dawn, at a low ebb; the receding water exposes mudflats like clay tablets dimpled with the zigzagging footprints of shorebirds. Sandpipers scurry across the soft earth by […]
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“Stay home.” This suddenly universal call to maintain physical distance from other people, known as social distancing, is key to combating the spread of the coronavirus, according to health professionals. Yet the potential for unprecedented loneliness as people isolate themselves has spurred calls for maintaining social connections. As we shift our vocational and educational endeavors […]
After she arrived at Stevens Institute of Technology six years ago, Theresa MacPhail quickly became a friend and go-to source for advice on nasty viruses. I did a Q&A with Theresa on the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and I started getting flu shots because she told me I’d be an idiot not to. She is a medical anthropologist, with a Ph.D. […]
The puzzle of what kind of phenomenon life is has pursued us throughout history. From long defunct notions of ‘vital sparks’ and spontaneous generation all the way to our modern picture of Darwinian evolution and molecular biology. We still don’t have all the answers. It is really quite extraordinary that the very thing that we […]
In light of health sector experts and experiences of other countries, the nation is taking a very important decision today,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in a televised address to the Indian nation on March 24. “From midnight tonight onwards, the entire country, please listen carefully, the entire country shall go under complete lockdown.” For […]
Mariah Carey, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Mozart, Beethoven, Jimi Hendrix, and Yanni. What do these musicians have in common? They’re all said to have perfect pitch. How rare is perfect pitch? If you don’t have it already, can you learn it? What is perfect (or absolute) pitch? Perfect pitch (technically known as absolute pitch) is […]
Scientific American April 2020 Letters to the editor from the December 2019 issue of Scientific American BLACK HOLE BREAKOUT In “Escape from a Black Hole,” Steven B. Giddings gives us a fascinating update on developments in the black hole information crisis, the seeming paradox of quantum rules and general relativity indicating that black holes destroy […]
The COVID-19 pandemic is putting an enormous strain on the health care system. This is due in part to the explosion in the number of cases and in part because health care professionals are themselves getting sick—in some cases fatally succumbing to the virus. While medical students aren’t full-fledged physicians, we have a significant amount […]