Ello is enjoying its moment of fame – in part thanks to its use of the latest fad in corporate legal structures. The eight-month-old social network is still in beta, and has nothing like the brand recognition…
When all your appliances are internet-enabled, whose hands are holding the remote control?
Hands image via www.shutterstock.com.
An ever-increasing number of our consumer electronics is internet-connected. We’re living at the dawn of the age of the Internet of Things. Appliances ranging from light switches and door locks, to cars…
Temporary security measures often become permanent.
Larry Downing/Reuters
The recent security lapses at the White House have brought to the forefront the 13-year-old question of how to effectively secure public spaces. As officials weigh increasing perimeter security and installing…
Emergencies can happen at the zoo. Staff train to be prepared.
Yuriko Nakao/Reuters
You need only look at the papers or television news to see the reports. Infectious disease outbreaks, weather emergencies and disasters both natural and man-made. They’re all not just threats to human…
Uncritically invoking neuroscience is a risky proposition.
Image of head via www.shutterstock.com
Recently I’ve seen news reports with headlines like this one: “Can Brain Science Help Lift People Out Of Poverty?” This particular article described the near miraculous recovery of a woman who grew up…
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback was re-elected despite a tight fight over his tax cuts and resulting deficit, which were revealed to be worse than expected just days after the election.
Reuters
Republican gains in this month’s election, which handed the GOP united control of Congress for the first time since 2006, have lifted hopes that the government can pass corporate tax reform next year…
A view of the atrium from the Calderwood Courtyard.
Zak Jensen
After ten years of planning and six years of construction the Harvard Art Museums opens its doors to the public on November 16. The $350 million renovation combines the collections of three distinct museums…
Will stricter controls on painkillers curb abuse and addiction?
Stock images of pills from www.shutterstock.com
Americans consume a staggering amount of the opioid painkiller hydrocodone - about 99% of the world’s supply. In October, after 10 years of debate the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reclassified medications…
Opioid addicts now being armed with overdose antidote.
Gretchen Ertl/Reuters
Many first responders’ – even some university police officers – are carrying a new tool in their first-aid kits. It’s naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote drug, and today it’s more widely available than…
CrossFitters can be found flipping tires or hitting them with a sledgehammer, climbing ropes, and tossing medicine balls.
Shutterstock
It’s a known fact that exercise is addictive. But CrossFitters – those who take part in CrossFit’s brutal workouts and stringent diet – are infamous for their fanatical devotion to their fitness philosophy…
Social security is on a collision course with insolvency. A little bit of math could keep it safe.
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The US Social Security system has been heading toward insolvency for decades, with the program now projected to run a 25% deficit by a little after 2030, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Despite…
Six global currency-dealers have agreed to pay a total of US$4.3 billion to regulators in the US, UK and Switzerland.
Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com
Suppose you’re in the supermarket shopping for groceries. While you’re strolling the aisle with your cart, a shadowy figure looms over your shoulder and changes the prices on the items you want to buy…
Matthew McConaughey
embodies the heroic scientist in Interstellar.
Paramount
Declan Fahy, American University School of Communication
Interstellar’s protagonists spend a significant portion of the movie’s 169-minute running time giving mini-lectures – sometimes with props and a little whiteboard – on theoretical physics. The characters…
There just aren’t enough psychiatrists to meet demand.
Psychiatrist via Shutterstock
Getting psychiatric care in the United States is a lot harder than it should be. Patients around the country are having a hard time booking appointments for outpatient care, and face significant hurdles…
Universities in South Africa do it…
image via www.shutterstock.com
“Affirmative action won’t be around for much longer, ” said one of our professors twenty years ago, advising against writing a dissertation on this topic. The United States Supreme Court’s Schuette decision…
Hajigak, one of the main routes from Kabul to Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, may contain one of the largest deposits of iron ore in the world.
Hadi Zaher/Flickr via CC BY-NC-ND
On October 27, the last international troops closed their military camp in Southern Helmand Province and left Afghanistan, officially ending their combat role after 13 years of fighting. By the end of…
Many people simply don’t know what legalization means.
Gary Cameron/Reuters
The United States is experiencing a drastic change in attitudes towards marijuana and marijuana policy. Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana use and more than…
Race is one way we categorize ourselves among in-groups and out-groups.
Hands image via www.shutterstock.com.
Race-related demonstrations, Title IX disputes, affirmative action court cases, same-sex marriage bans. These issues made headlines in all spheres of the media this year. However, thoughtful articles on…
How can parents who no longer live together continue to raise their children?
via www.shutterstock.com
The November 2014 elections included a North Dakota voter initiative emblematic of the vigorous debate taking place nationwide about child custody. The “Parental Rights Initiative” required courts to award…
Instead of dying out, Anti-Semitic myths have withstood the test of time.
Eight hundred years ago, a monk named Thomas of Monmouth wrote a bogus account of the life of St. William, a Christian boy supposedly abducted by “the Jews” of Norwich. A boy – “like an innocent lamb…
Trading floors like this one – at the old American Stock Exchange in the 1980s – are at the heart of capitalism and financial speculation.
David Foster/Flickr via CC BY-ND
The word “speculation” carries a connotation of negativity. And it’s probably fair to say that pretty much every financial crisis since the tulip mania of the 1630s can be attributed to some sort of mass…
The media spotlight has shifted away from Hong Kong and toward President Obama’s visit to Beijing, but students and activists remain in Admiralty and Mong Kok, and their demands for political change have…
I’ll have a clean cage with a side of fertility issues.
Mouse image via www.shutterstock.com
Mice possess a notable talent: they are excellent at making more mice. Their ability to reproduce at a breakneck pace is one reason they are often used as experimental research subjects. Thus, when Dr…
China’s President Xi Jinping, pictured gesturing at center, last month launched the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a project the US hopes to stymie.
Reuters
In an influential speech in 2005, then-US deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick called on China to become a “responsible stakeholder” in the international community. To optimists, China’s recent efforts…
In Interstellar, Matthew McConaughey plays the protagonist, Cooper, who wears many hats: everyman farmer, laconic space hero, grieving father.
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
At about the midway point of Interstellar, a spacecraft descends into the atmosphere of a pristine white planet. Gliding downwards, the tip of the craft brushes against a cloud, and the cloud shatters…