The Shock Tactics of Alexander Grothendieck
A Brilliant Mathematician’s Moral Protest by Karen Karin Rosenberg ALEXANDER GROTHENDIECK, who died last fall, was a towering figure in mathematics who won the very top awards in his field: the Field’s...
View ArticleJuly 29: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
On this date in 1972 (some sources say July 25th, others July 28th), the infamous, 40-year-old Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, which left African-American men untreated for syphilis infection in order to...
View ArticleEmbracing Technology
AUTOMATION AND A POST-SCARCITY SOCIETY by Ezra Jampole From the Spring 2017 issue of Jewish Currents The fear of losing one’s job permeates the minds of many Americans, and resulted in the election...
View ArticleThe Unexploded Population Bomb
Biologist Paul R. Ehrlich, who shared with his fellow entymologist, E.O. Wilson, Sweden’s 1990 Crafoord Prize (awarded to support areas of science not awarded Nobel Prizes), was born in Philadelphia on...
View ArticleJoseph Rotblat
Sir Joseph Rotblat, a physicist who received the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on nuclear disarmament, was born in Poland on this date in 1908. Prior to World War II, the mostly self-taught...
View ArticleCarl Sagan
Astronomer and science writer Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn on this date in 1934. He was best known as the awe-inspired and awe-inspiring host and co-writer of the television series COSMOS: A...
View ArticleGeorge Wald, Scientist and Activist
Nobelist George Wald, who discovered that Vitamin A was a component of the retina and crucial to good eyesight, was born in New York to Jewish immigrant parents on this date in 1906. The first member...
View Article#MeToo, Said Mother Earth
by Aaron Dorman “God gave us the Earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It’s yours.” –Ann Coulter, 2001 “I think that neoliberalism...
View ArticleJason Silva’s Shots of Awe
Futurist and filmmaker Jason Silva, whom the Atlantic has described as “a Timothy Leary of the Viral Video Age,” was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on this date in 1982. His mother was Ashkenazi, his...
View ArticleWarning: Irrationality
BUT RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS AREN’T THE ONLY PROBLEM By Alan Rutkowski AN UNAPPRECIATED but dangerous consequence of the Trump era is widespread liberal/secular oversimplification of the emerging...
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