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(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) Match the following figures – Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, Alfred Nobel and Nikola Tesla – with these biographical facts: - Spoke eight languages - Produced the first motor that ran on AC current - Developed the underlying technology for wireless communication over long distances - Held approximately 300 patents - Claimed to have developed a "superweapon" that would end all war The match for...
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Legislation being discussed by some members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation to address a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision threatens to undermine tribal sovereignty, several Native American groups warned in a letter this week to Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe. The leaders of eight separate tribal organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians and the Association on American Indian Affairs, wrote to Inhofe on Thursday outlining their concerns. "It has come to our attention that staff members of the O...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Richard Gunderman, Indiana University (THE CONVERSATION) He survived the last great plague in London and the city's Great Fire. He was imprisoned and persecuted for his religious and political views. There was no happy ending for the journalist Daniel Defoe, author of "A Journal of a Plague Year." When he died in 1731, he was mired in debt and hiding from his creditors. Yet Defoe, born in 1660, left behind a work of fiction that is...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Richard Gunderman, Indiana University (THE CONVERSATION) This Dec. 21 marks the 50th anniversary of the last football game Vince Lombardi ever coached. Remembered primarily as the helmsman of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s and namesake of the Super Bowl trophy, Lombardi has been ranked as one of the top 10 greatest coaches in the history of American sports. Like many greats, Lombardi considered coaching a form of teaching....
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Richard Gunderman, Indiana University (THE CONVERSATION) A test called CT lung cancer screening could save the lives of tens of thousands of American smokers and former smokers every year, but only only 4% of those eligible are getting it. One such patient, a 58-year-old woman I’ll call Marie, battled cigarette smoking for over three decades before finally quitting on her 50th birthday. A few years later, Marie had the test, and t...
(THE CONVERSATION) Considering his accomplishments, it’s a surprise that Robert Hooke isn’t more renowned. As a physician, I especially esteem him as the person who identified biology’s most essential unit, the cell. Like Leonardo da Vinci, Hooke excelled in an incredible array of fields. The remarkable range of his achievements throughout the 1600s encompassed pneumatics, microscopy, mechanics, astronomy and even civil engineering and architecture. Yet this “English Leonardo” – well-known in his time – slipped into relative obscurity for...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) Considering his accomplishments, it’s a surprise that Robert Hooke isn’t more renowned. As a physician, I especially esteem him as the person who identified biology’s most essential unit, the cell. Like Leonardo da Vinci, Hooke excelled in an incredible array of fields. The remarkable range of his achievements throughout the 1600s encompassed pneumatics, microscopy, mechanics, astronomy and even civil engin...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) Recent outbreaks in the U.S. have drawn attention to the dangers of measles. The Democratic Republic of Congo is fighting a deadly outbreak of Ebola that has killed hundreds. Epidemics are nothing new, of course. And some widespread infectious dieseases have profoundly changed the course of human history. Five hundred years ago, in February of 1519, the Spaniard Hernán Cortés set sail from Cuba to explore and colo...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) The outmoded gender stereotype that women lack mathematical ability suffered a major blow in 2014, when Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman to receive the Fields Medal, math’s most prestigious award. An equally important blow was struck by an Italian mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi, born 300 years ago this month. Agnesi was the first woman to write a mathematics textbook and to be appointed to a u...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) Motherhood is getting considerable attention, even if much of the news is concerning. Fertility rates are falling in America as millennials decide not to have children. This should hardly come as a surprise. The cost of raising a child to adulthood has been increasing and real median household income has only just regained its 1999 level. At this time, when it could be argued that maternity is in decline, Mary...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) March 21 marks the 250th birthday of one of the most influential mathematicians in history. He accompanied Napoleon on his expedition to Egypt, revolutionized science’s understanding of heat transfer, developed the mathematical tools used today to create CT and MRI scan images, and discovered the greenhouse effect. His name was Joseph Fourier. He wrote of mathematics: “There cannot be a language more uni...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) The news was bad. Mimi, a woman in her early 80s, had been undergoing treatment for lymphoma. Her husband was being treated for bladder cancer. Recently, she developed chest pain, and a biopsy showed that she had developed a secondary tumor of the pleura, the space around one of her lungs. Her oncology team’s mission was to share this bad news. Mimi’s case was far from unique. Each year in the U.S., over 1.6 mil...
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) (THE CONVERSATION) Match the following figures – Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, Alfred Nobel and Nikola Tesla – with these biographical facts: - Spoke eight languages - Produced the first motor that ran on AC current - Developed the underlying technology for wireless communication over long distances - Held approximately 300 patents - Claimed to have developed a “superweapon” that would end all war The match f...
