Crystalline Gills — For Humans?
Imagine a future astronaut, hazmat worker, or deep-sea diver, needing to breathe air in a hazardous or even liquid environment. With a few grains of a new material from a Danish lab, they could breathe safely...
Zimbardo Revisited: Rotten Apples? Or Rotten Barrel?
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a boy named Jack seizes control over fellow classmates stranded on an island, transforming them into a tribe of hunters and killers. How could Jack and his followers...
Is e-learning the More Human Approach to Education?
The University of the People, a tuition-free online institute of higher education founded in 2009, has what some may call a controversial vision — “that access to Higher Education is a basic right and...
Ebola: What are the Responsibilities of those Returning from the Fight?
Confined to home for twenty-one days, monitored by doctors twice a day with only family and friends allowed to visit after being screened. That is the quarantine required by the states of New Jersey and New...
Weak Sense of Smell
Sign of Imminent Death? Olfaction, the sense of smell, is familiar to most people as one of what we call the “five senses,” a set of sensory systems in the body that help us receive information about the...
Directing the Assembly of the Future
Imagine an ordinary box filled with an assortment of disorganized Lego pieces. Now, imagine taking that box and constantly shaking it. As you shake the box, you look down into it and realize that the Lego...
The Social Network?
“A social instinct is implanted in all men by nature,” wrote Aristotle in 350 B.C.E. Aristotle was not the first nor the last to observe this seemingly innate tendency of human beings to form social ties...
Sharing the Burden
A New Perspective on Sex and Contraceptives In a small, whitewashed room in a two-story mud brick house lie a man and a woman in the throes of romantic passion. In her hand she holds a metal scalpel, while in...
The Politics of Ebola
What is it all about? From national newspapers to popular magazines to local television broadcasts and everything in between, Ebola has dominated the media over the past month. As the news coverage...
Sociopathy 101: Going Beyond the Stereotypes
Who comes to mind when you imagine a sociopath? Famous fictional characters like Sherlock, maybe, or Dexter. Alex DeLarge, Patrick Bateman and Dr. Hannibal Lecter have all graced the screen with charm and...