Shirley McBay, Pioneering Mathematician, Is Dead at 86 [NY Times Obituary – paywall] The first Black student to receive a doctorate from the University of Georgia, she devoted her life to advocating for diversity in science and math education. By Clay Risen Dec. 14, 2021 “Left unattended, the resulting resegregation of U.S. education will ensure … [Read more…]
In the Washington Post today was this historical essay: First U.S. vaccine mandate in 1809 launched 200 years of court battles (subscription paywall). Jess McHugh recounts the history of the smallpox vaccination from 1809 through a Supreme Court review of Massachusetts’s vaccine mandates. Just as at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a … [Read more…]
In the New York Times Science section is this article; The Coronavirus Attacks Fat Tissue, Scientists Find (subscription paywall) The research may help explain why people who are overweight and obese have been at higher risk of severe illness and death from Covid. “This could well be contributing to severe disease,” Dr. Catherine Blish, a … [Read more…]
From the New York Times obituaries; Justo Gallego, Who Built a Cathedral, Brick by Brick, Dies at 96 A former monk, he spent decades constructing a grand edifice as an act of faith and devotion, and did so almost single-handedly.
‘He touched a nerve’: how the first piece of AI music was born in 1956 Long before Auto-Tune and deepfake compositions, university professor Lejaren Hiller premiered a concert recital composed by a computer and became an overnight celebrity The Guardian Electronic music Jeff Gage Tue 7 Dec 2021 Illiac Suite
Dr. Sherif R. Zaki, Acclaimed Disease Detective, Dies at 65 He helped identify numerous viruses, including Covid-19, as well as the bioterrorism attack that spread anthrax in 2001. By Sam Roberts Dec. 4, 2021 Dr. Sherif R. Zaki in 2006. He was, a colleague said, considered to be “among the most influential infectious disease pathologists … [Read more…]
Humboldt Times, 13 October 1883 A Life of Terror. Rochester Herald. The Ford brothers have been starring through the country as murderers, but just at the present they are not happy. The acquittal of Frank James, brother of Jesse, whom one of the boys treach- erously shot from behind his back, as well as the … [Read more…]
In the Atlantic, Dr. Monica Gandhi writes about The New COVID Drugs Although molnupiravir—which is named after the Norse god Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir—was being tested for the treatment of the Ebola virus, researchers had not settled upon a purpose for the drug before SARS-CoV-2 arrived on the scene. Early studies of molnupiravir showed that its … [Read more…]
San Francisco Call, 21 January 1919 SAN DIEGO, Jan. 21.— Lieutenant James McCullough of Ream aviation field is declared to be the gunner who slew the whale that washed ashore at Imperial beach last week. According to reports from Ream field the whale rose two miles off shore and spouted defiance at lieutenant McCullough, who … [Read more…]
In the 11/25/2021 Guardian “Long Read” is Jill Lepore on post covid society, a summary of the modern social fabric, with her usual historical detail. “Other scholars see more continuity, an unbroken tradition of liberal and social democracy on the left, from early 20th-century progressivism down to the 21st-century version. But no one disputes that … [Read more…]