The BBC reported some really great news in May. The headline reads: “Paralysed patients use thoughts to control robotic arm.” The article is by Fergus Walsh. The wonderful news is that two people in the USA paralysed from the neck down due to strokes have been able to command a robotic arm by using their […]
Here’s a mechanism to ensure around 7 billion people have enough to eat: vertical farming! The idea comes from Dr. Dickson Despommier, a retired professor of microbiology and public health in environmental health sciences at Columbia University. What is vertical farming? It’s indoor farming, like the concept of greenhouses, but on a much larger scale. […]
Founded in 1936 by Sir Henry Wellcome, the Wellcome Trust‘s vision is “to achieve extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. In pursuit of this, we support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities.” As heard on the BBC just a few days ago, “One of the world’s largest research charities, the Wellcome Trust, […]
Africa is a contender, along with Australia and New Zealand, in a project to build a really huge telescope – the Square Kilometer Array. Although the decision on where to build it won’t be known until late March or early April at the earliest, the project is already in full swing. Made up of 3,000 […]
Check out MassiveGood, and fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and improve maternal and child health. How? It’s “the social network generation’s solution to put a stop to the millions of deaths from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and to improve maternal and child health in the developing world. If social media has revolutionized the way in which […]
Got an old bicycle in your garage that you don’t know what to do with? Send it to Bern, where it will be restored and shipped to Africa so people living in rural areas can cycle to work. That’s what Paolo Richter does. His company, Gump-& Drahtesel hires unemployed individuals to recycle old bicycles for Africa, […]
Here’s part 4 of the series on water conservation by global expert James Workman, pictured here. James Workman is author of Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. He is a visiting professor at Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment and co-founder of SmartMarkets LLC, […]
Here’s part 3 of the series on water conservation by global expert James Workman, pictured here. Last installment: next Friday! James Workman is author of Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. He is a visiting professor at Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment and co-founder […]
The Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) had almost disappeared. Of this subspecies of puma – also known as cougar or mountain lion – only 20 were still alive at the end of the 20th century. Today 120 to 160 Florida panthers roam their habitat in the south-west of Florida. In 1967 the Florida panther was […]
Eric Engel had never been averse to adversity. As a young internist in Geneva, Switzerland, he soon realized he had little opportunity to achieve his ambitions at his hometown University Hospital. So in 1960 with his wife and three small children, none of whom spoke English, he accepted the position of research fellow at US […]
