The Applause for Jaws despite Flaws Fifty years ago the movie Jaws scared beachgoers and demonized sharks. Now, however, the public is evolving a better understanding By Chris Pepin-Neff The titular giant great white shark opens its mouth in a still from the film Jaws (1975), directed by Steven Spielberg. Universal Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images… Continue reading The Applause for Jaws despite Flaws
Tele-Palliative Care Offers Access to Needed Support
On first consideration, the idea of providing palliative care via video chat seems counterintuitive or even insensitive. Palliative care focuses on improving quality of life for individuals with serious illnesses. At such a delicate time, would a computer screen between patients and their doctors really suffice? Yet tele-palliative care—palliative care via telehealth— is emerging as… Continue reading Tele-Palliative Care Offers Access to Needed Support
Ministrokes Can Be Just as Dangerous for the Brain as Regular Strokes
Kristin Kramer woke up early on a Tuesday morning 10 years ago because one of her dogs needed to go out. Then, a couple of odd things happened. When she tried to call her other dog, “I couldn’t speak,” she said. As she walked downstairs to let them into the yard, “I noticed that my… Continue reading Ministrokes Can Be Just as Dangerous for the Brain as Regular Strokes
Applying the Orphan Drug Policy to America’s Mining Industry
The United States’ dependency on Chinese-sourced critical minerals poses a threat to national security, but without aligning national security imperatives with corporate motives U.S. supply chains will remain vulnerable. Policymakers should consider tax incentives for mining companies and expedited permitting vouchers for companies that produce minerals needed for national security. One approach could draw on… Continue reading Applying the Orphan Drug Policy to America’s Mining Industry
Why the Key to a Mathematical Life is Collaboration
In 1971, Fan Chung, then in her second year of graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, received an assignment. Her thesis adviser, Herbert Wilf, asked her to read the proof of a problem in Ramsey theory, an area of mathematics that explores the inevitable emergence of patterns in networks of vertices and edges called… Continue reading Why the Key to a Mathematical Life is Collaboration
How Washington Could Leverage Its Gulf AI Deals
On the first overseas trip of his second term, President Trump inked high-profile artificial intelligence (AI) agreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia. Notably, they authorized the sale of advanced American semiconductor chips to the two Gulf states, a move enabled by Trump’s rollback of the Biden-era AI Diffusion Rule that had… Continue reading How Washington Could Leverage Its Gulf AI Deals
What Can a Cell Remember?
Then, in a process Kukushkin described as a tedious choreography of clockwork pipetting, they exposed the cells to precisely timed bursts of chemicals that imitated bursts of neurotransmitters in the brain. Kukushkin’s team found that the both the nerve and kidney cells could finely differentiate these patterns. A steady three-minute burst activated CRE, making the… Continue reading What Can a Cell Remember?
Why the United States Should Not Fear a Space Pearl Harbor
In the early 2000s, U.S. defense analysts sounded the alarm (PDF) about a potential “Space Pearl Harbor.” They warned that the U.S. military was becoming increasingly dependent on a small number of vulnerable satellites that would become tempting targets during a crisis or conflict. Those fears grew exponentially after China’s landmark demonstration in 2007 of… Continue reading Why the United States Should Not Fear a Space Pearl Harbor
At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery
Cairo followed this advice. In the fall of 2023, her family moved to Davis, 60 miles northeast of Berkeley. There, her older brother enrolled as a freshman at UC Davis, and her parents allowed her to commute to Berkeley on Tuesdays and Thursdays. By the spring, she was going five days a week and taking… Continue reading At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery
Responding to President Trump’s Recent Executive Orders on Drones
President Donald Trump’s June 6, 2025 Executive Order (EO) “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” notes that Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones “enhance United States productivity, create high-skilled jobs, and are reshaping the future of aviation.” Its ambitions include “transforming industries from logistics and infrastructure inspection to precision agriculture, emergency response, and public safety.” The EO… Continue reading Responding to President Trump’s Recent Executive Orders on Drones