“When you are in the throes of illness,” Jacqueline Alnes writes in her debut The Fruit Cure: The Story of Extreme Wellness Turned Sour, “there is something comforting about distilling the world into dichotomies: sick or well, bad or good, off-limits or completely nutritious. When so much seems unknowable about the very body you live in, it feels nice to stand on a firm platform made from rights rather than wrongs, even if the very platform itself is a false reality.” As a Division I collegiate runner, Alnes began experiencing mysterious and devastating neurological symptoms that remained unexplained by medical…
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Cosmic pioneers: Arno Penzias (left) and Robert Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background in the 1960s (Courtesy: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection) The cosmologist Arno Penzias, who discovered the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with Robert Wilson, died on 22 January at the age of 90. He shared a half of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics with Wilson, with the other half awarded to Pyotr Kapitsa for his work in low-temperature physics. Penzias was born in Munich, Germany, on 26 April 1933. At the age of six, Penzias and his family fled Nazi Germany, first to England…
Cosmic pioneers: Arno Penzias (left) and Robert Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background in the 1960s (Courtesy: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection) The cosmologist Arno Penzias, who discovered the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with Robert Wilson, died on 22 January at the age of 90. He shared a half of the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics with Wilson, with the other half awarded to Pyotr Kapitsa for his work in low-temperature physics. Penzias was born in Munich, Germany, on 26 April 1933. At the age of six, Penzias and his family fled Nazi Germany, first to England…
After my father died, my older sister and I stayed with my mother for a while. I couldn’t stop thinking of Grey Gardens, minus the fabulous headscarves; Big and Little Edie Beale kept winding their way through my head. It was a cruel comparison—as a trio of single women, I could have easily renamed us the House of Strong Minded, Powerful Women, as that is what we have always been, with or without my father. Unfortunately, it was too easy to think of all the negative images of women aging alone first: the jilted Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, exacting…
Winter in the northeast follows a predictable pattern. The season is rushed in the beginning, with snow-frosted holiday advertising out in full force before we even need to grab for the pair of gloves stuck in our coat pockets. Then, by February, the shine of the new year has worn off, and the novelty of plodding through sludge or scraping the ice from your car or, worse, layering as many chunky sweaters and blankets as you can to weather the cold inside has long since faded. This stretch is the hardest. This is when time feels suspended, and I feel…
Educational mentor Anjanie Narine has released her latest book â€ÅDestination College: A Four-Year Plan for High School Students.†â€ÅDestination College: A Four-Year Plan for High School Students†is a resource that equips high school students with the tools and knowledge needed to successfully navigate the college application process and embark on a path towards their desired future. â€ÅDestination College: A Four-Year Plan for High School Students†is a comprehensive guide designed to help high school students navigate the college application process with confidence. Covering all fundamental topics such as academic planning, extracurricular involvement, standardized testing, scholarships and financial aid, and…
Underhand tactics by environmental activists led to the closure of a famous physics facility 25 years ago. There is much we can still learn from the incident, says Robert P Crease Climate of fear Anti-science protestors led to the closure of the High Flux Beam Reactor at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US 25 years ago using tactics that are widespread today. (Courtesy: iStock/DanielVilleneuve) Fake facts, conspiracy theories, nuclear fear, science denial, baseless charges of corruption, and the shouting down of reputable health officials. All these things happened 25 years ago, long before the days of social media, in…
Not All of His Problems Are a Performance Kaveh Akbar Share article An excerpt from Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar Cyrus ShamsKeady University, 2015 Maybe it was that Cyrus had done the wrong drugs in the right order, or the right drugs in the wrong order, but when God finally spoke back to him after twenty-seven years of silence, what Cyrus wanted more than anything else was a do-over. Clarification. Lying on his mattress that smelled like piss and Febreze, in his bedroom that smelled like piss and Febreze, Cyrus stared up at the room’s single light bulb, willing it to…
Join the audience for a live webinar at 8.30 a.m. GMT/7 p.m. ACDT on 15 February 2024 exploring the techniques, innovations, and future prospects in radiotherapy, with an interest in small field dosimetry Want to take part in this webinar? This webinar will aim to cover a general introduction into radiotherapy quality assurance with an interest in small-field quality assurance and its impact on patient care. Stereotactic radiation therapy is fast becoming standard of care, and a powerful tool towards patient treatment and palliation. The correct implementation of small-field dosimetry and its impact to precise delivery of radiation treatments will…
The US Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems (SQMS) Center is building on a portfolio of enabling technologies pioneered at Fermilab to realize practical applications of quantum computing and quantum sensing. SQMS director Anna Grassellino tells Joe McEntee why cross-disciplinary collaboration within the National Laboratory framework is fundamental to success Open for business SQMS director Anna Grassellino addresses delegates at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Fermilab’s Quantum Garage in November 2023. The 560 square-metre laboratory provides dedicated facilities to support SQMS programmes in quantum computing and quantum sensing. (Courtesy: Dan Svoboda, Ryan Postel/Fermilab) Anna Grassellino is a physicist in a hurry. As…
Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover for the short story collection “The Goodbye Process” by Mary Jones, which will be published by Zibby Books on July 30th, 2024. Preorder the book here. In this stunning debut short story collection, Mary Jones uses her distinctive voice to examine the painful and occasionally surreal ways we say goodbye. The stories—which range from poignant, to darkly funny, to unsettling—will push you out of your comfort zone and ignite intense emotions surrounding love and loss. A woman camps out on the porch of an ex-lover who has barricaded himself inside the house; a preteen girl caught shoplifting…
Metalens telescope: image of the North America Nebula taken by the metalens on the roof of the Science Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Courtesy: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS) To describe Federico Capasso at Harvard University as a prolific researcher is an understatement and I have been following his work in photonics for many years. He is an expert in the development of optical metalenses – devices that use flat arrays of microscopic structures to manipulate light. A key benefit is that optical systems made up of such lenses take up much less volume that conventional optics, making them ideal for a wide…
For the first time in one place, the listener will see all the likely conspirators revealed. The Warren Commission and the FBI agreed that President John F. Kennedy was killed by a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald. Fifteen years later, the House Committee on Assassinations re-examined the evidence. They announced that he was not killed by a single gunman, but probably murdered as the result of a conspiracy. This House Committee hesitated to speculate on who might have been involved in that conspiracy or why John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963. In 1979, Michael Burke…
Starting back in 2018, Jami Attenberg brought together writers on social media as a means of accountability. The philosophy of #1000wordsofsummer was to develop a daily writing practice of 1000 words because small increments seem doable and quickly accrue. Over 33,000 writers subscribe to her motivational newsletter connected to the hashtag. In her new book, 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round, Attenberg takes her highly successful #1000wordsofsummer to a new phrase as an anthology. In this book version, she includes her words, the “letters” from other well-known writers, as well as occasional…
In Freedom House, KB Brookins uses language to imagine Black liberty in personal, political, and public spheres. Through inventive forms, such as a CV and a poem written after playing Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” thirty times, Brookins’ expansive poetry collection expresses a longing for messy and unconstrained selfhood. They are potent calls both inward and outward, weaving between the many textures of pleasure and rage. Brookins cruises through a range of registers, speaking directly and lyrically about harm and resistance. Everything is fair game: Will Smith’s slapping of Chris Rock, revelations about being read as male,…
The Magellanic Clouds are prominent features of the southern sky that are named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. He sailed west from Europe to the Philippines in the early 16th century and the clouds were described by a returning crew member. Voyages such as Magellan’s set into motion the European colonization of much of the world. This involved the oppression and assimilation of indigenous peoples and led to racism and inequality that endures to this day. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast the astronomers Mia de los Reyes and Sally Oey explain why it is time…
Today #TheSimonettaLeinShow continues its highly anticipated 6th Season, as the show welcomes a renowned American actor, and one who has dedicated his life to portraying some of the world’s favorite onscreen characters, Corey Feldman. Starting his career before he was even 5 years old, Corey became well known for his hit roles in 1980s classics such as “Friday the 13th”, “Time After Time”, “The Goonies”, and “Stand by Me”. As a mainstay in the industry, Feldman has also produced over a dozen projects including “Lost Boys: The Thirst”, a Lifetime Movie about his career, and his most recently self-produced and distributed documentary…
People told me not to write about mom rage. (Consider the internet trolls! Consider your children!) They cautioned me not to publish under my real name. (It will follow you for the rest of your life!) When my book published, they said I should definitely not bring my kids on book tour. (It’s your moment to be an author!) This advice came from other mom writers. I paid close attention, weighed these warnings in my hands. Was I being given sacred protection? Or was I a wayward mother being gently policed, shepherded back into the claustrophobic box of “good mother”?…