“During the most splendid period of Islamic Spain, ignorance was regarded as so disgraceful that those without education concealed the fact as far as possible, just as they would have hidden the commission of a crime.“-S. P. Scott, “History of the Moorish Empire in Europe”, quoted in “The House of Wisdom” by Jim Al-Khalili By Hafeez Diwan and Sally MallamContributing Writers …
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Featured Book Numbers and the Making of Us:Counting and the Course of Human Cultures Caleb EverettHardcover edition 2017 There are predictable numbers in nature, but we humans have an innate, “exact” number sense for numbers only up to three. Beyond three, we can tell when groups of objects are more than or less than one …
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Featured Book The Gap The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals Thomas SuddendorfHardcover edition 2013 Our drive to understand one another and our ability to imagine different possible futures is what makes us different from other animals. These two qualities transformed communication into language and empathy into morality. They enabled us to share …
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Featured Book The Sixth Extinction An Unnatural History Elizabeth KolbertPaperback edition 2015 Our planet has experienced five mass extinction events in the past half billion years. The most recent occurred some 66 million years ago when an asteroid collided with earth, wiping out the dinosaurs and dramatically changing the biodiversity of life on our planet. …
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“To the extent we live today under clouds of uncertainty about climate change, those clouds are projections not of collective ignorance about the natural world but blindness about the human one, and can be dispersed by human action. This is what it means to live beyond the ‘end of nature’—that it is human action that …
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The spillway of the dam in Oroville California collapsed after a period of unusually heavy rains in 2017 Mimicking the natural processes of the water cycle is a key component of this new “soft” direction. In the 20th century, massive dams, aqueducts, and centralized treatment plants dominated water planning. This infrastructure produced some of the …
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When our planet’s average temperature increases steadily and gradually, the climate – the range of the weather over a period of time – gradually changes as well, until it suddenly jumps into a new condition. Scientists who study these abrupt changes refer to them as tipping points. Steve Matthews When our planet’s average temperature increases …
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Reproduced from the PATH website at www.path.org 7-15-19. About 830 women die from pregnancy or childbirth related complications around the world every day. By Margaret A. Caudill-Slosberg, MD, PhD, MPHContributing Writer About 830 women die from pregnancy or childbirth related complications around the world every day. Of the 130 million babies born worldwide each year, about 2.7 …
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Featured Book Beyond the Hole in the Wall Discover the Power of Self-Organized Learning Sugata MitraKindle edition 2012 As every parent knows, children seem to have little difficulty in figuring out various digital devices, and we all know that they are natural born learners. Sugata Mitra’s now famous experiments have shone light on the immense capacities that …
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Featured Book One World Schoolhouse Education Reimagined Salman KhanPaperback edition 2013 Who knows where genius will crop up? There may be a young girl in an African village with the potential to find a cancer cure. A fisherman’s son in New Guinea might have incredible insight into the health of the oceans. Why would we …
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Featured Book The Big Ratchet How Humanity Thrives in the Face of Natural Crisis Ruth DeFriesPaperback edition 2014 All of human history can been seen as a struggle to exploit nature to better feed ourselves in an endless three-step cycle of crisis and growth — of “ratchet,” (big breakthrough), “hatchet” (a crisis of unforeseen consequences) …
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At least 21 million extra lives were saved due to the accelerated progress resulting from the efforts of the Millennium Development Goals between 2000 and 2015 in child mortality and malaria, maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. By Margaret A. Caudill-Slosberg, MD, PhD, MPHContributing Writer At least 21 million extra lives were saved due to the …
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