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The Secret History of The Rape Kit

Pagan Kennedy, author of Inventology, the 2016 book on inventions that bring about social change, and the people behind them, became fascinated by what she describes as a “a piece of technology designed to hold men accountable for brutalizing women.” So, who invented the standardized...

The Future of Language

After linguist Philip Seargeant’s grandmother suffered a stroke, her thoughts remained trapped in her body. Although she had no cognitive damage, her paralyzed muscles didn’t allow her to speak or write. To communicate, she would point to letters printed on one side of a tattered...

Crossings

Anyone who has crossed a busy road in a metropolis without well-regulated traffic, in say Mumbai, India, can understand the plight of a deer trying to cross a two-lane highway, in rural United States. Evolution has not prepared deer for encounters with automobiles. Over one...

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend!

In the twilight, that nest in the old church of Suntak in Sweden fly around hunting for insects. The twelfth century church’s façade stays unlit at night -- a rarity among historic churches -- and the darkness continue to make it a sanctuary for the...

Scent!

Worldwide, the COVID 19 virus affected millions of patients’ ability to smell – and the symptom persisted in some, months after the infection passed. The pandemic put a spotlight on this spectrum of olfactory impairment. Anosmia is the clinical term for an inability to perceive...

Drunk!

A good book can take you to unexpected places. The whiskey room at a giant tech company — furnished with beanbags and foosball tables — is one of them. When coders at Google hit a creative wall, they can apparently pop into this room for...