Interviews
Keeper of Pigments at Harvard Art Museums
Art is not an afterthought, Narayan Khandekar is often fond of saying. The Lascaux Caves in France, sometimes called the Sistine Chapel for Prehistoric Art, is his favorite example. Living on hunted bulls, bison, and reindeer, some early humans still took the time to grind...
Read MoreThe Curious Zookeeper of Extraordinary Organisms
In his backyard in Atlanta,Saad Bhamla, professor of chemical and biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, observed the glassy sharpshooter with interest. The lightweight insect was peeing for hours in droplets and proceeded to super-propel them into the distance. A high-speed camera would reveal...
Read MoreThe Madras Hedgehog
For the longest time, I thought hedgehogs were simply critters from British children’s books. But three different species of hedgehogs — living, breathing mammals — inhabit the Indian subcontinent alone. Of these, we know very little about the Madras Hedgehog (Paraechinus nudiventris), says Dr. Brawin Kumar,...
Read MoreEat, Sleep, and Move Right
Our obsession with digital screens is depriving us of sleep and hurting our health. Study after study shows that we are staying up till late, glued to our gadgets, which in turn leads to another unhealthy habit: night-time snacking. “Even healthy food eaten at this...
Read MoreMake Home Cooking a Habit — It’s good for you
Physician-chef Rani Polak explains why clinicians should learn cooking skills—and teach them to patients. Midway through medical school in Jerusalem, Rani Polak had doubts about his chosen path. He decided to quit and pursue a different passion, cooking, at Le Cordon Bleu academy in Sydney....
Read More3D printed pills
Recently, the Food and Drug Administration approved the manufacture of the world’s first 3D printed pill Spritam, a reformulation of the anti-epileptic seizure drug levetiracetam. In the late 1980s, Michael Cima, professor of Materials Science and Engineering, along with fellow MIT professor Emanuel Sachs invented the...
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