Learning
Maryam Mirzakhani: "It's like solving a puzzle or connecting the dots in a detective case"
The first woman to ever win the Fields Medal – known as the 'Nobel Prize of mathematics' – in recognition of Mirzakhani's contributions to the understanding of the symmetry of curved surfaces. It has implications for the study of prime numbers and cryptography. Despite the breadth of applications of her work, she had said that she enjoys pure mathematics because of the elegance and longevity of the questions she studies. more »
Watching Schrodinger's Cat Die: "Gently recording the cat's paw prints both makes it die, or come to life"
If you put a cat inside an opaque box and make his life dependent on a random event, when does the cat die? When the random event occurs, or when you open the box? Though common sense suggests the former, quantum mechanics — or at least the most common "Copenhagen" interpretation enunciated by Danish physicist Neils Bohr in the 1920s – says it’s the latter. Someone has to observe the result before it becomes final. Until then, paradoxically, the cat is both dead and alive at the same time. more »
Senate Subcommittees Holds Hearings on Global Violence Against Women & Campus Sexual Assault
"When universities fail to respond adequately to campus sexual assault, they may be forcing the affected students to attend school in a sexually hostile environment. This environment deprives them of their freedom to go to class without being re-traumatized by a perpetrator sitting a few seats away, walk on campus without being harassed by a perpetrator’s friends, attend a party on-campus, or even feel safe in their own dorm rooms." more »
Back to Reunion With Hillary and Madeleine, A Precarious Balancing Act to Be Downsized and Uplifted At the Same Time
Doris O'Brien writes: When the weekend ended, I told myself that the 60th reunion would likely be my swan song, my last hurrah. But who knows? Five years from now I might consent to have my arm twisted, if that body part and others are still intact. Besides, I have a feeling that Hillary and Madeleine would want me to give it the old college try.
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