Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
You and Your Gut Bacteria
Did you ever think about how many of our common expressions involve our stomachs? We occasionally talk about “gut-wrenching decisions” and “butterflies in the stomach.” These thoughts are so prevalent that some are beginning to wonder if there isn’t a link between our guts — specifically the trillions of tiny organisms that live there —
A Novel Way To Feed The Homeless
Have you ever heard of the EAT Café? The clue is EAT stands for Everyone At the Table. This is a non-profit collaboration of organizations in West Philadelphia, PA, that operates a “pay-what-you-can café that nourishes, educates, and unites community in a welcoming environment.” Here the bill is a shock of a different sort —
Xenophobia — We’ve Been There Before
With the current concern about the security risks of immigrants and refugees, this is a good time to remind everyone that episodes of xenophobia (fear of foreigners) have happened periodically throughout our history. One example — when I was visiting Boston in April, I learned about NINA. It’s an acronym that means “No Irish Need
One Person Can Make a Difference
Have you ever heard of Henrietta Lacks? In many respects, she was an ordinary woman. Born on August 1, 1920, she gave birth to five children, but only lived 31 years. But she had a profound effect on modern science and, at least indirectly, has saved many lives. The remarkable part of her story began
Happy Birthday Dorothea Lange
May 26th, 1895 was the birthday of documentary photographer Dorothea Lange. She was born Dorothea Nutzhorn in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1895, and is best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration. Her most famous photo was “Migrant Mother” (left) in 1936, but took many more that were just as hauntingly beautiful.
What Are You Reading?
I guess we’re all supposed to read something this summer. I know it’s pretty much a given that high school students will have a summer reading list, but several of the news programs and publications I follow have been coming out with reading lists of their own. They must assume everyone gets a vacation with
Another Way to Help Mother Nature
This is a story about how an educator thought outside the box. Each year, Katie Martin-Meurer, an art instructor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, saw something that disturbed her. The students in her three-dimensional design course would simply toss their projects into the trash after they had been graded. What a waste! Her first
How Babies Develop a Sense of Time
Families with newborns know babies follow their own schedule. But after a while, about the time a baby starts to smile, a rhythm develops. So babies do develop a sense of time. Research suggests this happens about the one-month mark. For example, in a 1972 study, researchers placed month-old infants in a dark room. A
The Benefits of Fake Pills
Human nature never fails to amaze me. I’m sure you’ve all heard of placebos, those fake pills that are used as real drugs in scientific studies. The complication is doctors have been giving placebos to patients as a beneficial treatment for centuries, and their patients usually improve, even though there is no medicinal value. The
Bad News For Herpetophobes
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, scientists have discovered something new about snakes. Snakes have a creepy enough reputation. There is something about an animal without limbs and slithers on the ground that elicits a primal fear. And of course there is a word for that — herpetophobia, or fear of reptiles.