In this edition of Tech It Out, we focus on China’s Chang’e-5 Lunar Probe, which aims to collect the moon’s rock and soil samples and bring them back to earth. We look at what makes this mission so special.
On Science Saturday, we review the major science news of the past two weeks, including an ancient fossil galaxy found hiding inside the Milky Way, a satellite sent to track sea level changes, two bodies from 2,000 years ago discovered in the Pompeii remains and microplastics found on the world’s highest peak.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi toured three of his country’s leading vaccine development and manufacturing sites, Saturday, November 28, as coronavirus cases continue to soar.
India has recorded 9.35 million COVID-19 infections, second only to the United States. It reported 41,322 new cases and 485 deaths on Saturday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
The western state of Maharashtra, home to India’s financial hub, Mumbai, has been particularly hard hit by the virus.
Modi conducted a whirlwind three-city tour and visited the Zydus Cadila CADI.NS facility in the western city of Ahmedabad, Bharat Biotech in the southern city of Hyderabad and the Serum Institute of India’s sprawling campus in the western city of Pune.
The companies are testing homegrown vaccine options, as well as working on trials of vaccines being developed overseas.
India’s Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has partnered with global players including AstraZeneca AZN.L and Novavax Inc NVAX.O to run domestic trials on their vaccine candidates and produce the vaccines, if they secure approvals.
[Presentation & discussion in a member’s meeting of The Ticknor Society of Boston]
Several new dimensions for the study of the humanities have been opened up by the digital revolution. One of these involves our newly acquired capacity to read “old books” and view, share and analyze their maps and illustrations on a scale never previously possible. The result has led recently to a substantial re-assessment of much of what we thought we knew about the world and its evolution since 1492.
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Annual Ticknor Society Member “Show & Tell” Meeting Virtual, Thursday, December 10, 6pm EST ZOOM Session Link
Phoebe Bean, “A Woman’s Touch: Ann Franklin Imprints”
John Hemenway, “Howland Island, Its Birds and Rats, as Observed by a Certain Mr. Stetson in 1854.”
Jean Maguire, Nature and Design
George F. Murphy, “Price of Books: Shabby American Imprints and the Legacy of Richard Price
Tim Weiskel, “Some New Questions from Reading Old Books: Imagining & Imaging the Agro-Ecology & Pathology of European Empire”
The Ticknor Society in Boston holds an annual “Show & Tell” meeting of its members in which some of these themes will be discussed this year as an aspect of the ways in which new kinds of analysis can now be shared among international groups of book scholars, historical cartographers, medical historians and ethnobotanists because of the ongoing digital revolution in the humanities.
A brief summary of one of the “Show & Tell” talks is by scanning this QR code:For additional information contact ticknorinfo@gmail.com
This talk will consider the importance of mapping for the understanding of epidemic diseases since John Snow’s work on cholera in London. The focus will be on ways in which traditional maps have greatly helped to understand the way in which race, pre-existing conditions, and air pollution have served as drivers of the coronavirus pandemic.
Professor Snowden received his Ph.D. from Oxford University in 1975. His books include Violence and Great Estates in the South of Italy: Apulia, 1900-1922 (1984); The Fascist Revolution in Tuscany, 1919-1922 (1989); Naples in the Times of Cholera (1995) and The Conquest of Malaria: Italy, 1900-1962 (2006). Conquest was awarded the Gustav Ranis Prize from the MacMillan Center at Yale in 2007 as “the best book on an international topic by a member of the Yale Faculty,” the Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize by the American Historical Association as the best work on Italy in any period, and the 2008 Welch Medal from the American Association for the History of Medicine.
He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Italian history, European social and political history, and the history of medicine.
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
This weblog explores the transition to a sustainable future on our finite planet. It provides links to current news, key documents from government sources and non-governmental organizations, as well as video documentaries about climate change, environmental ethics and environmental justice concerns.
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