By Sonam Lhamo In the late 1940s and early 1950s, polio was a feared infectious disease in the U.S. During summers, when the disease peaked, parents would keep their children from going to swimming pools and movies for fear of their children contracting polio from infected children1. Polio is a highly contagious, infectious disease caused … Continue reading How We Almost Eradicated Polio
Month: November 2021
How to Grow a 4th Stomach for Your Thanksgiving Feast
By Rebecca Fleeman As the sweet potato casserole gets passed down the table and you scoot your green beans over to make room, this Thanksgiving you may think “will I be able to finish all the food on my plate?”. By the end of the meal, you are absolutely stuffed, eating more than twice what … Continue reading How to Grow a 4th Stomach for Your Thanksgiving Feast
Algebraic Geometry: A Bridge Between Equations and Shapes
By Mike Sha A common problem in robotics is finding all the possible positions the hand can end up. This is a question for algebraic geometry, which can be solved by homotopy continuation1. In this article, we’ll be taking the path of least resistance to these topics. Algebra is “the study of mathematical symbols … Continue reading Algebraic Geometry: A Bridge Between Equations and Shapes
Eavesdropping on Sperm Whales: The Cetacean Translation Initiative
By Julia Simpson An international team of roboticists, cryptographers, and biologists, along with experts in machine learning, underwater acoustics, and linguistics, recently assembled to decode messages from the deep1. That may sound like the title-card montage for the next “team of international super spies” blockbuster, but no: this is the diverse, interdisciplinary expertise behind the … Continue reading Eavesdropping on Sperm Whales: The Cetacean Translation Initiative
Lions Talk Science 