Category: Science and Society

  • Searching the Nobel Prize

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    By Susan Russo There is a wealth of enjoyment in exploring Nobel Prize information online. There are videos, such as a documentary of the four 2012 Laureates’ discoveries in medical research; Mother Teresa’s and Elie Wiesel’s speeches after their awards of their Peace Prizes; and a 1994 interview with John Nash (prize in Economic Sciences),…

  • Growing vegetables in small spaces

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    By Guadalupe Astorga One of today’s global issues concerns the supply of fresh food to people in cities. While the carbon footprint for transporting fruits and vegetables from the areas where they are produced, to the consumers’ tables can reach high levels for longer distances, local production and consumption have several advantages. A number of…

  • Louise Pearce – An Extraordinary Woman of Medicine

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    By Susan Russo In 1913, the Rockefeller Institute appointed its first woman researcher, Louise Pearce, M.D., who worked as an assistant to Simon Flexner. Pearce was promoted to Associate Member in 1923, and continued in this position until 1951, when she became President of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. During her career, Pearce attained…

  • Twenty-four visits to Stockholm: a concise history of the Rockefeller Nobel Prizes.

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    Part XVII: Torsten Wiesel, 1981 Prize in Physiology or Medicine. By Joseph Luna In the late 1950’s, two scientists sat with a cat in a darkened room and flicked on a projector screen. For this particular movie night with kitty, the scientists showed a series of simple images to the cat, and between each one…

  • Neuroscience Night

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    By Aileen Marshall March 14 through the 20 was National Brain Awareness Week. In honor of that, the Rockefeller University’s Science and Media Group sponsored an event called Neuroscience Night, run by the organization KnowScience. The event consisted of several talks by local scientists about their fascinating research on the brain. The topics ranged from…

  • Reflections on the Updated Periodic Table

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    By Paul Jeng Where does science live? For me these days, it’s in the fifteen open tabs lagging my browser as I switch from email to PubMed. It’s in hot coffee in the morning and red velvet seminar cookies in the afternoon. It’s spelled out in Calibri on slides or floating around inside the heads…

  • Zika Virus

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    By Aileen Marshall What should you know about the Zika virus? It’s been around for over 50 years, but it’s only recently that it’s spread has increased around the world, especially in South America. The Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes, but for most people it only causes a mild infection. However, an infection in…

  • Twenty-four visits to Stockholm: a concise history of the Rockefeller Nobel Prizes.

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    Part XVI: David Baltimore, 1975 Prize in Physiology or Medicine. By Joseph Luna On June 19th 1946, a captive rhesus monkey in the Mengo district near the town of Entebbe, Uganda developed unexplained hind-limb paralysis. British and American scientists, part of the local Yellow Fever Research Institute, financed in part by The Rockefeller Foundation, soon…

  • Martin Shkreli: Disease or Symptom?

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    By Sarala Kal Hillary Clinton said “he was like the worst bad date you can imagine,” and many others call him the villain of the pharmaceutical industry. Thirty-two-year-old Martin Shkreli is a Brooklyn native, whose placement in a high school program for gifted youth serendipitously landed him an internship on Wall Street at the ripe…

  • Twenty-four visits to Stockholm: a concise history of the Rockefeller Nobel Prizes

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    Part XV: Christian de Duve, 1974 Prize in Physiology or Medicine. By Joseph Luna In his two-volume book A Guided Tour of the Living Cell, Christian de Duve vividly describes a most hostile setting, where “everywhere we look are scenes of destruction: maimed molecules of various kinds, shapeless debris, half-recognizable pieces of bacteria and viruses,…