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Children for sale in Chicago

By ShamsDecember 9, 2017Economy, Media, Politics1948, Chicago, children for sale, poverty

Children for sale in Chicago, 1948. Some parents sold their children due to poverty. pic.twitter.com/mMr2eHt29S — History In Pictures (@HistoryInPix) 8. Dezember 2017

Meditation and ballet associated with wisdom, study says

By Guest PostMay 17, 2016Health, Scienceballet, Chicago, joffrey ballet, meditation, monika ardelt, pain reduction technique, wisdom

Wisdom, traditionally associated with old age, is nonetheless found in people of all ages. So, what makes a person wise?

A new study, “The Relationship between Mental and Somatic Practices and Wisdom,” published Feb. 18 in PLOS ONE, confirms an age-old conception that meditation is associated with wisdom. Surprisingly, it also concludes that somatic, or physical, practices such as classical ballet might lead to increased wisdom. (more…)

Students learn about feature filmmaking with ‘Divergent’ internships

By Guest PostMarch 28, 2014Mediaalexander rohrbach, chantal conneller, Chicago, daniel saudek, douglas adams, film industry, gegenwarten, hitchhikers guide, ice age island, lars friedrich, lichtkraefte, lichtpinzette, nur lokal, pfm, photon kraftmikroskop, sarah duffy, silvia bello, students, zeitvergehen

Joe and Rika Mansueto Library appears as location in film

When the futuristic thriller Divergent started scouting locations for the film last year, Judy Hoffman saw a rare opportunity for her students.

Hoffman, professor of practice in Cinema and Media Studies, knows that a career in film requires a lot of on-the-job learning. Divergent, which is set in Chicago and was shot almost entirely in the city, would let her students see many aspects of the complicated process up close. (more…)

Evolutionary study finds neglected fin may have a function

By Guest PostMarch 12, 2014Nature, Scienceadipose fin, Chicago, convergent evolution, evolutionary study, field museum, function, michael coates, neglected fin, new model, species, thomas stewart, university of chicago

Fin’s emergence in many species challenges assumption that it’s a useless remnant

Although present in more than 6,000 living species of fish, the adipose fin, a small appendage that lies between the dorsal fin and tail, has no clear function and is thought to be vestigial. A new study analyzing their origins, however, finds that these fins arose repeatedly and independently in multiple species. In addition, adipose fins appear to have repeatedly and independently evolved skeletal elements, offering a glimpse into how new tissue types and structural complexity evolve in vertebrate appendages.

Adipose fins therefore represent a prime example of convergent evolution and offer a new model for exploring the evolution of vertebrate limbs and appendages, report University of Chicago scientists in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B on March 5. (more…)

Smart hydrogels

By Guest PostJanuary 18, 2014Scienceacs, americans, anti inflammatory activity, arthritis foundation, biomacromolecules, chandran sabanayagam, Chicago, darrin pochan, DNA, drug molecules, gel is biocompatible, high tension, hip joint, hyaluronic acid, knee, ligament tears, longxi xiao, mechanical force, osteoarthritis, ph, researchers, rush university, smart hydrogels, stimulate tissue regeneration, temperature, treatment efficacy, university of delaware, xinqiao jia, yingchao chen, zhixiang tong

UD-developed smart gels deliver medicine on demand

Researchers at the University of Delaware have developed a “smart” hydrogel that can deliver medicine on demand, in response to mechanical force.

Over the past few decades, smart hydrogels have been created that respond to pH, temperature, DNA, light and other stimuli. (more…)

‘Hackathon’ teaches Chicago high school students the social power of Big Data

By Guest PostNovember 28, 2013Education, Scienceanonymity, big data, campaign, Chicago, chicago data portal, city, commuting patterns, complex data, creative use, data, data scientist, Eric Schmidt, google chairman, high school hackathon, kenwood academy, nina henderson, obama for america, public policy, rayid ghani, shaz rasul, statistics, tom plagge, university of chicago, urban problems, william woods

Like urban bike-sharing programs everywhere, Chicago’s Divvy must contend with a key problem: due to commuting patterns, some bike stations empty out fast while others fill up quickly, leaving no space for more drop-offs.

But such urban problems can be addressed with socially minded computer science, as a group of 50 Chicago high school students learned recently during a daylong conference at the University of Chicago. (more…)

First Readings: A first taste of college life

By Guest PostSeptember 17, 2013Culture, Education1938 olympics, anti lbgtq, beautiful souls, berlin, broker, brown university, Chicago, college life, croats, dan harwood, eyal press, first readings, first readings seminars, first taste, florida, hayley bounds, hitler, hong kong, illegal settlements, illinois, israeli commando, labor day, new york, olympic, omer bartov, Ponzi Scheme, president christina paxson, professor of history, russia, sense of empathy, serbian, smuggled jews, south korea, swiss border guard, us states

On Monday morning — Labor Day — first-year students gathered in classrooms around campus for their First Readings seminars. The program, initiated at Brown seven years ago, is designed to give new students a common reading experience and prepare them for college life.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Classes don’t officially begin until Wednesday, but first-year students got their first taste of academic life at Brown on the first Monday in September, when all 1,537 of them gathered in classrooms around campus for the annual First Readings seminars. (more…)

Dolphins keep lifelong social memories, longest in a non-human species

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2013Nature, Scienceage, bailey, bermuda, brookfield zoo, Chicago, chimpanzees, cognitive sophistication, dolphin connection, dolphin named allie, dolphin named kai, dolphin quest, dolphins, elephants, florida keys, human social memory, humans, jason bruck, non human species, scotland, sex, signature whistle, social memories, spectrograms, st andrews, stephanie l king, texas state aquarium, university, vincent m janik

Dolphins can recognize their old tank mates’ whistles after being separated for more than 20 years—the longest social memory ever recorded for a non-human species.

The remarkable memory feat is another indication that dolphins have a level of cognitive sophistication comparable to only a few other species, including humans, chimpanzees and elephants. Dolphins’ talent for social recognition may be even more long-lasting than facial recognition among humans, since human faces change over time, but the signature whistle that identifies a dolphin remains stable over many decades. (more…)

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