A new book, Jerusalem Unbound, plots the history and examines the underlying factors that make a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians so difficult.
Written by Professor Mick Dumper, a University of Exeter politics expert with over 25 years of experience of Jerusalem, the book explores why religious property in ethnically mixed cities attract conflict and argues that holy sites are particularly difficult in peace negotiations as they cannot be exchanged or traded like other properties. It also compares Jerusalem with other divided cities like Belfast and Beirut and draws out lessons that can be learnt from the way these cities are managed. (more…)
Berkeley Lab researchers and their colleagues extend electron spin in diamond for incredibly tiny magnetic detectors
From brain to heart to stomach, the bodies of humans and animals generate weak magnetic fields that a supersensitive detector could use to pinpoint illnesses, trace drugs – and maybe even read minds. Sensors no bigger than a thumbnail could map gas deposits underground, analyze chemicals, and pinpoint explosives that hide from other probes.
Now scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley, working with colleagues from Harvard University, have improved the performance of one of the most potent possible sensors of magnetic fields on the nanoscale – a diamond defect no bigger than a pair of atoms, called a nitrogen vacancy (NV) center. (more…)
“There is a tendency in the West to stay ignorant to what Islam stands for,” noted Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador who is currently senior fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, speaking at a panel held in Istanbul on Feb. 21.
The panel, which focused on issues that impact the West’s interests in the Middle East, was held in cooperation with Boğaziçi University–TÜSİAD Foreign Policy Forum. Crocker — who served in many countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan — was one of three senior fellows from the Jackson Institute to share their insights with the assembled guests. (more…)
*A University of Exeter academic, who is an expert on Islam, has contributed to the new television series ‘The Life of Muhammad’ currently being broadcast on BBC Two. The three-part documentary, presented by journalist Rageh Omaar, charts the story of the Prophet who, in little more than 20 years, changed the world forever.*
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Sharon Herbert and her team were wrapping up their dig at the Tel Kedesh site in Israel, sweeping the site in the 140-degree heat, when a student showed University of Michigan doctoral instructor Lisa Cakmak what he first thought was a gold candy wrapper.
