ABOUT THE EDITOR

Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer is the Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago and Director of the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge. She has broad expertise in Greco-Roman literature and philosophy and in the reception of the Classics in contemporary China.

Alumni Joalda Morancy's New Book, Aliens: Join the Scientists Searching for Extraterrestrial Life

October 21, 2022

Joalda Morancy is an IFK alumni who took our course Explorations of Mars with Dr. Jordan Bimm in Spring 2021. In this interview they reconnect to discuss Morancy’s new book about space exploration.

Will Virtual Doctors Care for Future Astronauts? The Promise and Perils of AI in Space Medicine

September 26, 2021

Jordan Bimm, IFK Postdoctoral Researcher and Giacomo Cetorelli, Research Assistant explore future implications of space medicine

How Jeff Bezos’ Space Launch Today Will Change Aerospace History

July 20, 2021

Jordan Bimm, IFK Postdoctoral Researcher explores the billionaire race to space. 

Four Things from Yan Slobodkin

June 10, 2021

IFK postdoctoral researcher Yan Slobodkin gives a rundown of the books he's been reading this month.

Manufactured Uncertainty and the Media History of Risk

May 13, 2021

Thomas Pringle describes an unforeseen after-effect of environmental radiation as it showed up on film in 1945.

Four Things from Alex Campolo

May 11, 2021

IFK postdoctoral fellow Alex Campolo talks through four things keeping him thinking this month.

Who Unearths the Past?: On the Work of The Dig

February 9, 2021

Joe Stadolnik watches The Dig, and sheds light on an obscure excavator of the past unlikely to inspire a Netflix movie.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Cats

January 10, 2022

Michael Rossi, an historian of medicine and science in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present, and IFK Core Faculty member, reviews The Scientific Method: An Evolution of Thinking from Darwin to Dewey by Henry M. Cowles. Re- printed with permission from Los Angeles Review of Books. 

Covid-19 and the Long History of Racially Maldistributed Mortality

May 26, 2020

Alexander Mazzaferro investigates America's long history of racial disparity and its impact on the nation's COVID-19 response.

Knowing Uncertainty: How Science Fiction Helps us Make Sense of the Pandemic

May 04, 2020

Anastasia Klimchynskaya draws parallels between Sci-Fi and our current world to show how literature can help us understand COVID-19 and our uncertain future.

In Search of Plagues Past

April 27, 2020

Margaret Carlyle looks to past pandemics to gain insight on COVID-19.

Using Quantitative Models to Guide Policy Amid COVID-19 Uncertainty

April 24, 2020

Nobel Laureate and IFK Faculty Member Lars Peter Hansen shares his thoughts on the global pandemic and using quantitative models to guide policy amid COVID-19 uncertainty

The Limits of Empathy

April 20, 2020

Yan Slobodkin explores the space between empathy and justice.

Flattening the Curve: Visualization and Pandemic Knowledge

April 01, 2020

IFK Postdoc Alex Campolo breaks down how we look at pandemics like COVID-19

What is a Person? January 15, 2020

January 15, 2020

Nicolette Bruner asks us who — or what — people really are.

How did the Fetal Ultrasound Become Such an Iconic Image?

March 06, 2019

Margaret Carlyle and Brian Callender discuss the evolution of the image of the fetus. This blog is based off of their current exhibit on display in the Regenstein Library Special Collections.

What Can Marvel’s Black Panther Tell Viewers about Science and Technology in Africa?

February 21, 2018

Damien Droney, IFK Postdoctoral Scholar focused on the politics of science, technology, and medicine in postcolonial Africa, discusses Marvel's newly-released Black Panther movie.

The Romans, Just Wars, and Exceptionalism

September 28, 2017

Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer draws parallels between the American and Ancient Roman militaries.

Are My Microbes Making Me Fat?

September 25, 2017

Dr. Jack A Gilbert breaks down how our gut affects our weight.

Tamil Truths

September 20, 2017

In a world of "fake news," Whitney Cox analyzes truth according to the two South Asian languages with the longest classical pedigrees, Tamil and Sanskrit.

Babylonian Knowledge and the Challenge of History

September 08, 2017

Eduardo Escobar, IFK Postdoctoral Researcher, discusses the opposition of Babylonian and Greek mathematics in current news, and why presentism is wrong.