Has our better-to-be-safe culture gone too far?
By Wendy Thomas Russell
The heartbreaking story of a Texas 9th-grader arrested because he had the gall to make a clock and bring it to school to show his engineering teacher has left Americans understandably reeling. Twitter is beside itself. Even President Obama has posted a supportive message for the boy, Ahmed Mohamed, inviting him to bring his “cool clock” to the White House.
Ahmed’s arrest is a severe reminder to all of us that Islamophobia is alive and well in America. Despite so many efforts to counteract such prejudice, the false equations remain: Brown = suspicious…
by Cameron Hickey
After I learned that I would be traveling to West Africa to cover the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak with Miles O’Brien, I spent a lot of time thinking about and preparing for the trip: what cameras to bring, what food to pack, how to fly a drone. I also invested a whole lot of time on my health and safety — acquiring vaccinations, malaria pills, first aid kits, and of course, thinking about how not to get Ebola.
What I couldn’t have prepared for was the psychological toll the trip would take. I’ve traveled all over…
Or, what it’s like to see color for the first time.
By Joshua Barajas
SUBJECT: STRONG EMOTIONS
Guys, I’ve been staring at a Mountain Dew can for 10 minutes now. By the end of this day, I may even shed a tear. Holy hell … … … emotions, y’all.
xo,
Josh
This was my first reaction, in all of its unvarnished glory, after I thought I was seeing red and green for the first time.
Not long ago…
By Laura Santhanam
Millennials have been widely heralded as this country’s most racially tolerant generation, but survey data and current events can sometimes present a conflicting portrait.
A video that showed Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity member at University of Oklahoma chanting racist slurs recently sparked national outrage and contradicted that conventional wisdom about Millennial attitudes on racial acceptance.
So, where did that idea come from?
For years, survey data has said that Millennials, generally considered to be age 18 to 34, are the nation’s most racially and ethnically diverse generation yet. …
87 percent of scientists think it’s OK to eat GMO foods vs. 33 percent of U.S. adults
By Laura Santhanam
Scientists and the public agree on very little when it comes to climate change, childhood vaccine requirements and more, but both groups feel more pessimistic about the direction of science, according to a new study released in January from the Pew Research Center.
In fact, when Pew staff looked for overarching patterns that helped to explain why scientists and the public share some opinions…
Researchers are spending $20 million to test Einstein’s theory
By Rebecca Jacobson and Joshua Barajas, PBS NewsHour
To study black holes, scientists flock to the ALMA Observatory atop a mountain in the middle of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Full report on Tuesday’s PBS NewsHour.
The most important thing I learned from working at 16,500 feet above sea level is this: High altitude makes you stupid.
The telescopes at the ALMA observatory sit on the Chajnantor Plateau in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert, just 400 feet lower than Mount Everest’s North Base Camp. We were there to interview the scientists behind the Event Horizon telescope, a project with a lofty goal: to capture the first-ever image of a black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
But inside the control room at 16,500 feet, my…
PBS NewsHour
PBS NewsHour is one of the most trusted news programs on TV and online. Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/newshour
