Ask yourself, do you believe persons with a disability have a right to work? If yes, what kind of work? At this point a lot of people will say it depends upon their abilities. If only that was true. 37.9% persons with disabilities who have completed K-12 or higher studies reported that they have been unable to secure work and rely upon welfare as the main source of their income. Is this due to their abilities? If only. 16.1% had completed a Bachelor degree or above, yet this often does not translate to work. Many people reading this will have studied at university themselves. How many of your professors had disabilities? Why are persons […]Read full article >

A pandemic fueled by wishful thinking and irresponsible choices. Racial injustice exacerbated by self-serving motives that inhibit empathy and compassion. Catastrophic climate changes accelerated by a lack of commitment to the well-being of those beyond our immediate experience. To many, these threats feel overwhelming – even apocalyptic. Yet our species has overcome many formidable challenges in our evolutionary history. Indeed, when we look at how humans evolved, it is evident that we have been endowed with “super powers” that have enabled us to survive a wide range of environmental perils and societal conflicts. What are these super […]Read full article >

Energy plays a fundamental role in our societies and in our daily lives. Lighting systems, machines in offices, household appliances and electronic devices work thanks to electricity. Transport, and therefore trade, are made possible by oil-derived products. Industry depends on energy supply for its activities, as does agriculture. In short, without energy we would not be able to carry out the simplest activities: taking a hot shower in the morning, preparing breakfast, taking the children to school by car and then working on the computer, possibly in a suitably air-conditioned office. That is: energy is a key prerequisite for our daily […]Read full article >

• What was your main motivation for writing Surviving the War in Syria? This book grew out of my PhD dissertation. When I started the research, I thought I was going to only going to write about migration: Why people migrate, when they migrate, where they migrate, and how they migrate. This changed when I started talking to people. There was one conversation in particular, with a Syrian refugee in Zaatari camp, that was crucial in shifting the direction of my research. We had just spoken for about an hour, but when the interview ended, my respondent spent another 20 minutes explaining to me that I had neglected to ask what was in his view […]Read full article >

Richard M. Martin, author of Electronic Structure: Basic Theory and Practical Methods’, Second Edition, (2020) gives his personal reasons for updating the original edition (2004) Why would anyone write a new edition of a book that is still selling after many years? The explanations of the basic theory in the first edition are still valid, and the methods are still the ones that are most widely used. However I still felt an update was required. Reason #1: Topology. The initial reason for writing a new edition is the major development in the field of electronic structure that was completely unknown in 2004 when the first edition was […]Read full article >

As we head into a new academic year with many institutions relying on online course delivery, instructors are confronted with the need to find new ways to engage their students. We’ve rounded up the best advice from our Lockdown Lectures series this summer, where textbook authors took to Facebook Live to answer your questions and share their advice on teaching during the pandemic. Add variety with concise and interesting videos Many authors reported that they were using asynchronous video lectures but recommended that these should be much shorter than a typical lecture – around ten minutes. Their experiences tally with a study of online […]Read full article >