| By K. Lee Lerner| Made popular by a million memes, the famous Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment (also called the Schrödinger’s cat paradox), devised by physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961). In 1935, was designed to illustrate the often bizarre implications of quantum mechanics (specifically, superposition and the concept of quantum measurement). Analogous to a radioactive atom … Read more
| By K. Lee Lerner | Within the scientific community, in accord with long-established atmospheric physics and chemistry, most climate change predictive models show that as global temperatures increase, at least with regard to tropical waters located between 30 degrees north and south of the equator, extreme precipitation events in the form of tropical cyclones … Read more
| By K. Lee Lerner | Despite the fact that there has been a revolutionary integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into apps and other programming, many of the generative AI programs recently released are still considered experimental programs. An understanding of the limitations of generative AI programs is, increasingly, an urgent concern. Users, especially teachers … Read more
| By K. Lee Lerner | With the 2024 solar eclipse excitement behind us, people living in the Southeast and Midwest are now anticipating a rare double emergence of major periodical cicada broods. A brood is a group of cicadas synchronized to emerge from the ground to complete their life cycle by molting, mating, laying … Read more
| By K. Lee Lerner | Most people are trying to put the COVID-19 pandemic, with all its tragedies, disruptions, uncertainties, and inanities, in the rearview mirror. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 global health emergency on May 5, and the United States declared the public health emergency on May 11. Budget realities … Read more
| By K. Lee Lerner | Spacetime describes a universe where the tangible and traditional dimensions of space (e.g., length, width, and height) fuse with a dimension of time to create a four-dimensional universe. Since Albert Einstein advanced his theories of special and general relativity more than a century ago, spacetime has become a foundational … Read more
| By K. Lee Lerner, M.Ed. | Educators and librarians are now on the front lines of the generative artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. Advances in AI were patchy since the concept was first advanced in 1956 by research scientists who organized what was termed the Dartmouth Conference to discuss the creation of machines that could … Read more
| By K. Lee Lerner | In December 2022, scientists working at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) reported the first net gain in energy from a controlled fusion reaction (i.e., more energy was released than put into the reaction). The fusion ignition was also self-sustaining, and the experiment … Read more
| By K. Lee Lerner | Students are engaged when they write about topics in the news that affect them and their families. Yet, for the past two years, no topic has loomed larger in anyone’s lives than the virus SARS-CoV-2 and the global COVID-19 pandemic caused by the virus. From its many variants, including … Read more
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and its observance is more important than ever. An estimated 26 percent of Americans ages 18 and older―about 1 in 4 adults―suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder each year.1 Many suffer in silence because of the stigmas associated with mental illness and mental disorders. Often, people avoid treatment because they may … Read more