Editor's note
|
|
On this day in 1998 – 20 years ago in human terms, but a geologic age in internet time – Google was incorporated. Information scientist Gary Marchionini from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill looks at how the company transformed the online-search business, and examines the challenges – both internal and external – the company will face over the next 20 years.
How many school shootings happen in the U.S. in a single year? Counts wildly disagree, writes Pennsylvania State University’s Lacey Wallace. One Department of Education report said there were 240 during a recent school year, while an independent investigation could only confirm 11. Wallace explains why the data on such an important topic is so muddled.
Fifty years ago, on an episode of “Star Trek,” actors William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols locked lips for television’s first interracial kiss. Arizona State’s Matthew Delmont recounts how Nichols would go on to become known for far more than a kiss, becoming a forceful advocate for inclusion in Hollywood, in science and in space. And want hear the kiss and listen to Delmont talking about its impact on TV viewers?
Then subscribe to our new podcast about 1968, Heat and Light, here.
|
Jeff Inglis
Science + Technology Editor
|
|
|
Top stories
|
The past and present of Google – what’s next?
Sirirat/Shutterstock.com
Gary Marchionini, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
As Google turns 20, a look at how the company has grown – and what the next two decades might bring for the company.
|
A Texas school’s tribute to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Lacey Wallace, Pennsylvania State University
The Department of Education says there were 240 school shootings during a recent school year. Another database only counts 29. How could the numbers be so different -- and who is right?
|
Nervous about how southern television viewers would react, NBC executives closely monitored the filming of the kiss between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner.
U.S. Air Force
Matthew Delmont, Arizona State University
The career arc of Nichelle Nichols – the first black woman to have a continuing co-starring role on TV – shows how diverse casting can have as much of an impact off the screen as it does on it.
|
|
Our new podcast "Heat and Light" features Prof. Delmont discussing the story of the first interracial kiss on TV in depth. Five other episodes will help explain what events of 50 years ago were just heat, and what brought light, too.
    
|
Economy + Business
|
-
Lucas Davis, University of California, Berkeley; Catherine Hausman, University of Michigan
Paying these CEOs more when oil prices rise means they're rewarded for having good luck.
-
Jeffrey Kucik, University of Arizona
The president again threatened to drop out of the World Trade Organization if it doesn't 'shape up.' But a careful review of case filings show the US isn't treated any differently than its other members.
|
|
Environment + Energy
|
-
Reid Lifset, Yale University; Martin Baumers, University of Nottingham; Timothy Gutowski, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Is 3D printing better for the environment than conventional manufacturing? The jury is still out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trending on site
|
-
Jay L. Zagorsky, The Ohio State University
The holiday began as a strike against excessive workweeks but now bears little resemblance to its worker-centric origins, even as the founders' gains are slowly lost.
-
John K. Davis, California State University, Fullerton
Several companies are trying to develop life extension methods that could enable some people to live far longer. There are some ethical dilemmas.
-
James Kuzner, Brown University
We talk excitedly about meeting someone with whom we 'click' or 'really hit it off.' So why do so many of us hesitate to call it love?
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
