New Year's Day

http://monthlyreview.org/2016/01/01/mr-067-08-2016-01_0/
From Monthly Review Press, "Capitalism and It's Current Crisis. Patnaik is a Marxist economist.

http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-benefits-of-music-education/
This article from PBS ralks about how music education  for young children is important for, among other things, language learning and the development of spatial-temporal skills.

https://www.fi.edu/top-5-space-stories-of-2015
The Top 5 Space Stories of 2015 from the Franklin Institute. Discovery of water on Mars made my top 5 too.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/44784/title/Year-in-Review--Biggest-Life-Science-Stories-of-2015/
Crispr/Cas9 made my top 5 too. There is an enormous ethical controversy now about gene editing in human embryos.

https://www.nasw.org/article/inside-killer-lettuce-story
My colleagues at the NASW report that the story about how growing lettuce produces more greenhouse gasses than producing meat is false.


✓ Temple adjuncts vote to unionize. In Nov., Temple adjuncts voted to join full-time faculty in the American Federation of Teachers’ union, doubling the size of the school’s union to nearly 3,000 faculty.

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/Best___Worst_of_2015-363755791.html

Philadelphia Weekly listed our adjuncts unionizing as one of the Best Events of 2015


https://richarddawkins.net/2016/01/7th-period-of-the-periodic-table-of-elements-is-complete/ 
The seventh row of the periodic table has been completed. Elements 113-118 have been reviewed and claims for their discovery have been authenticated (there probably won't be a batorskium). Element 113 discovered by the RIKEN corporation, will have a Japanese name commemorating its discoverers. This report is from the Richard Dawkins foundation.

http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/12/are-you-inheriting-more-genes-your-father
Experiment reported in Science magazine that sperm may carry more than genes, possibly carry RNA that can alter metabolic traits of offspring. This work was done in rodents.  This is a type of epigenetic inheritance.