A conversation with Ted Harris

Philosophy, Art and Critique: A (short) conversation with the “other”

The article sketches a nexus between philosophy, art (poetry) and critique with a particular emphasis on the contribution of classical Muslim philosophers. At the same time, it demonstrates how luminaries such as Omar Khayyam and Ibn Sina, contributed to the renewal of philosophy as a freedom seeking exercise and as a means to pursue happiness through knowledge. In the second&nbs...

A Prote ted Division

A Conversation with Graham Hutchings

G raham Hutchings of Cardiff University made a discovery in 1982 that came to define his career. He predicted that golddespite its reputation for being inertshould be an excellent catalyst for an industrial reaction that makes vinyl chloride monomer (VCM, or chloroethene), used to produce one of the world’s most ubiquitous plastics, polyvinyl chloride (PVC). More than three decades later, Hut...

A Conversation with Manu Prakash

S tanford bioengineer Manu Prakash specializes in frugal science: engineering cheap, easy-to-use diagnostic tools for the developing world, especially remote areas where bulky, electric-powered lab equipment is impractical. In 2014, Prakash debuted the Foldscopea foldable paper microscope designed to detect blood-borne pathogensas well as a chemistry kit-on-a-chip to carry out diagnostic assa...

A Conversation with Monroe Sirken

Born January 11, 1921 in New York City, Monroe Sirken grew up in a suburb of Pasadena, California. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in sociology at UCLA in 1946 and 1947, and a Ph.D. in 1950 in sociology with a minor in mathematics at the University of Washington in 1950 where Professor Z. W. Birnbaum was his mentor and thesis advisor. As a Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Social Science Research Cou...