LightGramsApril 1, 2021Volume 25, Number 13 A few days ago a piece of art sold for $688,888. That amount may seem odd, but that’s not nearly as odd as how the art was created. The “artist” is Sophia, a humanoid robot that worked in collaboration with Italian painter Andrea Bonaceto. Also adding to the oddity…
LightGramsMarch 25, 2021Volume 25, Number 12 Humanity’s first powered flight occurred on December 17, 1903 when Orville Wright launched their crude aircraft, the Wright Flyer I, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The first powered flight on another planet will happen within a month, and it will fittingly carry a swatch of fabric used on the…
LightGramsMarch 18, 2021Volume 25, Number 11 Steve Brandenburg has been a pharmacist for 23 years; he knows about safe handling practices of medications designed to protect or restore the health of patients. But on the evenings of December 24 and 25 of last year, he rendered a box of vials of COVID-19 vaccine either less…
LightGramsMarch 11, 2021Volume 25, Number 10 A story carried by Reuters last month caught my attention. Kit Yates, a math expert at London’s Bath University, projected the number of COVID-19 virus particles in the world at the height of the pandemic. I won’t list all the steps he went through, but the bottom line of…
LightGramsMarch 4, 2021Volume 25, Number 9 Teresa Ferrin works at a thrift store in Phoenix, Arizona. While working her shift earlier this year, a fellow worker brought in a piece of cardboard with military medals attached. Among the medals was a Purple Heart, given to women and men of the U.S. Military who are wounded…
LightGramsFebruary 25, 2021Volume 25, Number 8 Hayley Arceneaux is someone you may be hearing about in the months to come. The 29-year-old physician’s assistant is employed at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Ironically she was also a patient there when she was a child; today she is among the growing ranks of…
LightGrams February 18, 2021 Volume 25, Number 7 An interesting story came from Helsinki, Finland a few days ago. 11 volunteers under the guidance of amateur artist Janne Pyykko strapped on their snowshoes at a snow-covered golf course. Over the next two days they walked according to a planned route – but never left the…
LightGrams February 11, 2021 Volume 25, Number 6 Jack was told to sell the family cow in order to buy much-needed food. Along the way a stranger offered to trade the cow for some magical beans. You know the story. Demi Skipper, who lives in San Francisco, claims she has pulled a similar trick: she…
LightGrams February 4, 2021 Volume 25, Number 5 Bloodhounds are legendary for staying on the trail of someone authorities are searching for. Give the dog a whiff of the person’s clothing and they’ll usually track them down. Today other species of dogs are being employed to sniff out COVID-19. In Germany a Belgian Shepherd and…
LightGrams January 28, 2021 Volume 25, Number 4 An old adage advises that “Vengeance is a dish that is best served cold.” The idea is that a person should wait for a time before taking revenge for some injury or injustice. In that way you’ll have more time to perfect your plan to get even.…