LightGrams (Page 9)
LightGramsMay 6, 2021Volume 25, Number 17 Any day now things should get noisier here where I live. It won’t be just in my community, but large sections of the U.S. will notice an evening chorus that cannot be missed. Brood X of cicadas will begin emerging from the soil as temperatures warm. This particular brood…
LightGramsApril 29, 2021Volume 25, Number 16 Running an ultramarathon is something I’ve never done, or would even plan to do. A marathon would be challenge enough, but this type of race is beyond tough. These are designed to test the limits of those whose passion is running and pushing themselves beyond normal human limits. I…
LightGramsApril 21, 2021Volume 25, Number 15 A traveler passing through security at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport was pulled aside. His luggage didn’t raise a red flag, but his breakfast burrito did. Once the alert was issued the burrito was scanned by Xray, and a small package with crystal meth was discovered inside. Needless the…
LightGramsApril 15, 2021Volume 25, Number 14 Camille Coelho decided a walk on the beach was just the thing needed to relax. The intensive care nurse who lives in the Boston area often takes such strolls, looking for sea glass as she walks. On this stroll, however, she stepped into an area of mud that gave…
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…