Markson@Home

Trillions of Plastic Bits, Swept Up by Current, Are Littering Arctic Waters

The world’s oceans are littered with trillions of pieces of plastic — bottles, bags, toys, fishing nets and more, mostly in tiny particles — and now this seaborne junk is making its way into the Arctic.  Read

Dogs Do Their Duty for Science

Researchers have been going park to park to collect 100 canine samples, 20 from each borough. They are amassing similar citywide data sets from cats, rats, mice, pigeons and cockroaches. Read

Henry J. Foner, Labor Leader Accused of Communist Ties, Dies at 97

Henry J. Foner, the last of four brothers from New York City who were denied academic jobs in the 1940s for Communist ties and later were champions of organized labor, higher education and progressive political causes, died on Jan. 11 in Brooklyn. He was 97.

The cause was cardiovascular disease, said his nephew, Prof. Eric Foner, a historian at Columbia University.  Read

Opinion | The World’s Most Beautiful Mathematical Equation

We all know that art, music and nature are beautiful. They command the senses and incite emotion. Their impact is swift and visceral. How can a mathematical idea inspire the same feelings? Read

What Nutmeg Can Tell Us About Nafta

GOA, India — For many years the word “globalization” was used as shorthand for a promised utopia of free trade powered by the world’s great centers of technological and financial innovation. But the celebratory note has worn thin. The word is now increasingly invoked to explain a widespread recoiling from a cosmopolitan earth. People in many countries are looking nostalgically backward, toward less connected, supposedly more secure times.

But did such an era ever exist? Was there ever an unglobalized world? Read

These high school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials. Days later, she resigned.

A group of reporters and editors from the student newspaper, the Booster Redux at Pittsburg High School in southeastern Kansas, had gathered to talk about Amy Robertson, who was hired as the high school’s head principal on March 6. Read

Robots Will Take Jobs, but Not as Fast as Some Fear, New Report Says

The robots are coming, but the march of automation will displace jobs more gradually than some alarming forecasts suggest. Read

Jeremy Stone, Who Influenced Arms Control During Cold War, Dies at 81

Morton Halperin, who served three White House administrations in national security and diplomatic positions, said in an interview that Mr. Stone “understood what many advocates don’t: that if you want to influence governments, you have to give them an idea for what they can actually do rather than lecture them about peace or arms control.”  Read