A few days ago, Wyss Institute at Harvard University, in collaboration with scientists at the University of Vermont and Tufts University, published a paper showing that they have developed biological robots that can move on their own, “feed” themselves, and…
An email I received regarding one of my op-ed columns on The Times of Israel read as follows: “I think you are 100% correct that the biggest problem Jews face is their constant infighting and lack of unity. HOWEVER [caps…
Buy Nothing Day is a day of protest against consumerism. It is held the day after Thanksgiving, concurrent to Black Friday. In my opinion, the protest accomplishes nothing because shopping fills a void that makes us briefly happy. If you…
We haven’t finished with Delta, yet here comes Omicron. The new strain of coronavirus is said to be five times more infectious, but there is as yet no evidence that it causes serious illness in vaccinated people. Nature’s precision is…
You would think that someone as renowned as Albert Einstein, whose contribution to science in general, and to the US in particular, is unquestionable, would escape the plight of antisemitism. He did not. In a recently discovered letter from 1936,…
Every Jewish holiday has deep spiritual meaning. Hanukkah is no exception. On Hanukkah, we celebrate the miracle that happened to the Maccabees, who defeated the mighty Seleucid Empire and its allies, the Hellenistic Jews. After their victory, they cleaned the…
Today, seventy-four years ago, the United Nations decided to adopt the proposal suggested by the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) and create two separate states in Palestine—one for the Arabs and one for the Jews. The proposal, known…
A few days ago I visited Mount Vesuvius in southern Italy. In the fall of the year 79 CE, the mountain exploded. The explosion was so violent that it shot a cloud of fragmented rock and gasses to a height…
I have been told that the problems in supply chains afflicting the global economy have gotten so bad, and the prognosis is so dire, that some countries are considering shutting down international trade and trying to become self-sufficient. It is…
David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, said that billionaires “need to step up now, on a one-time basis,” and donate $6 billion to save 42 million people “who are going to die if we don’t…
Sometimes I feel that we will never learn to sympathize or care. Instead of feeling compassion, we will become so alienated that we will destroy ourselves one person at a time until we’re all gone. If we consider our true…
“Pundits” and experts galore keep warning us that soon there will not be enough food to feed humanity, and not enough fresh water to drink. Remember peak oil, when a slew of “experts” warned us that soon we will run…