Development

The odds were stacked against a little boy who was born with his brain outside his skull, but he is defying all of them, thanks to a groundbreaking procedure performed at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Sierra Yoder and her husband, Dustin, were sent to a neurologist after Sierra’s 22-week ultrasound. She was soon shocked to learn that the child growing inside her had encephalocele, which causes all or part of the brain to form outside the skull, usually in a “sac-like protrusion.” Encephalocele affects 1 in every 10,000 babies.

Some are disheveled, some are shaggy, and some are barely there. Beards are popular right now, much to many women’s dismay, and while beards sometimes catch soup and crumbs, they’re actually not unhygienic.
Adam Roberts, a clean-shaved microbiologist from University College London, decided to comb through guys’ facial hair to find out if they contain…poop. Not soup, but poop.

A Checkered Past
Thanks to research and the minds behind it, a great deal of human progress is undeniable. Yet, equally undeniable is the fact that research has the potential to fuel awful social transgressions. Consider Amy Maxmen’s writing on genetics. She broaches a handful of research Frankensteins like human radiation experiments, Tuskegee, and Nuremburg. Although such reprehensible instances happened years ago, research’s checkered past is by no means distant.

This weekend the UN sustainable development goals will be agreed upon at a summit in New York. Asghar Zaidi explains how the new goals aim to cover a much broader range of issues and be more widely applicable than those they are replacing

What’s the number one threat to your success and happiness in life? It’s not unexpected life events, or even financial crisis. Instead, it comes down to others telling you that you can’t live your passion. It comes down to what I call ‘toxic relationships.’
I’ll never forget the story about the mother of a friend of mine, whose singing career was ruined by the toxic actions of one heckler. While she was, in fact, a beautiful singer, she relied heavily upon the opinions of others to tell her whether or not she was ‘good enough.’

This week marks the fourth annual World Immunization Week. Kylie Bull reports on how the increasing use of child vaccinations is saving lives in Kenya

Coopting Development’s History and Power

RT | January 21, 2015 A development project funded by the UK government and run by the World Bank could be facilitating a violent resettlement program in Ethiopia that has been dogged by allegations of forced displacement, physical assaults and rape, a leaked report suggests. Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID) is the primary sponsor […]

On this world date to combat desertification – and when considering the great mountain ranges in Morocco as well as desert – we point to conditions replete with prosperity-potential, as well as systemtic poverty and serious risk to the region and nation that will come with delayed action.