Francis Galton pioneered scientific advances in many fields – but also founded the racist pseudoscience of eugenics

Smart people can have really bad ideas – like selectively breeding human beings to improve the species. Put into practice, Galton's concept proved discriminatory, damaging, even deadly.

Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University • conversation
Jan. 15, 2021 • ~9 min

 statistics  charles-darwin  history-of-science  forensic-science  meteorology  prayer  fingerprints  eugenics  on-the-origin-of-species  francis-galton  forced-sterilization

W.E.B. Du Bois embraced science to fight racism as editor of NAACP's magazine The Crisis

As editor of the magazine for 24 years, Du Bois featured articles about biology, evolution, archaeology in Africa and more to refute the rampant scientific racism of the early 20th century.

Jordan Besek, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University at Buffalo • conversation
Dec. 14, 2020 • ~8 min
charles-darwin racism natural-selection african-science eugenics naacp scientific-racism web-du-bois theory-of-evolution web-dubois

Harvard researchers create hybrid algorithm for NMR readings

New quantum-classical algorithm brings nuclear magnetic resonance readings closer to “near-term” quantum computing.

Juan Siliezar • harvard
July 24, 2020 • ~9 min
science-technology faculty-of-arts-and-sciences harvard-medical-school quantum-computers juan-siliezar brigham-and-womens-hospital dries-sels eugene-demler hesam-dashti nature-machine-intelligence nmr-spectroscopy olga-demler physics-department samia-mora

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