Month: November 2021

Sir Frederick Grant Banting (1891)

Banting was a Canadian physician who, with Scottish physiologist John Macleod, won a 1923 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the hormone insulin. Banting and his assistant Charles Best experimented on diabetic dogs, demonstrating that insulin lowered their blood sugar. Insulin was proven effective on humans within months of the first experiments with dogs. In acknowledgment of Best’s work, Banting gave him a share of his portion of the Nobel Prize. What tragic accident took Banting’s life in 1941? Discuss

Eid ul-Fitr

Muslims mark the holy month of Ramadan by fasting from sunrise to sunset. When Ramadan ends, they celebrate its conclusion with the three-day holiday Eid ul-Fitr, or simply Eid. After communities gather to pray, people put on new clothes, children are given presents, and everyone visits relatives and friends. It is the time when everyone asks pardon for all the wrongs of the past year. Under the Islamic lunar calendar, Eid can fall in any season of the year. What is the common Eid greeting? Discuss

Feast of St. Frances Cabrini

The first American citizen to be proclaimed a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, Francesca Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) was born in Italy. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1880 and went on to establish orphanages, schools, and hospitals in many American cities, as well as in Europe and South America. She was canonized on July 7, 1946. Her feast day is commemorated in many places, but particularly at Mother Cabrini High School in New York City, in whose chapel she is buried, and at every establishment of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Discuss

Humanoid Robots

A robot is any mechanical device designed to perform the work usually done by a human. However, not all robots look like humans. Humanoid robots do. With structures based on the human body, humanoid robots are capable of walking with a biped gait, interacting with humans, gaining new skills without assistance, and recharging themselves. Scientists use them to research the human body—in order to improve prostheses, for example—but they have many other functions. What else can humanoid robots do? Discuss