COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey with Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I've watched the first 7 episodes of COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I hope you are watching the series as well. Episode 7, The Clean Room, tells the story of Clair Patterson's studies measuring lead to determine the rate of decay of radioactive elements and thus the age of our planet. Along the way, he realized that lead pollution was increasing human exposure to lead, and he advocated for its regulation. Unsurprisingly, the petroleum and chemical industries resisted regulation and supported scientists who argued against Patterson's claims. This reminded me of Merchants of Doubt, a book I reviewed.

Full episodes are still available online.

Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt: Ibn al-Nafis, Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection by Nahyan Fancy

Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt: Ibn Al-Nafis, Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection by Nahyan Fancy.

"This book should be read by any historian of pre-modern science and medicine, not only by Islamicists," writes Leigh Chipman ... read more

Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State by Shira Robinson

Rod Such reviewed Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State by Shira Robinson on May 7, 2014 in the Electronic Intifada.  Stanford University Press is the publisher.

Review: A Rebel and Her Cause: The Life and Work of Rashid Jahan by Rakshanda Jalil

Namita Bhandare reviewed A Rebel and Her Cause: The Life and Work of Rashid Jahan by Rakshanda Jalil. The complete text of the review is available online. The publisher is Women Unlimited.

Book review: ‘The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas’ by Anand Giridharadas

Michael E. Young of The Dallas Morning News reviewed The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas. The entire review is currently online.

Law & Order: SVU S14E04 - The Writers Get it Wrong

Michael Muhammad Knight critiqued "Acceptable Loss," an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit from 2012.

As long as writers treat religious identity as the sole factor that determines every Muslim’s motivations or behavior, or imagine Islam as a source of universal norms, their Muslim characters will never be fully human. Read more ...