Sunday, January 26, 2025

News and Ideas Worth Sharing

Susan Dworkin

Susan Dworkin lives in Becket. She writes books, plays and at every opportunity, lyrics. Her most recent books are The Commons, a futuristic novel about a wheat plague that triggers a revolution: The Viking in the Wheat Field, a scientific biography about the great seed banker Dr. Bent Skovmand and the future of world food security; and The Nazi Officer’s Wife , which was a NY Times Best Seller for most of 2014. Her play about art and politics, The Old Mezzo, was performed at WAM Theatre in 2012.

written articles

The singer finds her voice: The evolution of Wanda Houston

'I love all the music of our lives: the show tunes, the country, the blues, the opera, the jazz. It’s all related, the way we are all related.' -- Wanda Houston

Singer Bobby Sweet to star in benefit for the Becket Arts Center

Sweet comes from a family filled with musicians. His great grandfather “Pop” Sweet was a fiddler and square dance caller and a locally famous storyteller in the Hilltowns.

FILM REVIEW: ‘Alive and Kicking,’ the real happiness of swing dancing

No red carpet. No press. No jealousy. Just plain massive delight in someone else’s achievement. Just plain human warmth.

Singing away the winter blues in Becket

“You don’t have to have to be a big vocal talent to sing with us. You just have to love gathering around the piano and singing the music we all love with family and friends. Just for the fun of it.” -- Catherine Schane-Lydon

HEADS UP: Altering genes, human and otherwise, made easy

The new gene editing technology is so simple and straightforward that a bright grad student with a good teacher can learn to use CRISPR-Cas9 in a matter of weeks.

Heads Up Chronicles: Innovation, information and imaging

In the coming weeks, look for a series of blogs from me flagged with the words "Heads Up." The implicit warning is intentional. Heads Up! Something scary and hopeful and altogether amazing this way comes, something you never imagined would really happen, which will make you read science fiction with new respect. And it's all about seeing.

Voices from NESAWG, Part II: The pragmatic professor

"The veterans of the 'back to the land' movement who are now in their 70s didn't even know what a business plan looked like when they started out. But younger people today have way more business acumen. We sold the idea of using climate friendly biomass fuels for heating greenhouses by demonstrating that it would help their bottom line." -- UVM Extension Prof. Vern Grubinger

Voices from NESAWG: The young farmer and the future of food

The first of two reports from the Northeast Sustainable Agricultural Working Group(NESAWG): A centerpiece of NESAWG’s plan is the "50 by 60" program, which plans that by 2060, 50 percent of the food produced in the northeast should be consumed in the northeast. Tom Kelly of the University of New Hampshire envisions a tripling of New England acres under cultivation from 2 to 6 million.  
spot_img

The Edge Is Free To Read.

But Not To Produce.