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New science: Pathetic humans can't bring themselves to fire lovable klutz-bots  

All is forgiven, you gaffe-prone cyber-cooks. You're one of us

A university study has found that adding basic facial expressions to a robot can be enough to forge an emotional bond with humans.…

 
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Weekend Roundup: What the Burkini Ban Reveals  
In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Nice and elsewhere in the country, several towns along the sunny beaches in the south of France where a scantily clad Brigitte Bardot once frolicked have banned the burkini. This ban on covering up reveals not only a cleavage between conservative Islamic norms and the liberal West, but between the concepts of secularism within the West itself as well.

Notably, sympathy with the ban has united the otherwise querulous left and right in France. The Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls says he sees behind fashion concepts like the burkini, "the idea that by their nature women are immodest, impure, that they should therefore be completely covered. It is not compatible with the values of France and the republic." The minister for families, children and women's rights calls the burkini, "profoundly archaic" and meant to, "hide to hide women's bodies in order to control them." And the right-wing National Front leader, Marine Le Pen, writes, "France does not lock up a woman's body, France does not hide half of its population under the fallacious and hateful pretext that the other half feels it will be tempted."

In this, they all agree with what the Turkish sociologist Nilüfer Göle has been saying for decades: "Islamist politics seeks to curb the free public space by limiting women's visibility through veiling, which is essentially an effort to control women's sexuality by regulating the social encounter between the sexes. ... Hence, in a Muslim context, the existence of a democratic public space depends on the social encounter between the sexes and on the eroticization of the public sphere."

In a contribution from HuffPost Maghreb, Ikram Ben Aissa takes the opposite view. "Citizens should be free to wear what they choose!" she exclaims. "When will Muslims in Europe be respected and treated as equal citizens? When will we stop marginalizing millions of European Muslim citizens, especially women?" In a contribution from HuffPost Germany, Austro-Egyptian journalist Menerva Hammad endorses that view. "It's 2016," she writes. "Can't we allow women the freedom to choose what to wear? Wouldn't that be the ultimate form of emancipation? Just because many female celebrities opt for revealing clothes and sing about feminism doesn't mean that they're free. Freedom starts inside your head, and not on top of it." She recalls a different experience in America, where she went swimming in a burkini. "I had a really good time swimming in Texas. No one gave me awkward looks or said anything condescending. Nobody cared who was wearing what." In pointing out the difference between French laïcité and American secularism, she touched on the cleavage within the West.

I discussed this dissonance in an interview with then-Turkish President Abdullah Gül during the Arab Spring in 2012 when then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had told the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood not to fear secularism:

What is unfortunate for the Arab and Maghreb countries is that their interpretation of secularism has been based on the French model, which is a Jacobin model of imposing a kind of irreligiousness. When you speak of secularism to Muslim communities of the region, it is misunderstood because of this French implication. In practice, the implementation of secularism in the Arab and Maghreb countries has meant fighting against Islam in the name of secularism. ... On the other hand if you use the Anglo-Saxon interpretation of secularism, as practiced in the United States or the United Kingdom, it is something that people should feel comfortable with. All it means is a separation of the state and religion, of the state maintaining the same distance from all religions and acting as the custodian for all beliefs. It is based on respect for all faiths and the coexistence of plural beliefs.

The French republic, and its secular fundamentalism, was born out of a revolt against the Catholic Church aligned with the monarchy. The American republic was born out of desire for religious freedom. So it is perhaps no surprise that modern France, which hosts a Muslim population of nearly 5 million, largely hailing from its former North Africa colonies, has become the sharpest edge, the prime battleground, of the clash of civilizations it seeks to avoid.

Writing from Berlin, Alexander Görlach rejects the notion that Europe has failed because it is run by out-of-touch elites, as populists on both the right and left argue loudly. "The EU has no elite problem, but rather a problem, particularly in Western Europe, with a thoroughly sedated, consumerist and apathetic population," he says. In an interview with HuffPost, Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz says the euro was flawed from the start.

Writing from Rio de Janeiro, Angela Almeida and John Surico chronicle events puts on by a group of artists protesting both the Olympics and austerity measures by Brazil's interim president, Michel Temer. The group, which calls itself Ocupa MinC because it occupies abandoned and defunded Ministry of Culture buildings, worries that the Olympics, "could end up costing Brazil well over the budget of $4.6 billion." "One poll," the authors report, "found that 50 percent of Brazilians were against the Games." The group's members, "argue that the mega-event exposed the vast inequality between the Rio that visitors see and the Rio that the government left behind for the people who actually live here ― a sentiment that has led to widespread protests during the Games."

The world continues to spin beyond all the attention focused on the Olympics. Writing from Manila, Richard Javad Heydarian says, "there is growing reason to expect a potentially seismic shift in Philippine foreign policy under the new administration." As the new president, Rodrigo Duterte, rapidly consolidates power, Heydarian argues he is, "in a strong position to introduce a significant foreign policy reset, particularly with respect to China and the United States. Unlike his predecessor, Benigno Aquino, he has extended an olive branch to China, deploying former President Fidel Ramos to conduct backdoor negotiations with the Asian powerhouse."

In an interview, former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz says China's multi-billion dollar investment in Pakistan to link up trade routes to the Arabian Sea as part of its new Silk Road project is a "game-changer" for his country. Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden report this week that the quality and reliability of Chinese-built infrastructure in Africa defies the stereotype of "shoddy work." Ian Armstrong worries that the recent decision by the U.S. and South Korea to deploy a new missile defense system will provoke China, which sees it as a strategic threat that would make its defenses vulnerable, to develop more advanced weaponry to counter it, igniting a new arms race in Asia. In an interview, Li Zhifei, founder and CEO of Mobvi, a Beijing-based artificial intelligence startup, talks about the innovation ecosystem in Silicon Valley and Beijing, and why Chinese and U.S. tech companies can't seem to crack each other's markets.

In what seems like a rare positive development coming out of Syria, Rowaida Abdelaziz reports on the story of an 11-year-old boy suffering from pain caused by meningitis who was unable to get the treatment he needed in the besieged town of Madaya. Hours after she reported on his condition, the boy was evacuated and is now receiving help.

This week, WorldPost co-publisher Nicolas Berggruen talked with CNN's Fareed Zakaria about his investment in ideas, including a $1 million Nobel-type prize for philosophy that will be awarded for the first time this year. Finally, our Singularity series examines how IBM's artificial neurons are bringing us another step closer to powerful brain-like computers.

WHO WE ARE


EDITORS: Nathan Gardels, Co-Founder and Executive Advisor to the Berggruen Institute, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. Kathleen Miles is the Executive Editor of The WorldPost. Farah Mohamed is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. Alex Gardels and Peter Mellgard are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. Suzanne Gaber is the Editorial Assistant of The WorldPost. Katie Nelson is News Director at The Huffington Post, overseeing The WorldPost and HuffPost's news coverage. Nick Robins-Early is a World Reporter. Rowaida Abdelaziz is World Social Media Editor.


CORRESPONDENTS: Sophia Jones in Istanbul.


EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Arianna Huffington, Eric Schmidt (Google Inc.), Pierre Omidyar (First Look Media), Juan Luis Cebrian (El Pais/PRISA), Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute/TIME-CNN), John Elkann (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Dileep Padgaonkar (Times of India) and Yoichi Funabashi (Asahi Shimbun).


VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS: Dawn Nakagawa.


CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim (former editor of Foreign Policy), Nayan Chanda (Yale/Global; Far Eastern Economic Review) and Katherine Keating (One-On-One). Sergio Munoz Bata and Parag Khanna are Contributing Editors-At-Large.


The Asia Society and its ChinaFile, edited by Orville Schell, is our primary partner on Asia coverage. Eric X. Li and the Chunqiu Institute/Fudan University in Shanghai and Guancha.cn also provide first person voices from China. We also draw on the content of China Digital Times. Seung-yoon Lee is The WorldPost link in South Korea.


Jared Cohen of Google Ideas provides regular commentary from young thinkers, leaders and activists around the globe. Bruce Mau provides regular columns from MassiveChangeNetwork.com on the "whole mind" way of thinking. Patrick Soon-Shiong is Contributing Editor for Health and Medicine.


ADVISORY COUNCIL: Members of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council and Council for the Future of Europe serve as the Advisory Council -- as well as regular contributors -- to the site. These include, Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Juan Luis Cebrian, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Eric Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Wu Jianmin, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Ahmed Zewail and Zheng Bijian.


From the Europe group, these include: Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland and Guy Verhofstadt.

MISSION STATEMENT

The WorldPost is a global media bridge that seeks to connect the world and connect the dots. Gathering together top editors and first person contributors from all corners of the planet, we aspire to be the one publication where the whole world meets.

We not only deliver breaking news from the best sources with original reportage on the ground and user-generated content; we bring the best minds and most authoritative as well as fresh and new voices together to make sense of events from a global perspective looking around, not a national perspective looking out.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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As July's Record Heat Builds Through August, Arctic Ice Keeps Melting  

July 2016 was Earth's hottest month on record. And Arctic ice has shrunk this year almost as much as it did in 2012 — the most severe melt to date.

 
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Turn Your Eyes To The Skies For The Latest Explorers  


6 ways National Science Foundation-supported research is improving unmanned aerial systems for scientific and societal benefit

From strengthening wildlife conservation efforts to improving disaster response, researchers are finding new ways to use small, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- also known as drones or unmanned aerial systems (UAS) -- to gather data, improve communication, and explore environments where humans and larger aircraft dare not go.

These advances are due, in part, to improvements in UAV technology, as well as clearer ground rules that govern the many uses of unmanned aircraft.

Increased federal funding, too, including a recent $35 million commitment from the National Science Foundation (NSF), are helping to advance the basic research required to design UAVs that can save lives, improve safety, and enable more effective science.

"Designing and developing highly-capable UAS platforms requires basic research in the theoretical principles of UAS, including sensing, perception, control and communications," says Lynne Parker, NSF director of the division of information and intelligent systems. "Once these agile and robust UAS systems are developed, they can be extended to operate in a variety of challenging domains, such as serving as vital tools for scientific exploration."

Since 2010, NSF has funded dozens of UAV research projects related to computing, engineering, earth science and biology. NSF has supported UAV entrepreneurs through its Small Business Innovation Research program too.

The examples below demonstrate the potential for researchers to advance their scientific knowledge and provide benefits to society through the use of unmanned aircraft.

1. Wildlife conservation

With their ability to travel at altitudes and in environments where manned aircraft cannot, UAVs can study species in difficult-to-reach locations, and help researchers address a number of important questions about ecosystems.



Michael Shafer, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Northern Arizona University, is working on an NSF-funded project to better track wildlife -- particularly small animals such as bats and birds -- in non-intrusive manner. By developing low-cost, UAV-mounted radio telemetry systems that can receive radio signals from tagged wildlife, and by making the pre-engineered systems available to wildlife researchers via open source publishing, he hopes to significantly reduce the barriers to tracking animals in the wild.

Shafer's lightweight modules leverage the flight capabilities of UAVs to better detect signals from wildlife transmitters. This involves developing signal-processing algorithms to assist in detecting and localizing very high-frequency radio tags, and assembling a radio system capable of providing the required sensitivity. It also involves designing a system compact enough to fit on a UAV, along with special vehicles for field researchers and the radio-sensing modules they carry.

In addition to the technical development effort, Shafer and his team plan to work with the Upward Bound program at Northern Arizona University to guide first-generation, low-income high school students from the Four Corners region -- Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico -- toward successful college careers.

2. Increasing the accuracy of weather forecasts

UAVs are particularly well-suited for gathering data in the lower atmosphere (1,000-4,000 meters) where many weather phenomena begin and where manned aircraft are too dangerous or expensive to fly. Radar cannot always track conditions at this level and weather balloons have too short of a duration at these altitudes.



Through the $6 million, four-year Collaboration Leading Operational UAS Development for Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics (CLOUD-MAP) project, Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Nebraska are working together to develop UAV capabilities so meteorologists and atmospheric scientists can use unmanned aircraft as an everyday research tool.

The CLOUD-MAP project recently completed its first flight campaign, which resulted in nearly 250 unmanned flights of 12 separate UAV platforms over a three-day period -- one of the largest scientific unmanned aircraft operations ever. The effort, which brought together more than 65 researchers and students, collected important meteorological, climatological and operational data that will increase the accuracy of weather forecasts, ultimately saving lives and property.

3. Enhancing communications in a disaster

NSF CAREER awardee Yan Wan from the University of North Texas is developing aerial networking systems that use directional antennas on UAVs to deliver on-demand communication to first responders in emergency response situations.



Typical wireless communications have a range of only 100 meters, or just over the length of a football field. Wan and her colleagues, however, developed technology that extends the Wi-Fi reach of drones to 8 kilometers, or about 5 miles.

Wan and her team have worked with emergency agencies across Texas to test their system's ability to quickly establish emergency communications in disaster drills and exercises. In May 2015, working with researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Austin Fire Department, she demonstrated how UAVs can establish aerial communication in a search-and-rescue operation, providing emergency responders with the aerial views they need to direct robots to find victims quickly and to transmit video streams of survivors to control centers.

For this, and other activities, she and her colleagues won the Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex's 2015 Tech Titan Award.

4. UAVs in hurricane and nuclear disasters


Robin Murphy, the director of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) at Texas A&M University, has deployed UAVs to some of the worst natural and man-made disasters in recent memory.



In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Murphy directed UAVs to explore buildings along the Gulf Coast -- the first time an unmanned aircraft was used for emergency structural inspections. During the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, she was part of a team that flew UAVs to determine radiation levels and inspect damage at the reactors. And in the days following the 2016 floods in Texas, Murphy led a team that deployed UAVs to inspect the storm-ravaged area.

Murphy determined that one 20-minute drone flight generates roughly 800 photographs, each of which takes a minute to inspect. This led her to conclude that data analysis tools, deployed alongside unmanned aircraft, are necessary to make UAV technology useful in time-sensitive situations.

Working with collaborators and students, Murphy has developed software that uses computer vision and machine learning to improve UAV flight paths, as well as anomaly detection techniques to better locate survivors with UAVs.

Combining the capabilities of UAVs with tools that allow them to work in a targeted way is the secret to developing effective search-and-rescue UAVs, Murphy believes.

5. Sea ice mapping

Last year, scientists aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer research vessel carried out two separate UAV trials as part of a research cruise in the Southern Ocean. The flights evaluated the aerial mapping capabilities of UAVs and their ability to determine the distribution of floating sea ice. [Watch a video of the flights.]



Researchers on the trip were exploring the vulnerability of Antarctic ice to melting due to the presence of relatively warm ocean water below it. Melting ice would drive glaciers into the sea faster and raise sea levels worldwide. This data will inform future integrated observation programs.

In separate research, scientists from the University of Kansas-led Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) are developing new technologies and computer models to measure and predict the response of sea level change to the mass balance of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.

In remote and dangerous locations such as Antarctica, UAVs can help to gather critical information without endangering human pilots, which is why the NSF-managed U.S. Antarctic Program is developing a policy on the safe and environmentally sound use of UAVs in Antarctic research.


6. Safer, cheaper infrastructure monitoring

As U.S. infrastructure ages, its operators need more efficient and affordable techniques to monitor and assess bridges, railroads, power lines, dams and other large systems. UAVs enable innovative approaches for monitoring the health and stability of structures from above and below.



Ivan Bartoli of Drexel University leads a project that focuses not just on UAVs, but on what those unmanned aircraft look at. Using novel manufacturing processes, his team designs special surface coatings -- like paint -- that enable UAVs to rapidly collect multi-spectral imaging data. Advanced algorithms then analyze that data to find structural deformations, allowing engineers to quickly identify damage to critical components of monitored structures.

Scientists and engineers are already moving many of these technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace. Hung La of the University of Nevada, Reno is building on NSF-funded research to create low-cost UAVs and robotic systems that can efficiently inspect steel and concrete bridges.

La is part of an NSF Innovation Corps Team that has completed more than 160 customer interviews, helping him focus on customer uses as the research team finalizes their designs and thinks about the long-term commercialization of the technology. Their product has been tested and deployed in the field, and La is working with his university to patent the technology.

These and other new ways of thinking about infrastructure are leading to a safer, more stable future.

------------

Image credits/captions:

A low-level flight test by Michael Shafer and his team at Northern Arizona University. Credit: Michael Shafer

Oklahoma State University research engineer Taylor Mitchell launches a CO2-sensing UAV while the University of Nebraska student team tests in the background. Credit: CLOUD-MAP

At the Smart America Expo, Yan Wan from the University of North Texas exhibited unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) she developed that are capable of providing wireless communications to storm-ravaged areas where telephone access might be out. Credit: NSF

CRASAR small UAS Assisted Fort Bend OEM with Determining Flooding (Apr 20, 24, 2016) Credit: Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station)

NSF-funded KU researchers successfully test unmanned aircraft system in Antarctica. Credit: Produced by Dena Headlee, NSF; Video courtesy of University of Kansas/NSF

Hung La of the University of Nevada, Reno is building on NSF-funded research to create UAVs and robotic systems to inspect steel and concrete bridges. His goal is to develop an efficient, low-cost and safe tool for inspecting bridges. Credit: University of Nevada, Reno

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The Communal Nature Of Science And The Gender Skills Gap  
I've written a few times in the past about the increasingly collaborative nature of modern science. Most of the time, these posts have focused upon the productivity gains we see when scientists work together on research.

A recent paper suggests that an equally powerful reason to laud the virtues of collaborative working could be in attracting the next generation of scientists to the fold.

Changing perceptions

The study, from researchers at the University of Miami, set out to test whether attempts to shift perceptions of science away from the lone genius to a more social and collaborative endeavor might attract those that are not typically represented in the field.

The study saw participants reading a fictional account of a scientist's daily activities. Half of the participants read about a scientist going about their work in solitude, whilst the other half read a description of a more collaborative way of working.

They were then surveyed to understand their perceptions about working in the field. This simple method of framing the profession helped shift perceptions in the participants, so that those who had read about collaborative science reported that their social goals for their career would be met by working in science, and therefore they'd be more likely to pursue a career in the field.

Breaking the gender divide

What's more, these findings were consistent across the genders, so it shows that men value the communal aspects of science just as much as women do. It also didn't seem to matter too much if the scientist in the description was male or female.

That isn't to say that women aren't inspired by fellow women in science however. A second study depicted female scientists as having more traditional female interests outside of the workplace. Once again, when the participants were quizzed on their perceptions of science rated it as more communal when the female scientist enjoyed yoga in her spare time compared to more neutral activities such as running.

The authors suggest that framing science as more communal and collaborative in this way can widen access to the sector. This is especially so if any women used in such campaigns are allowed to be seen as exhibiting feminine characteristics.

Of course, this shouldn't be taken to mean that women have to act like stereotypical women, but more that when marketers set out to promote the profession, a more multi-dimensional perspective on the scientists could make a positive impact.

This can also be achieved by ensuring that the collaborative nature of science is promoted to its fullest by making it as accessible as possible. That this has many other advantages is surely a win-win.

This post was originally made on The Horizon Tracker

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ISS astronauts begin spacewalk to install new docking adapter  

Don't drop that wrench, whatever you do

Two astronauts from the International Space Station have started their spacewalk to install the new International Docking Adapter.…

 
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Listen to the Sounds of Knees Cracking  
Eavesdropping on the creaks and groans of an athlete's knee could help doctors track healing after injury or surgery.

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com  
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James Nasmyth Scientist of the Day James Hall Nasmyth, a...  

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James Nasmyth Scientist of the Day

James Hall Nasmyth, a Scottish engineer and inventor, was born Aug. 19, 1808.

read more…

 
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Helen Macdonald: ​the unsettling encounter that inspired H is for Hawk  

Ten years ago, a confusing encounter changed Helen Macdonald's understanding of the connection between humans and the natural world

It was the autumn of 2006 in Uzbekistan, a few months before my father died. I'd driven with a group of other fieldworkers in a Russian jeep down to the banks of the Syrdarya river in Andijan province. Once we'd pitched our tents, I went for a stroll in the hot, blank forest sunlight. It was very still and quiet. My feet crunched on salt-crusted mud and across leaf litter sparking with grasshoppers and sinuous silver lizards. After a mile or so, I found myself in an open clearing and looked up. And that is when I thought I saw a man standing in a tree. That's what my brain told me, momentarily. A man in a long overcoat leaning slightly to one side. And then I saw it wasn't a man, but a goshawk.

Moments like this are very illuminating. Despite my lifelong obsession with birds of prey, I'd never thought before, much, about the actual phenomenology of human-hawk resemblance, which must have brought forth all those mythological hawk-human bonds I've studied for so long. Back in the early 2000s, I had been working on my doctoral dissertation in natural history at the University of Cambridge, but I never finished it. I wrote a book about falcons instead. I recounted tales that didn't fit in my PhD of the mafia threatening to drive a falconer out of New York City because his falcon was a threat to their pigeon-flying activities, stories of fan dancers, jet pilots, astronauts and the diplomatic shenanigans of early modern royalty. But everything I'd written about this strange symbolic connection between birds of prey and human souls felt as if it had a different kind of truth, now, one forged of things other than books. I looked up at a hawk in a tree, but I saw a man. How curious.

Related: Costa biography award 2014: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

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Sunflowers move by the clock  

Full Text:

Sunflowers near the University of California, Davis, campus. Plant biologists have now discovered how sunflowers use their internal circadian clock, acting on growth hormones, to follow the sun during the day as they grow. Growing sunflowers begin the day with their heads facing east, swing west through the day, and turn back to the east at night.

Image credit: Chris Nicolini, UC Davis

 
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Interscatter communication enables first-ever implanted devices, smart contact lenses, credit cards that 'talk' Wi-Fi  

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University of Washington researchers have introduced a new way of communicating that allows devices such as brain implants, contact lenses, credit cards and smaller wearable electronics to talk to everyday devices such as smartphones and watches. This new “interscatter communication” works by converting Bluetooth signals into Wi-Fi transmissions over the air. Using only reflections, an interscatter device such as a smart contact lens converts Bluetooth signals from a smartwatch, for example, into Wi-Fi transmissions that can be picked up by a smartphone.

Image credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington

 
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A Smell of Burning by Colin Grant review how people with epilepsy have been persecuted  
A powerful memoir of the author's brother tells the story of a condition whose sufferers were killed in the middle ages for communicating with the devil

Raphael's The Transfiguration is a depiction of epilepsy that pulls no punches: a lofted Christ soars on an illuminated cloud, while a boy with rolling eyes and flailing limbs is supported by his father. Raphael's painting is a reference to the Gospel of Mark, chapter nine, in which Jesus descends from transfiguration to cure a boy of the “foul spirit” causing his seizures. “Epilepsy” is a Greek word, meaning “to be seized upon”, and the illness has long been viewed as evidence of connection between human and spiritual realms. The earliest Greek medical writings by Hippocrates are half a millennium older than the gospels, and though they call epilepsy “the sacred disease” they offer a more humane portrait of the condition: “I do not believe that the ‘sacred disease' is any more divine or sacred than any other disease,” Hippocrates wrote. “Because it is completely different from other diseases, it has been regarded as a divine visitation by those who, being only human, view it with ignorance and astonishment.”

Grant's survey of the western history of epilepsy offers ample evidence of humanity's persecution of what it fears

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