How mathematician Freeman Hrabowski opened doors for Black scientists

05/28/24 • 36 min

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Growing up in Alabama in the 1960s, mathematician Freeman Hrabowski was moved to join the civil rights moment after hearing Martin Luther King Jr speak. Even as a child, he saw the desperate need to make change. He would go on to do just that — at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where he co-founded the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, one of the leading pathways to success for Black students in STEM subjects in the United States.

Freeman is the subject of the first in a new series of Q&As in Nature celebrating ‘Changemakers’ in science — individuals who fight racism and champion inclusion. He spoke to us about his about his life, work and legacy.

Career Q&A: I had my white colleagues walk in a Black student’s shoes for a day

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Career Q&A: I had my white colleagues walk in a Black student’s shoes for a day

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Audio long read: How does ChatGPT ‘think’? Psychology and neuroscience crack open AI large language models

AIs are often described as 'black boxes' with researchers unable to to figure out how they 'think'. To better understand these often inscrutable systems, some scientists are borrowing from psychology and neuroscience to design tools to reverse-engineer them, which they hope will lead to the design of safer, more efficient AIs.

This is an audio version of our Feature: How does ChatGPT ‘think’? Psychology and neuroscience crack open AI large language models

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Next Episode

How AI could improve robotics, the cockroach’s origins, and promethium spills its secrets

In this episode:

00:25 What the rise of AI language models means for robots

Companies are melding artificial intelligence with robotics, in an effort to catapult both to new heights. They hope that by incorporating the algorithms that power chatbots it will give robots more common-sense knowledge and let them tackle a wide range of tasks. However, while impressive demonstrations of AI-powered robots exist, many researchers say there is a long road to actual deployment, and that safety and reliability need to be considered.

News Feature: The AI revolution is coming to robots: how will it change them?

16:09 How the cockroach became a ubiquitous pest

Genetic research suggests that although the German cockroach (Blattella germanica) spread around the world from a population in Europe, its origins were actually in South Asia. By comparing genomes from cockroaches collected around the globe, a team could identify when and where different populations might have been established. They show that the insect pest likely began to spread east from South Asia around 390 years ago with the rise of European colonialism and the emergence of international trading companies, before hitching a ride into Europe and then spreading across the globe.

Nature News: The origin of the cockroach: how a notorious pest conquered the world

20:26: Rare element inserted into chemical 'complex' for the first time

Promethium is one of the rarest and most mysterious elements in the periodic table. Now, some eight decades after its discovery, researchers have managed to bind this radioactive element to other molecules to make a chemical ‘complex’. This feat will allow chemists to learn more about the properties of promethium filling a long-standing gap in the textbooks.

Nature News: Element from the periodic table’s far reaches coaxed into elusive compound

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