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Children Of Immigrants Less Likely To Get Benefits

Children living in immigrant families are more likely to be poor than those whose parents were born in the U.S. But these same children are far less likely to receive public benefits — even though most of them were born in the U.S. and are citizens. This has some people worried about the welfare of one of the nation's fastest growing groups — the citizen children of immigrants.

Source: NPR SPECIAL SERIES immigrants' children: a foot in two worlds

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The New Colossus

Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) was born in New York City to a wealthy family and educated by private tutors. Lazarus was one of the first successful and highly visible Jewish American authors. She advocated for Jewish refugees and argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland before the concept of Zionism was in wide circulation. She was commissioned to write a poem to help raise funds for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. She initially declined and then wrote a sonnet commemorating the plight of immigrants. Lines from that 1883 sonnet, “The New Colossus,” were engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1903.

Biography Source | Audio Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text

Tiny Fossils Could Be Oldest Evidence Of Life On Earth

Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday. It's not clear when or where life on this planet began, but scientists are working hard to find out. Now, researchers writing in the journal Nature say they found fossils of what could be some of the earliest known creatures to grace the Earth, embedded in rocks that are at least 3.7 billion years old.

Source: March 1, 2017 on NPR's Morning Edition

Big Leaps In Gene Editing Raise Ethical Questions About Human Application

December 24, 2016.

Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday. A new technique that enables scientists to edit DNA much more easily stirred big hopes this year for medical breakthroughs. But it also stirred fears.

Source: NPR: Weekend Edition Saturday

Do genetically modified foods freak you out?

March 21, 2017.

Heard on: The Loh Down on Science. Genetically modified crops can contain genes from entirely different organisms. That makes some people nervous. But what if we rescued old traits instead of adding new ones?

Source: SCPR The Loh Down on Science