Author Archives: Karen A. Frenkel

About Karen A. Frenkel

Karen A. Frenkel covers science, technology, and their impacts on society. Her articles have appeared on SciAm.com, in Scientific American, and Communications of the ACM. She has also produced two documentaries for Public Television—one on women and computing and the other on online learning. Email her at kfrenkel@nyc.rr.com, follow her on Twitter as KarenAFrenkel, and visit her website, www.karenafrenkel.com.

The Connection Between Prime Numbers and Music

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Karen A. Frenkel

Prime numbers––those divisible only by themselves and one––have confounded mathematicians for centuries. Because mathematicians rely on patterns, the fact that primes occur at seemingly random intervals (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13…) makes them the Holy Grail of math. Many … Continue reading →

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The Inspired “Story of Math”

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Karen A. Frenkel

The excellent four-hour BBC documentary The Story of Math introduces viewers to the great mathematicians and their contributions by traveling to the places they lived and that inspired them. Host and Oxford Professor Marcus du Sautoy is most engaging as … Continue reading →

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Living in Sim: A Multimedia Meditation on Healthcare Today

Posted on January 22, 2010 by Karen A. Frenkel

Artist Justine Cooper has found an unusual way to express her frustration with our health care system; she’s created characters out of dressed-up medical mannequins. On her quirky social media site, these mannequins represent doctors, patients, and employees at a … Continue reading →

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Eric Kandel’s Quest: In Search of Memory

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Karen A. Frenkel

[Credit: Angela Radulescu, flickr.com] In Search of Memory, Petra Seeger’s documentary portraying Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, is a manifestation of the associative quality of the human mind. It is a masterfully cut film that toggles back and forth in time. … Continue reading →

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Ken Burns’ National Parks: from Scenery to Science – Part Two

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Karen A. Frenkel

The continuation of my interview (see the first part here) with filmmaker Ken Burns: KAF: At one point Dayton Duncan says that all he learned about science, he learned at the national parks and he emphasizes the role of rangers. … Continue reading →

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The Attraction of Magnetic Movie

Posted on November 13, 2009 by Karen A. Frenkel

Imagine Science Film Festival’s Nature Scientific Merit Award went to Magnetic Movie, a 4-minute, 47-second short by Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt of Semiconductor Films. Theirs was one of 50 films representing 9 countries and selected from over 250 submissions. … Continue reading →

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The Science View

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Karen A. Frenkel

Like many women, I was excited about the number of women who received Nobel Prizes earlier this month. It seemed like a dismissal of Larry Summers’ famous remarks when he was president of Harvard that women are less capable in … Continue reading →

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Ken Burns’ National Parks: from Scenery to Science

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Karen A. Frenkel

Part One Ken Burns’ new series, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea premiered on Public Television stations nationwide during the last week of September. By the end of the first episode, I immediately recognized that this opus differed from past … Continue reading →

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