A new book from Temple University Press, published in honor of the Emancipation Proclamation's 150th anniversary, provides an opportunity to address this urgent question: How should we see other people? The book, “Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery,” is a collection of photographs with the aim of giving life to, and a new perspective on, how black people envisioned themselves as they experienced slavery, the Civil War and Emancipation.

Weight loss experts at Temple are trying to answer a big question: Do diet drinks help or hurt your effort to shed pounds?  They are comparing diet soft drinks to water to see which is better. Calorie-for-calorie, it should not make a difference."Some people think diet beverages, that's zero-calorie beverages, can have a sweet taste, which they do, and that sweet taste can go and lead you to pursue other sweet tastes and derail your dieting efforts," said Gary Foster, director of Temple’s Center for Obesity Research and Education.

Last week, an end to the military’s ban on women serving in combat positions was announced. "Treating this as if it's 'no big deal' is the wrong approach," said Beth Bailey, a professor of history at Temple who studies gender and military institutions. "Women have certainly served in roles where they were shot at and killed in action, but we are talking about women joining small combat units. Treating these as the same thing undermines what women are trying to do and the challenges the military will face."

The spotted salamander gets energy from the sun through the use of photosynthetic algae. To find out how, Erin Graham, a science fellow at Temple, incubated salamander eggs in water containing radioactive carbon-14. She found that algae inside the eggs take up the isotope, producing radioactive glucose. Now that one vertebrate has been shown to use photosynthesis, Graham says there could be others. "Anything that lays eggs in water would be a good candidate, as algae would have easy access to the eggs.