The selection of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, was met with excitement yesterday. Terry Rey, chair of religion at Temple, hailed Bergoglio's selection, which he called "a very safe and strategic move by the Catholic Church hierarchy." Since the 1960s, Rey said, "the cardinals and bishops have been keenly aware that in order for the Catholic Church to remain relevant to the contemporary world, they must listen more carefully and sincerely to the faithful from those parts of God's creation that Europe colonized.”

The gateway to heroin addiction is not through other illicit drugs, but through prescription opiates like Oxycontin. It follows that one of the biggest ways to combat heroin addiction is to monitor or curtail the prescription of such powerful painkillers. “Prescription opiate abuse has skyrocketed mainly due to availability,” said Ellen Unterwald, director of Temple School of Medicine’s Center for Substance Abuse Research.

Mark Bittman, a New York Times food writer, will speak Wednesday as part of a series sponsored by Temple’s Feinstein Center for American Jewish History. WhatIsYourFoodWorth.com, does not claim to answer its eponymous question, only complicate it. "Do we value price? Do we value sustainability? Do we value social justice?" said Bryant Simon, Feinstein Center director and Temple professor. "If you say yes to any of those, it complicates the question immediately."

Hundreds of young, would-be scientists gathered today at Temple University for the annual George Washington Carver Science Fair. Representing middle and high schools throughout the city, these students, in grades 7 through 12, showcased a wide variety of projects for the panel of judges. “I don’t expect all of them to become scientists,” said Thomas Anderson, who co-founded this event 34 years ago. “But I expect them to become aware of science because science controls our lives from the day we come to this earth to the day we die.”