Laura Maria Caterina Bassi was an Italian physicist and academic. She received a doctoral degree in Philosophy from the University of Bologna in May 1732, she was the first woman to earn a professorship in physics at a university. She is recognized as the first woman in the world to be appointed a university chair in a scientific field of studies. Bassi contributed immensely to the field of science while helping to spread the study of Newtonian mechanics through Italy. Bassi was born into the family of a prosperous lawyer; the date of her birth is given in various different sources in a range between 29 October and 31 October 1711. Bassi was educated, for seven years from the age of thirteen by Gaetano Tacconi, she and Tacconi began to drift apart after Bassi discovered an interest in Newtonian science, despite Tacconi's preference for her to focus on the less controversial Cartesian teachings. One of her cousins, Father Lorenzo Stegani, was her tutor in Latin and arithmetic. After much private work, in 1732, at the age of twenty, she publicly defended her thesis in the Palazzo d'Accursio, thus beginning her academic career.

On 7 February 1738, Bassi married Giuseppe Veratti, a doctor of philosophy and medicine and a fellow lecturer in physics at the University of Bologna. They shared a sophisticated working relationship, they had twelve children together, of. Bassi died on 20 February 1778 at the age of 67, her tomb is in the Church of Corpus Domini, Bologna in Via Tagliapietre, in front of the tomb of her fellow scientist Luigi Galvani. In 1732, Bassi was appointed to the chair of Physics by the University of Bologna. During this year she was the first woman to be elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of BolognaAfter publicly defending forty nine theses in the Palazzo Pubblico, she was awarded a doctorate of Philosophy on 12 May 1732. Thus, Bassi became the second woman in the world to earn a philosophy doctorate after Elena Cornaro Piscopia in 1678, fifty-four years prior; the next month, she defended twelve additional theses at the Archiginnasio, the main building of the University of Bologna which allowed her to petition for a teaching position at the university.

On 29 October 1732, the University of Bologna granted Bassi's professorship in philosophy at the University of Bologna. The first lecture she gave was titled "De aqua corpore naturali elemento aliorum corporum parte universi", which can be translated from Latin to, "Water as a natural element of all other bodies"; the University, still held a value that women were to lead a private life. From 1746 to 1777 she gave only one formal dissertation per year ranging in topic from the problem of gravity to electricity, it is reported. Since she could not lecture publicly at the university she began conducting private lessons and experiments from home in 1749; this allowed her to explore new ideas. The Senate expected Bassi to attend various events because she was political figure; the Carnival Anatomy, a public dissection with tickets open to anyone, was an event she was expected to attend because it was a central feature of public life at the university which attracted the attention of many foreigners and important community members.

She began attending this event annually in 1734. Due to her increase in responsibilities and public appearances on behalf of the university, Bassi was able to petition for regular pay increases, which in turn was used to pay for her advanced equipment. Bassi earned the highest salary paid by the University of Bologna of 1,200 lire. In 1772 Paolo Balbi, professor of experimental physics, died suddenly. Although Bassi's husband Verratti was Balbi's longtime assistant, Bassi believed she could fill the vacancy, in 1776, at the age of 65, she was appointed to the chair in experimental physics by the Bologna Institute of Sciences, with her husband as a teaching assistant. Two years she died, having made science into a lifelong career and advanced the status of women in academic circles. After her marriage to Giuseppe Veratti, she was able to lecture from home on a regular basis. During the 1760s, Bassi and her husband worked together on experimental research in electricity; this attracted the talent of others to Bologna to study electricity.

She was interested in Newtonian physics and taught courses on the subject for 28 years. She was one of the key figures in introducing Newton's ideas of physics and natural philosophy to Italy, she carried out experiments of her own in all aspects of physics. In order to teach Newtonian physics and Franklinian electricity, topics that were not focused in the university curriculum, Bassi gave private lessons. In her lifetime, she was the author of 28 papers, the majority of these on physics and hydraulics, although she did not publish any books. Only four of her papers were printed; the defense of her degree, awarding ceremony, first lecture in 1732 were significant as they took place in the Palazzo Pubblico, one of the most important government buildings in Bologna. These events were attended by "not only the university faculty and students, but by principal political and religious figures of the city – the Papal legate and vice-legate, the Archbishop of Bologna, the Gonfaloniere, the Elders and magistrates.

Additionally,'all the ladies of Bologna and all the nobility'."One of her most important patrons was Cardinal Prospero Lambertini to become Pope Benedict XIV, who encouraged her scientific work. He continually support

Dane Morgan is a former rugby league footballer who played as a second-row forward in the 1990s and 2000s. He played for the North Sydney Bears in 1999 and for both the Wests Tigers and the Melbourne Storm in 2000. Morgan played 5 games for the North Sydney club in the 1999 NRL season and was in the side for Norths final first grade game against the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville. Having won the 1999 Premiership, the Melbourne Storm team traveled to England to contest the 2000 World Club Challenge against Super League Champions St Helens R. F. C. with Morgan playing from the interchange bench and scoring a try the contributed to his team's victory. Morgan joined the Wests Tigers in the same year and played one game for the club which came in round 20 against the Brisbane Broncos which Wests lost 56–12 at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre

"A World of Talent" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, October 1954; the story is set on a separatist Earth colony where the society is becoming dominated by mutants with psionic abilities. The colony is protected from Earth by an infantile mutant called Big Noodle; the central character is a precog, Curtis or Curt, who uncovers the existence of'anti-psi's' - humans with the ability to cancel out or nullify the powers of the psionic mutants. He attempts to get the non-psychic or'Norm'-led government to recognize the anti-psi's, knowing that this could balance out the corrupting power that the psi's would soon possess over the rest of humanity, he is thwarted, however, by the powerful psi Corps of mutants, who murder his anti-psi lover, Patricia Ann Connley or Pat. Curt has a young son, who, though a somewhat autistic, untalented'norm', is the ultimate precog; this is due to both his ability to travel in time and his power to change the course of events as well.

In the end, an older Tim appears to his father from the future, telling him that he was right about the need to balance the power of the psi's. His compassion for his father in the wake of Curt's recent loss compels him to alter the timeline in a specific way. Dick much disliked the insistence of people like John W. Campbell, that stories should positively portray psionics; this story was one of his replies, showing the price of these talents, the distorted personalities that could result - chiefly through the perspective of a withdrawn little boy. The character of Tim is a precursor to Manfred Steiner, a character in Dicks's 1964 novel, Martian Time-Slip, it is one of four of his short stories to be expanded into a novel. Philip K. Dick's 1969 novel Ubik contained characters who were anti-psis, one of whom shares the name Patricia Conley. A World of Talent title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database "A World of Talent" at the Internet Archive