The aftermath of the tragedy continues to unfold. It is a haunting, terrifying story, touched with dreamlike beauty, ending in suffering and death — a moral fable for our times.
Articles from December 2019
Pierre and Marie Curie in their laboratory
White-breasted nuthatch • Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren (CC BY 2.0)
Autumn’s quiet sounds
Summer birds have flown south, deciduous trees are bare. Wildflowers have faded and mushrooms are withered by the cold. But for the lover of nature, these last spare days of autumn offer one welcome gift. Silence.
SDSS J1038+4849, a gravitational lens imaged in 2015 • NASA/ESA (Public Domain)
Albert Einstein’s most happy thought
It was, said Einstein, the “happiest thought of my life.”
An early 20th century Erector Set • Photo by Jim Heaphy (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Dear Santa
I know it’s early to start thinking about next Christmas — this year’s celebrations are barely over — but I thought I should write while my thoughts are still fresh in my mind.
Photo by Inbal Malca on Unsplash
Gifts from a place called Arabia Felix
The gospel tells us that they came from the east, following a star. But if, as tradition insists, they arrived on camels, and if upon opening their treasures they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, then my guess is that they came from the south, from beyond the trackless wastes of the Empty Quarter, from the place called Arabia Felix.
The Charles River Basin • Photo by Prateek Pisat on Unsplash
Let history judge the worth
Bostonians anticipate the construction of a depressed Central Artery and third harbor tunnel with something akin to morbid fascination and stark terror.
The Pagoda tree at Kew Gardens • Photo by deror_avi (CC BY-SA 3.0)
History uprooted
Among the more engaging characters with which J. R. R. Tolkien populated Middle-earth were the ents, the oldest of all living races, a treelike people only tentatively removed from their arboreal roots, awakened by elves from a long, silent awareness of themselves into mobility and speech.
The Health Science Library at UNC • Photo by Selena N. B. H. (CC BY 2.0)
Sciencespeak
The British physicist and philosopher of science John Ziman recently published a book called Knowing Everything About Nothing: Specialization and Change in Scientific Careers. This column is not about the book. It is about the title of the book.
4-(p-Hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone, the smell of raspberries
Ah, molecules
Someone asked me the other day why I never write about chemistry in this column. I’ll tell you why. Chemistry is boring.
Model of a coelacanth at the Houston Museum of Natural Science • Photo by Daderot (Public Domain)
Let us consider now the coelacanth
“Consider now the Coelacanth,
Our only living fossil,
Persistent as the amaranth,
And status quo apostle.”