Several weeks ago, “The New York Times” asked in the headline of its Tuesday science section — “Does Science Matter?” — then spent 16 pages suggesting an answer: Indeed it does, more than ever.
Articles from November 2022
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The chemical mind binds us together
As dumb as a goldfish.
"Summer Evening" by Childe Hassam (1886)
Leaving our print on the landscape
The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, is one of New England’s hidden treasures. Next time you are driving Interstate 95 between Boston and New York, pop off at Exit 70 and treat yourself to an exhilarating look at early 20th-century American Impressionist art.
A reconstruction of how Ötzi may have appeared in life • South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Chipping away at the iceman mystery
Remember the iceman? A dozen years ago, a couple of hikers found a mummified body in a melting glacier high in the Alps, on the border between Austria and Italy.
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Whither champions of the countryside
What are England’s greatest gifts to civilization?
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Scientists also lifted our perception of life
This was my third or fourth visit to Westminster Abbey, although the first in almost three decades. I stood in line to buy my ticket of admission with some misgivings. I remembered being disappointed on previous visits, but could not remember why.
A song sparrow • Photo © Tom Raymo
When animals talk, we should listen
I have a friend who talks to birds. When I accompany him on early-morning walks, he’ll stand beside a pond or weed patch and make little tsk-tsk noises that to my untrained ear don’t sound particularly birdlike. Nevertheless, soon a flitter of warblers and sparrows appears seemingly out of nowhere.
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Be thankful today’s rodents are small
I’m not feeling very friendly toward rodents right now. I have mice in the pantry and squirrels in the attic.
Detail of Ottoman astronomers at work from a 16th-century manuscript
Mystery illuminates a cultural shift
Istanbul is the most European of Moslem cities. It sits astride the Bosphorus, traditional boundary between Europe and Asia. It was once the capital of a Moslem empire that reached to India and Spain; today, with all of Turkey, it aspires to be part of the European Union.
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The real mystery of human life
Question: Why does it take 200 million male sperm to fertilize a single female egg?