Even as kids, 50 years ago, we heard about Karl von Frisch and the dancing bees.
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We are poorer for paving paradise
The natural contours of a landscape mean nothing to an 80-ton Caterpillar bulldozer. A stand of trees, an outcrop of granite, or a purling stream can be erased in a trice.
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Intelligent design does not compute
How to account for the diversity and complexity of life on Earth?
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Only mind knows if placebo works
Placebo Domino in regione vivorum, or “I will please the Lord in the land of the living.” This verse from the Latin Vulgate Bible brought the word placebo into the English language.
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Two different paths to enlightenment
The writer and conservationist Wendell Berry is just the latest in a long line of critics who accuse science of being a religion.
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The answer is: Loops, superstrings, or 42
The comic writer Douglas Adams died a few weeks ago at age 49. He is best known for “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” a science-fiction satire that sold 14 million copies worldwide.
The surface of the Sun as imaged by TRACE • NASA/LMSAL (Public Domain)
Seeing the sun, feeling the fire
“Knowledge has killed the Sun, making it a ball of gas with spots,” wrote D. H. Lawrence in one of his crankier, anti-science moments. Boy, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
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Book provides the missing sense
Diane Ackerman begins her “A Natural History of the Senses” with this bold assertion: “Nothing is more memorable than a smell.”
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ERROR: Too old for new device
As a public service, Science Musings offers an all-purpose Troubleshooting Guide for your newest electronic device.
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Book celebrates the tree of life
Like all kids, my 18-month-old grandchild, Kate, is a fine taxonomist (one who classifies organisms into categories that reflect natural relationships).