Here’s one of the most important philosophical questions of our times: What is a weed?
Photo by Ivan Dostál on Unsplash
The Hubble Deep Field photograph • R. Williams (STScI), the Hubble Deep Field Team and NASA/ESA
The universe of the mind
By now, you have probably seen the Hubble Deep Field photograph of the early universe. Many newspapers and news magazines have published this extraordinary image of the most distant galaxies ever observed.
Tropic of Cancer, Little Exuma, Bahamas • Photo by Venture Minimalists (CC BY 2.0)
The ancients’ forgotten think tank
Just back from a sunny sojourn on the Tropic of Cancer. Not far along the beach from where I was staying is a concrete slab with “23° 26′ 22.07″ North of the Equator” in big letters.
Photo by Prabir Kashyap on Unsplash
Dining on energy at the ants’ table
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work,” writes the Pulitzer prize-winning poet Mary Oliver.
The double helix stairway at the Vatican Museum • Photo by ctbroek (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Searching for a metaphor for the miraculous
Every high school biology student learns something like this: “Before a cell divides, the DNA replicates itself. A complete copy of the DNA moves to each side of the cell. Then the cell splits down the middle.”
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Direct from NASA, the universe!
In a poem titled “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven,” William Butler Yeats muses.
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Are you a skeptic or a true believer?
A 1993 Gallup Poll posed these alternatives to Americans and asked which most closely represents their belief.
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Jingle Gates
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, except Papa’s mouse.
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Exploring the universe upside down
Sit here, Victoria, next to Grandpa, and I’ll read you another chapter from our book.
Photo by CDC on Unsplash
To the microbes, we’re all shmoos
Remember the shmoo?