Packrats pack. Paleontologists unpack. Out in the deserts of the American West paleontologists unpack packrats’ packs.
Articles with 1990
Packrat midden at Joshua Tree National Park • Photo by Robb Hannawacker (Public Domain)
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
Is it pointless to ask if the universe is pointless?
“The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.”
Yosemite Valley • Photo by Aniket Deole on Unsplash
‘Unknown nobody’ outfoxed the expert, solved a riddle
In the early morning hours of March 26, 1872, an earthquake shook Yosemite Valley in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
Photo by Toimetaja tõlkebüroo on Unsplash
Every man (and squirrel) to his own taste
Two sounds of autumn are unmistakable, says naturalist Hal Borland, “the hurrying rustle of crisp leaves blown along the street or road by a gusty wind, and the gabble of a flock of migrating geese.”
Charles Darwin at age 60
Diagnosing Darwin
The father of evolution was worried sick.
Photo by Lucrezia Carnelos on Unsplash
Virtual reality is not enough
Put on the EyePhone stereographic display goggles. Crank up the audio headset. Slip your hand into the DataGlove. Plug yourself into a supercomputer. Welcome to virtual reality.
"An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump" (1768) by Joseph Wright of Derby
A cusp of history in a painting
On Thursday of this week [in 1990] the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will open a show of the works of the 18th century painter Joseph Wright of Derby. The show had its origin at the Tate Gallery, London, and moved on to Paris before arriving here.
Desmodus rotundus • Photo by Uwe Schmidt (CC BY-SA 4.0)
For the poor bat, life is mostly bad press
As far as I know, Ogden Nash never wrote a verse about bats, but if he had it might have gone like this: Nobody likes a bat And that’s that.
Bust of George Boole at University College Cork • Photo by William Murphy (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The boy who wouldn’t stay ‘in his place’
Inside the entrance of the Boole Library, at Ireland’s University College in Cork, the watchful eyes of George Boole gaze down on visitors from the stern but kindly portrait that hangs in a place of honor.
A swarm of micro-robots • Image by Farshadarvin (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Robognats and roborobins
A cartoon in a recent issue of the journal Science shows a woman standing aghast in her kitchen as the man from Ace Exterminators releases a box full of mice onto the floor.