Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” may be the most popular nature book of the late 20th century.
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Photo by Amisha Nakhwa on Unsplash
The revenge of the human Dixie cup
This is the tale of the disposable soma. It’s not exactly a pleasant tale, especially if you are on the silver side of fifty.
A great blue heron in flight • Photo by Tom Raymo (© 2021)
Tuned into the deepest mysteries
Pinned to the wall above my desk is a quote I found many years ago. I can’t remember where it came from, or anything about the author except that his/her name is Dixon.
Photo by Elievan Junior on Unsplash
The technomutants are already here
No, I haven’t seen the new big-budget Stallone movie, Judge Dredd. But when my youngest son was living abroad he acquired a voluminous collection of the British comic 2000 A.D., in which the film’s eponymous hero held violent sway.
Photo by Leslie Cross on Unsplash
The wonderful world of ditches
Some weeks ago I attended a gathering of nature writers on Martha’s Vineyard. On the first morning, we took time to introduce ourselves and say a bit about how we came to be interested in the natural world.
Lord Rosse's telescope, photographed in 1885
A Big Bertha of an observatory
Ireland — with its rag-wet skies, its one clear night in 10 — is no place to build an astronomical observatory.
A fossil trilobite • Photo by PxHere
An astonishing consensus in science
Clambering over sea cliffs in the west of Ireland looking for fossils. This cove at the end of the Dingle Peninsula has in the past proved to be a fine place for trilobites, creatures that scuttled the ocean floor hundreds of millions of years ago.
Hypochrosis baenzigeri • Photo by budak (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The moth that makes an elephant cry
A photograph in the book review section of the journal Nature shows three moths drinking from a trickle of liquid that flows from a huge glistening eye.
Hiroshima in the aftermath of the atomic bombing • US Department of Defense (Public Domain)
The two faces of knowledge
It was the defining event of the 20th century, an exclamation point at the middle of the sentence.
The flying toasters screen saver • Image by Mark Mathosian (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Mr. Computer explains it all to you
Dear Mr. Computer,
All of my friends are urging me to buy a “screen saver” for my computer.