Few working scientists, other than physicians, have achieved Primo Levi’s degree of literary acclaim. Had he lived longer — he died in 1987 at age 67, an apparent suicide — he might have won the Nobel Prize for literature.
Articles with 2003
Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
Statue honoring Charles Darwin at the Natural History Museum, London • Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash
Evolution was, and is, a great notion
What was the greatest scientific idea of all time?
Photo by Pixabay
Finding my place in the parallel universe
The May [2003] issue of Scientific American has been laying on my desk for weeks now. The teaser on the cover keeps jumping out at me, some days more forcefully than others: “Parallel Universes Really Exist.”
Rosette Nebula • Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope / 2003
Skyward looks bring existential thoughts
Every now and then astronomers come up with a photograph that deserves wider circulation than it gets in the science journals.
Photo by Iva Rajović on Unsplash
Optimism is fuel for a bright future
Last week this column took note of environmental philosopher Bill McKibben’s new book, “Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age” — an important book, powerfully persuasive, and utterly necessary.
Photo by Silviu Zidaru on Unsplash
The evolution of technology
Fourteen years ago, Bill McKibben jolted our environmental awareness with a splendid little book, “The End of Nature,” that cataloged the ways human economic activities are rending the fabric of nature. In particular, he drew our attention to changes in the atmosphere, and to the possibility of global warming.
Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
All the old sciences have starring roles
When I was in high school many long years ago, the sciences were the basics — physics, chemistry, biology.
Human chromosomes • Bolzer et al. (CC BY-2.5)
The historic conflict between X and Y
Has there ever been a more astute observer of the war between the sexes than James Thurber?
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Neutralinos may reveal themselves
You may have heard of the medieval philosophers who supposedly debated how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. The modern equivalents are surely the astrophysicists who study the beginning and evolution of the universe.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Waging peace by slaking world thirst
During the third week of March [2003], 10,000 delegates from around the world met in Japan for the UN-sponsored World Water Forum.