Last week’s visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in England put me again under the spell of Lancelot “Capability” Brown.
Articles with 2004
Stowe gardens, Buckinghamshire • Photo by flowcomm (CC BY 2.0)
Robert Hooke's drawing of a flea from “Micrographia” (1665)
Microscopes and lucky charms
For anyone interested in the history of science, London and its environs are a living museum. Perhaps only ancient Alexandria — the city of Archimedes, Euclid, Aristarchus, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and Eudoxos — came near to approaching London as a center of scientific creativity.
The 72-inch Rosse telescope mirror • Photo by Geni (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Dread and alluring mystery
When I first visited the capital of Ireland in 1972, Dublin was a gray, cheerless city with beggars and litter everywhere. I couldn’t wait to get away.
Red-tailed hawk • Photo by Patrice Bouchard on Unsplash
Realities
Was up Mount Brandon yesterday, Ireland’s second highest mountain, with my friend Maurice. A temperature inversion held the clouds close to the earth, with just the peaks rising above. An island archipelago in a sea of white.
Coronal holes in the sun's atmosphere • (NASA/GSFC/SDO)
Smiling faces, orbs of fire
A grandchild’s crayon drawing decorates our fridge. A big round Sun with a smiley face.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
The day after ‘The Day After Tomorrow’
What’s an ordinary citizen to believe?
Artist's conception of the Cassini spacecraft arriving at Saturn • NASA/JPL (Public Domain)
Cassini at Saturn
Each of us is born at the center of the world.
Photo by Ayla Verschueren on Unsplash
Old dog, new trick: a statement of purpose
So here it is, Science Musings on the web, a regular meditation on humankind’s quest to understand the universe, including, of course, ourselves.