In a blog posting a week or so ago, I stated that the central contribution of 20th-century science was the shattering of absolutes. There is a corollary: The importance of everything.
Articles with 2006
Detail from "Great Piece of Turf" by Albrecht Dürer (1503)
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
On prayer
The earliest prayer I can remember is “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.”
Photo by Fatih on Unsplash
A hinge of history
In two week’s time [in 2006] I will be in Istanbul, on my way to view a total solar eclipse. It will be my second visit to that great city, and my second TSE.
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
A close shave with Occam’s razor
Why has the scientific community been so unwelcoming to such New Age gurus as Rupert Sheldrake, Russell Targ, Deepak Chopra, Harold Puthoff, and the like?
Daphnia pulex • Photo by Paul Hebert (CC BY 2.5)
He fleas and she fleas
Has there ever been a more astute observer of the war between the sexes than James Thurber?
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
Universe in a box
According to legend, Christ appeared to the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich and showed her a little thing the size of a hazelnut that he placed in her hand. “What is it?” she asked. He answered, “It is all that is made.”
The Nightmare (1781) by John Henry Fuseli
Abducting the truth
Susan Clancy, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Harvard University, has just published a book called “Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens.”
Detail from "Très Riches Heures" (c. 1412)
Kristin Lavransdatter
For the past few weeks I have lived in 14th-century Norway, sharing the life of Kristin Lavransdatter, the eponymous heroine of Sigrid Undset’s Nobel-prizewinning, 1200-page saga.