“Ants do not play.” That’s what Harvard entomologists Bert Holldobler and E. O. Wilson say in their monumental new work “The Ants.”
Articles from June 2020
A physicist at play (Public Domain)
Photo by Ruslan Zh on Unsplash
If the key fits, you’ll smell it
An old vaudeville joke goes like this:
“I’ve got a goat without a nose.”
“You’ve got a goat without a nose? How does it smell?”
“Awful.”
Unidentified victim (left) of the Tuskegee study • U.S. National Archives (Public Domain)
Look ahead, but don’t forget the shameful past
The story broke on July 26, 1972. Jean Heller of the Associated Press blew the whistle on what may be the most despicable episode of racism in the history of American science.
Packrat midden at Joshua Tree National Park • Photo by Robb Hannawacker (Public Domain)
Meaningful messes
Packrats pack. Paleontologists unpack. Out in the deserts of the American West paleontologists unpack packrats’ packs.
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.