My flight was delayed. I slipped into a booth at the airport lounge and ordered a beer to pass the time. Pro wrestling was on the big TV over the bar. A half-dozen men perched on bar stools watched the action, whooping it up with each eye gouge or knee to the groin.
Articles from November 2020
Photo by Miguel Discart (CC BY-SA 2.0)
UGC 12158, an example of a barred spiral galaxy • ESA/Hubble
For a new generation, the Milky Way beckons
Gather round, children, and listen to my tale of coming of age in the Milky Way.
Photo by Jessica Loaiza on Unsplash
Call it the love fool’s drug or chemical brain food — by any name, it’s the best
The heart-shaped boxes are empty. The milk chocolate hearts have been divested of their red foil wraps. Valentine’s week has come and gone.
Photo by wilsan u on Unsplash
Elementary particles — is that all there is to us?
Songwriter Meredith Willson thought he knew why the sky is blue and birds sing. Nobel-prizewinning physicist Steven Weinberg thinks he knows too.
Photo by Luke Ellis-Craven on Unsplash
Out of the office, but never out of the loop
Later this week, thousands of scientists from around the world will gather in Boston for the [1993] annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They will lug to the meeting laptop computers, modems, fax machines, cellular telephones, beepers. Circuits in and out of Boston will be humming.
Photo by Lomig on Unsplash
Just dial ‘N’ to order an offspring with ‘niceness’
Are you ready for this? Sperm sorting. I’m not kidding.
ATLAS experiment at CERN • CERN (CC BY 4.0)
Particle accelerators and matters of faith
It is a common conceit among high-energy particle physicists to compare their giant accelerating machines to the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages.
C. Raymo Sr.'s slide rule • Photo by Tom Raymo
The passing of the venerable slide rule
My father’s slide rule. I found it at the back of a bureau drawer during a recent visit to my mother’s home in Tennessee.
Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash
The shifting spectrum on animal rights
My walk to and from work each day takes me through land administered by the Natural Resources Trust of Easton. It was there I met the deer.
Photo by Enrico Carcasci on Unsplash
Australia’s furry little beast could be the perfect symbol
News from Down Under: Koalas are under siege.