A few weeks ago I flew from Miami to Boston on a clear, dark night.
Articles from July 2022
New York City from above • NASA (Public Domain)
“The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople” by Eugène Delacroix (1840)
When religion subverts science
Question: Who said, “Whenever [one] hears [our] religion abused, he should not attempt to defend its tenets, except with his sword, and that he should thrust into the scoundrel’s belly, as far as it will enter”?
Photo by Nikola Jovanovic on Unsplash
Future awaits ethical decisions
The Earth’s biosphere has no more ardent champion than Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson.
Photo by Mike Marrah on Unsplash
Can we use it all and still have it?
We have no shortage of gurus willing to lead us into the environmental future.
Photo by Kier In Sight on Unsplash
Life’s sweet beginnings
“How sweet it is,” said Jackie Gleason. Yes, life is sweet. Sugar is a key ingredient of all life on earth and has been since the beginning.
A sandfly • Photo by Emilio Floris (Public Domain)
Finding beauty in the beasts
The tropics are a wonderful place to consider our relationship with other species. I mean, you can hardly help it. Things that creep, slither, fly, or crawl invariably show up where you least expect them.
Photo by Dukas Lu (CC BY-NC 2.0)
A new finale for ‘Creation’
Two centuries have elapsed since Joseph Haydn composed his magnificent The Creation oratorio. In all that time, no other musician has given us a better evocation of how the universe began.
E. coli bacteria • Photo by Janice Haney Carr, National Escherichia, Shigella, Vibrio Reference Unit at CDC, USCDCP on Pixnio
Into the future with bacteria
It was inevitable that sooner or later we would ask bacteria to make electricity.
Photo by Thomas Schweighofer on Unsplash
Hobbit thinking might be wise
I first read J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” in the early 1960s. The maps of Middle Earth attracted my interest. I had not previously heard of Tolkien, and his books were only beginning to become cult favorites of the college crowd.
Ascalapha_odorata • Photo by Charles J. Sharp (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Greatest miracle is under wraps
We call it “the Year of the Bats.” Not your usual bats — the furry, warm-blooded mammals that skate the night sky and (according to myth) get caught in your hair. No, our “bats” are not bats at all; rather they are large black-brown moths with an 8‑inch wingspan, as big as an adult hand.