This is the story of the white eel of Walden. It is a story that seems appropriate for this season of miracles.
American eel • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (CC BY 2.0)
Jonathan, a giant tortoise hatched in c. 1832 • Photo by Kevstan (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Of mayflies, turtles, and a ripe old age
Life is ephemeral. Especially if you belong to that order of insects called Ephemeroptera, the mayflies. An adult mayfly lives for minutes or hours.
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
The danger of underplaying world’s weightiest problem
The books we read as children stay with us all our lives. Among the books in my parents’ library were the popular works of Hendrick Willem van Loon, published in the years between the World Wars. Those books made an indelible impression on my mind.
Photo by Uwe Conrad on Unsplash
Taking stock of cold fusion
A guy walks up to me at a party. A business type. I think his name was McGuire. “I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.”
"Eppur si muove" – Galileo at his trial
In the church-science split, both sides have suffered
On June 22, 1633, Galileo Galilei was condemned by a tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church for teaching that the Earth revolves about the sun, rather than the other way round.
Photo by Cody Nottingham on Unsplash
The farm was his livelihood, but his passion was the sky
Comet Swift-Tuttle is back, plunging toward its closest approach to the sun early next month [in December 1992].
The Trinity test at the moment of detonation
In the New Mexico desert, the test was of physics itself
It was the most fateful physics experiment of all time. The experiment was called Trinity, and it took place in the New Mexico desert on the morning of July 16, 1945.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Look around, Noah, the clouds are darkening
Dear Noah, Forgive this informal way of communicating, but I have a bad case of laryngitis and must curtail my thundering from on high. I have good news and bad news.
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
Stuff we could do without
In 1842, a German immigrant to America named J. A. Etzler published a book called The Paradise within the Reach of all Men, without Labor, by Powers of Nature and Machinery.
The map of the known world from Ptolemy's "Geography"
In Ptolemy’s maps, Columbus saw his destiny
In mid-February 1493, Christopher Columbus’ ships, the Niña and the Pinta, neared the Azores on their return journey from the New World. The flagship, Santa Maria, had been wrecked on the shore of what is now Haiti, and Columbus had left some of his crew behind at a place he called Navidad.