They are “the cosmically charged cornerstones upon which the great pyramids of Egypt were built.” They are “natural superconductors through which a universe of enlightenment passed to the lost continent of Atlantis.” They are crystals, and if you know how to use them they can make you healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Photo by Jason D on Unsplash
The Large Hadron Collider in Europe • Photo by Luigi Selmi (CC BY 2.0)
And what does it mean?
In 1900 Henry Adams, American historian, quintessential Bostonian (born in the shadow of the State House), 62 years old, visited the Paris Exposition, a great world’s fair celebrating the end of Adam’s century and the beginning of a New Age.
Photo by Ryan Hagerty (Public Domain)
In praise of the useless
You’ll find it tucked away in the middle of the Sunday Globe on the page with the weather report, next to the Megabucks winning number and “This Day in History.”
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Hello — to what am I speaking?
Inspired by a wide-ranging appraisal of Artificial Intelligence research in the current issue of Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, I sat down at my word processor to write this column.
Photo by Linnaea Mallette (Public Domain)
Gullible gulls and roaring deer
It is time to present the First Annual Gullible Gull Award for the most bizarre scientific research of the past year involving experimentation with animals — experiments that Shakespeare might call “wondrous strange.”
Photo by Laura Fuhrman on Unsplash
Elusive memories
If I remember rightly, it was back about 1963 that I first got interested in the biochemistry of memory. My curiosity was sparked by some remarkable experiments with flatworms — tiny, extremely primitive animals with rudimentary brains and nervous systems.
Photo by Joel Miller on Unsplash
The moon rose like a stage set
Yesterday, just at sunset, the moon rose full. Tonight, if the sky is clear, a nearly-full moon will rise again — golden, majestic, and startlingly large.
Pierre and Marie Curie in their laboratory
The deadly blessing
The aftermath of the tragedy continues to unfold. It is a haunting, terrifying story, touched with dreamlike beauty, ending in suffering and death — a moral fable for our times.
White-breasted nuthatch • Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren (CC BY 2.0)
Autumn’s quiet sounds
Summer birds have flown south, deciduous trees are bare. Wildflowers have faded and mushrooms are withered by the cold. But for the lover of nature, these last spare days of autumn offer one welcome gift. Silence.
SDSS J1038+4849, a gravitational lens imaged in 2015 • NASA/ESA (Public Domain)
Albert Einstein’s most happy thought
It was, said Einstein, the “happiest thought of my life.”