ELEMENTAL HAIKU
A HAIKU, as is familiarly known, is a Japanese poem of a particular length and structure. It consists of three lines, the first and last having five sound units, the … Continue reading
HERMANN THE GERMAN JOINS THE GREATER HUMAN RACE
MIGRATION, ETHNICITY, and racial purity have been much in the news these days. Fortunately, so have the stabilizing influences of scientific research. In particular, goodbye to a favorite myth believed … Continue reading
CONGRESS, THE PRESIDENT AND THE S-WORD (SCIENCE)
TWO ARTICLES on the same two-page spread of Science, May 5, 2017, suggest the turmoil taking place in scientific communities funded at least in part by the federal government. One … Continue reading
HAVE YOU DONE AS WELL AS YOUR PARENTS?
IT IS THE hope of parents that their kids will, in some sense, do better than they’ve done. The metric might be wealth, education, status or general happiness. Alas, according … Continue reading
SCIENCE AND GOVERNMENT POLICY
TWO SUCCESSIVE issues of Science magazine have multiple articles on science and government policy. Here I glean tidbits from two pieces in particular: Informing Policy with Science was a Science … Continue reading
ON CEPHALOPODS
THAT KID’S book review may have said, “This book tells me more about whales than I want to know.” On the other hand, I’m fascinated by the book Other Minds: … Continue reading
NANOPOROUS FABRICS MAY KEEP US COOL
THE SAME SCIENTIFIC principle that explains a blue sky might bring new fabrics that keep us cool. Researchers have recently engineered polyethylenes that are measurably better than cotton or “cool” … Continue reading
GEOLOGICALLY SPEAKING, WHAT TIME IS IT?
LET’S TALK ABOUT geology’s time clock. Stratigraphy concerns what can be learned from the order and relative position of rock layers. The word is a Latin/Greek hybrid: stratum Latin for … Continue reading
MORE POWER TO YA
AMERICA’S POWER GRID is the largest in the world. But it’s not the most modern, nor the most reliable. Gretchen Bakke’s book The Grid addresses these points and others. Cymene Howe … Continue reading
METHUSELAH AND THE BOMB
ABOVE-GROUND NUCLEAR weaponry helped researchers identify longevity of the Greenland shark, the world’s oldest known living vertebrate. Recently, a 400-year-old shark made the news; details of the research are given … Continue reading
