Happy Darwin Day
Charles Darwin was born 200 years ago today. Great site: www.darwinday.org I think I like Darwin so much because he was so surprized by his own discovery, and in fact was not thrilled by it. He enjoyed his garden and his insect collections, but not elaborating theories into the realm of speculation. It was Herbert […]
The canon. The beautiful basics of science
Once in a while you stumble upon a book that will change the way you see and approach things. This is one of them. Natalie Angier, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the NYT (booksite), has written a book for those of us who need beauty, involvement and lateral thinking to get into science. It’s all […]
The Eagle Nebula
Today is the big day. To celebrate a president we can be proud of and who allows us to dream of a more humane world, have a look at the beautiful Eagle Nebula, described as follows: From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle. A closer look at the Eagle Nebula, however, shows the […]
Pink Moon
2009 is the International Year of Astronomy and I’d like to kick it off with “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake (1948-1974). The moon becomes pink during a lunar eclipse, traditionally considered a bad omen. Drake’s depression was his personal “pink moon”: I saw it written and I saw it say Pink moon is on its […]
Your brain on Google
Gary Small, a neuroscientist at UCLA in California, has found through studies that Internet searching and text messaging has made the brains of “digital natives” more adept at filtering information and making decisions. The thinking part of the brain can be trained by surfing, which is scanning for the next bit of new information and […]
Michael Crichton RIP
Michael Crichton (October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was a great science fiction thriller writer (Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park) who criticized politicizing science to manipulate the public. He advocated fighting the “fear of unproven danger” and “pseudo-religious environmentalism” (see his website) as harmful misinformation. His position can be and has been abused by ideologues on […]
The Royal Society and Creationism
The story that God created the world in six days is enjoying a renaissance in the UK, just as the world is getting ready to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s publication of the theory evolution in 1859.
