Critical views of science in the news
My teenage son, Mac, shot me. Twice, on the same day. I felt pride. And pain. Together with about 60 other guys, Mac and I were playing an "Airsoft" war game in a wooded Army Reserve training camp in Tolland, a tiny town in western Massachusetts.
I've always thought of Stephen Hawking—whose new book The Grand Design (Bantam 2010), co-written with Leonard Mlodinow, has become an instant bestseller—less as a scientist than as a cosmic, comic performance artist, who loves goofing on his fellow physicists and the rest of us.This penchant was already apparent in 1980, when the University of Cambridge named Hawking Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, the chair held three centuries earlier by Isaac Newton.
I suffer from eschatological obsession. That is, I spend lots of time brooding about ends. So the cover of the September Scientific American —which reads simply "the end."—made me all shivery, like when I hear the spooky sitar opening of The Doors' apocalyptic rock poem "The End." (I'm never more Freudian than when I hear Morrison's Oedipal yowl.)
Some issue highlights: Tom Kirkwood's article on why we shouldn't expect the end of death soon (someone send this to Ray Kurzweil); Arpad Vass's description of a corpse's busy afterlife (which reminds me of one of my favorite novels, Jim Crace's Being Dead , Picador 2001); George Musser's riff on whether time can end (which would mean the end of ends—like, grok that, dude!).
Transhumanists! Singularitarians! Listen up! You who harbor a fervent faith in science’s imminent transformation of our frail, fleshy selves.
Last week's post served up facts from Power to Save the World (Vintage, 2008) by Gwyneth Cravens, whose book forced me to see nuclear energy in a more positive light.
My belated education in nuclear energy continues. I just read Power to Save the World: The Truth about Nuclear Energy (Vintage, 2008) by Gwyneth Cravens, a petite, energetic novelist and journalist.
Good news is rare these days, so I'd like to take a moment to celebrate last week's decision by a federal judge that Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage, is unconstitutional.
Inception is an absurdly complicated, clattering contraption of a movie that impresses only in a mechanical, Rube Goldberg–ish way. My intellect had to work so hard to figure out what was happening that my emotions never got engaged.
James N. Mattis is the four-star Marine general whom Barack Obama just nominated to head the U.S. Central Command, with oversight of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Okay, it wasn't George W. Bush himself, just his minions. Here's what happened (and by the way, this is the story I promised to tell in a previous post): In the summer of 2005 a weird e-mail appeared in my inbox.
STAFFBehind the scenes at Scientific American
Read
STAFF
Read
Exploring the human condition.
Read
Insights into intelligence, creativity, personality, and well-being
Read
Everything you always wanted to know about raising science-literate kids
Read
Critical views of science in the news
Read
STAFF
Read
Explore the science behind the dog in your bed
Read
News and research about endangered species from around the world
Read
Science by and for kids ages 8-15
Read
Commentary invited by editors of Scientific American
Read
Climate science in a changing world
Read
Illusions, Delusions, and Everyday Deceptions
Read
Discussion and news about planets, exoplanets, and astrobiology
Read
Commentary invited by editors of Scientific American Mind
Read
New discoveries in animal behavior and cognition
Read
Opinion, arguments & analyses from guest experts and from the editors of Scientific American
Read
More than wires - exploring the connections between energy, environment, and our lives
Read
Mathematics: learning it, doing it, celebrating it.
Read
Adventures in the good science of rock-breaking.
Read
STAFFIllustrating science since 1845
Read
STAFFA science blog, sans blague
Read
Amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals - living and extinct
Read
A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
Read
Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
Read
