

Distilling Word-Wine into Literary Cognac
Writers are numerically confused and quantitatively torn—or maybe just hypocritical. We decry the unwillingness of people to read novels...


Know when to fold 'em
Maybe Kenny Rogers isn’t the best source for deep questions about life, but listen to “The Gambler” and ponder this central challenge:...


Scientists Say the Darnedest Things
Back in the 1960s, my family watched Art Linkletter’s television show, which included a segment in which he asked children questions or...


Rarefaction, Riches—or Readers?
I bristle at the notion that basic science, which eschews the crassness of economic utility, is more virtuous than applied research,...


An Ecologist and a Poet Consider the Nature of Values and the Value of Nature
The Ucross Experiment is an ongoing venture to see what happens when artists and scientists collaborate in the mutual making of...