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...
Controversial Chimera
Here is an intriguing email and my response (both somewhat abridged, so let me know if you’d like the full versions). I showed the...
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,...
How Science OPERAtes
Few people grasp the complexities of science and still fewer engage the richness of opera—so why not combine the two?! This seems...