Edward O. Wilson’s Inordinate Fondness for Ants

In the 1970s, the Harvard biology department was for life scientists like what Los Alamos in the 1940s had been for physicists: an assemblage of the great names, but with even more clashes of personality and politics. The distinguished science journalist Richard Rhodes, author of the famous 1986 book The Making of the Atomic Bomb, has published a ...


Good Scientists & Mad Scientists

There are good scientists and there are mad scientists. The good ones have invented the safety pin, central heating, and Italian coffee machines. The mad ones have invented smog, Roundup, and the military-industrial complex. The good ...

Neil Armstrong

A Hero Only Once

There was no television readily available when I heard that Neil Armstrong had passed from this world. In a hotel room hours later, I found that no news programs were mentioning him or his mark on history. On NBC was a program titled ...

Will There Be Life on Mars?

While the world had its eyes trained on London's Olympics, a great many were staring at the planet Mars. On August 5, workers at the JPL's Mars Science Laboratory breathed a sigh of relief. Despite the “Seven Minutes of ...

Wikipedia: Anarchy in Motion

There's nothing more frustrating than arguing with old people and hearing them bark sarcastically, "€œOh, you got it from the Internet"€”how reliable."€ The Internet is the world's largest library, you asshole. Have you been to a ...

Measuring the World

Among innumeracy's great heroes must be reckoned Lord Randolph Churchill, father of Sir Winston. Shown a column of figures that included decimal points, His Lordship grumbled, “I never could make out what those damn dots ...

Deconstructing Folk Metaphysics

I’m in trouble with some creationist readers for having used the phrase “folk metaphysics” once too often over at National Review Online. What do I mean by it, they demand to know. Is it just another way of scoffing at ...


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