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The natural world evolved many pop culture frights long before storytellers used them to terrify us.
It’s a wonderful potential technology for going interstellar. But in your lifetime? Don’t hold your breath. “Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We […]
A new wave of authors — think of them as Richard Dawkins' more evolved descendants — is building the case for a "new atheism" that focuses more on what it values than on a blanket rejection of God.
“They f**k you up, your mum and dad,” poet Philip Larkin wrote in the late work “This Be the Verse.” “They may not mean to, but they do./ They fill you with the faults they had/ And add some extra, just for you.” Larkin kidded that those lines would be his best remembered, a guess not too far off 30 years after his death. Where others see in those lines a perfect portrait of the sour, sad curmudgeon poet, in the new biography Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love, James Booth sees something different. “The poem’s sentiment is sad, but the poem is full of jouissance,” Booth argues. “This must bid fair to be the funniest serious English poem of the 20th century.” Likewise, Larkin — target of posthumous charges of racism, misogyny, and assorted cruelties — could lay claim to being the “funniest serious” English poet of the 20th century. Booth, who knew and worked with Larkin, shows the sweet, happy side of the sour, sad poet and makes a strong case for learning to love Larkin again, if not for the first time.
Philip Zimbardo is one of the most famous and prolific psychologists of the past half-century. Best-known as the father of the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo is also author of […]
A videoconference scheduled for tomorrow will bring together 6,000 people from opposite sides of a 40-year-old conflict in the hope that they can begin the hard work of peace.
Once in a great while, I write something that’s too long to fit comfortably in a blog post. This week one of those pieces, an essay on the notorious and […]
This week ended up being a little busier than I expected – I had to make that quick transition from wedding/honeymoon to beginning to prepare for my field/labwork coming up […]
Today marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most significant eruptions (video – archived from news broadcasts) of the last century (or more) – the 1991 eruption of Pinatubo in the […]
Sorry about the scarcity lately – it was graduation weekend here at Denison, so that always keeps me more than busy. However, now that graduation is done, summer is officially […]
Another week has blown by … and I haven’t had a lot of new volcano news (beyond the earthquakes at Krísuvík) to report this week – just some images and books. […]
Like the banshee of Irish and Scottish legend, Scottish artist Susan Philipsz keens songs of lamentation and loss that haunt those within hearing of the “sound sculptures” centered on her […]
From here on Earth, looking farther away in space means looking farther back in time. So what are distant Earth-watchers seeing right now?
With "Karla's Choice," Nick Harkaway had an impossible mission: maintain his father’s legacy while staying true to his voice.
Are we enslaved by the finer things in life?
In theory, scientists could've produced a deadly virus that accidentally infected lab workers. In practice, we know that didn't happen.
The latest season of the "Revolutions" podcast blends history with science fiction to tell the story of the Red Planet's rise.
Migration statistics should be regarded with wariness as they are difficult to analyze properly and easily manipulated for political gain.
Both nations made missteps, but China still has a chance to make up lost ground.
The secret sauce is the real world.
A simple plate of vegetables has found the gaping blindspots in generative AI, and points the way to fixing them.
Famed activist Bayard Rustin constantly faced the dilemma of coordinating collective pursuits among diverse groups of people.
While the concept stretches back centuries, it has garnered significant attention in recent decades.
Neuroscientist Christof Koch on human minds, AI, and bacteria.
Predicted way back in the 1960s, the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 completed the Standard Model. Here's why it remains fascinating.
Digital analyses of Enlightenment-era letters are teaching us a thing or two about Locke, Voltaire, and others.
Western societies seem to be getting inflammation achingly wrong.
The FDA approved a single-dose, long-acting injection to protect babies and toddlers from RSV over the fall and winter.
From "The Castle of Otranto" to "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, these books changed the literary landscape.
Stories of child prodigies and the naturally gifted hide the fact that success is built on more than talent alone.