Kepler strikes again! A couple of weeks ago, in a two–part essay, I wrote about a 1608 book by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler that scholars consider the first work of science fiction: Somnium—Latin for The Dream. This past week, I got to thinking about Kepler’s book again, after the discovery of dwarf planet 2012 VP113 (which the discoverers have nicknamed […]
Month: March 2014
March 24 – 28, 2014 Richard’s redux post: he went to the real true South Pole, had a chance to stand on it and didn’t but it changed his perspective anyway. Erik went to Tulsa, met a bookseller who had gone to the third world and done the best thing he ever did, better than most […]
Until last Sunday, the Colorado River ended in Yuma, Arizona, backed up against an unremarkable span of concrete called the Morelos Dam on the Mexican border. Every drop of water above the dam was already spoken for -– supplying water to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver as well as irrigating farm fields in […]
Engineers and architects have been facing the question for years. “When we were designing the Tate Modern, there was a moment when someone said, ‘What will you do when the water is a metre or two higher?’” remembers Stuart Smith, a director at global engineering firm Arup. “As an individual building, there’s not much you […]
The outbreak that shook the tiny town of Ninety Six, South Carolina, probably began in the spring of 2012. An elderly janitor at the local elementary school fell ill and began unwittingly spreading the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. By June 2013, more than 50 students were infected and at least ten had developed signs of […]
March 17 – 21 This week, Ann interviewed Will Storr about his new book. The conversation turns to the dangers of congratulating yourself excessively on your own intelligence. Accidental rewilding or inadvertent resheepling? Michelle investigated. Helen dissected the persistent rumour that penguins need sweaters. But penguins made of sugary Peeps? They definitely need a knitting […]
In the spring of 2012, botanist and graduate student Benjamin Wilder was camping on Tiburón Island, a large island in the Gulf of California whose flora he has studied for most of a decade. Wilder wanted to find out more about the evolutionary history of the plants on Tiburón, so he was looking for fossil […]
On Monday, I asked: Do Penguins Need Sweaters? Answer: Not really. But my friends Joanna, Kate, and I thought penguin sweaters were perfect for the Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest. Our entry: Sweaters for Peepguins After the bunny peeps read on Peepbook that peepguins in the Southern Hemisphere needed sweaters, they met up at their […]
