Guest Post: Remembering Horace Judson

In his several books and many articles in magazines and academic journals, Horace Freeland Judson dared to size scientists up, though he wasn’t one. He died on May 6, age 80. He was my teacher and my friend, and I would like to say a few things about his works both to offer tribute and […]

Talking Universe Blues, Part 3

(This post is the third in a three-part series. The first and second appeared the past two Fridays.) “What can we as scientists do to better communicate science to the general public?” This question didn’t stump me, but, I admit, the answer did elude me at first. I started talking about how writers are dependent on […]

Talking Universe Blues, Part 2

“What can we do about high school physics textbooks?” The question, I admit, stumped me. Not in the way that a question about whether gravity exists in other universes would stump me. That question I wouldn’t be able to answer because there isn’t an answer; the existence of other universes is speculative. This question, however, […]

Talking Universe Blues, Part 1

(This post is the first in a three-part series. “Talking Universe Blues” will continue over the next two Fridays.) “Does gravity exist in other universes?” The question, I admit, stumped me. Did she—fourth row, on the aisle—mean that gravity might be leaking into our universe from a parallel universe? Unlikely. Her puzzled, perhaps lost, expression didn’t […]