Category Archives: Science

Wonders, Not Miracles

Galileo Galilei, regarded as the father of modern science

by Lawrence Rifkin MD

As a pediatrician, I have a seemingly endless collection of hilarious stories. A toddler came in for a visit carrying along his security object—a spatula. Later that day, an otherwise perfectly well-adjusted mother admitted to me that she is terrified of cantaloupes. Then I treated a teenage patient who had been camping and made the fateful and unenviable decision to use poison ivy as toilet paper. Continue reading Wonders, Not Miracles

The “Transcension Hypothesis” and the “Fermi Paradox”

A graphical representation of the Arecibo message, humanity’s first attempt to use radio waves to actively communicate its existence to alien civilizations

John Smart, a colleague of mine in the Evolution, Cognition and Complexity Group, has advanced the transcension hypothesis. Continue reading The “Transcension Hypothesis” and the “Fermi Paradox”

Lisa Randall: Dark Matter

Lisa Randall is professor of physics at Harvard and author of the just-released Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the UniverseShe
also just penned an essay in the Boston Globe “Seeing dark matter as the key to the universe — and human empathy.” I thought it one of the best I’ve read this year. She begins the essay: Continue reading Lisa Randall: Dark Matter