Follow @yaleSCIbooks Lynn Margulis, a biologist whose work on the genesis of new types of cells revolutionized our understanding of evolution, died at her home in Amherst, Massachusetts on November 22, after suffering a stroke. The Washington Post called Margulis, who was 73, “a rebel within the realm of science,” pointing
Follow @yaleSCIbooks In his television series Cosmos, whose Emmy-award winning co-creator served as one of the directors of the new film Journey of the Universe, astronomer Carl Sagan declared, “We are all stardust.” The sentiment was already a familiar one, for in Joni Mitchell’s famous 1970 song “Woodstock,” she too
Follow @yaleSCIbooks The newest 3@2 Interview brings Terry Lecturers Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack, authors of The New Universe and the Human Future, to discuss the new scientific picture of the universe and its meaning for our lives, societies, and long-term future as a species. Yale University
Follow @yaleSCIbooks Sarah Underwood— I assume that this week, the halls of elementary schools across America have been decorated with Pilgrim men and women, whose shiny buckles and white aprons were cut cleanly from construction paper. I don’t remember ever drawing stains or smudges on my Pilgrims’ clothing as a
Follow @yaleSCIbooks Growing up, many of us were taught that our left brain was the source of reason and logic, while our right brain ruled over imagination and creativity. However, according to prominent psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, this is not the whole truth. In a video recently posted on the website
Follow @yaleSCIbooks Sharon McGrayne’s The Theory That Would Not Die is the story about a statistical method of analysis that almost wasn’t. Created by the Reverend Thomas Bayes and further molded by scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace, Bayes’ theorem is a statistical analysis method for probability that takes an initial guess or
Dr. Richard Frank— Please see my entry on this topic at WebMD. Richard C. Frank, M.D., is director of cancer research at the Whittingham Cancer Center of Norwalk Hospital, medical director of Mid-Fairfield Hospice, and Clinical Assistant Attending at Weill Cornell Medical College. He has been appointed cancer expert for WebMD and
Follow @yaleSCIbooks Christopher Lane, Professor of English at Northwestern University and author of The Age of Doubt: Tracing the Roots of Our Religious Uncertainty writes on the misperception that Christianity and Darwinism are and have always been incompatible. His new book traces the thought of the Victorian age through scientific,
Follow @yaleSCIbooks In our age of calculators, computers, and the fifteenth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, most questions are pretty easy to answer. Why is the sky blue? What is the cube root of 1331? Who was Fredrick the Great of Prussia? Still, in some areas, uncertainty lingers—even though we