Scientists have discovered a way to extract small electrical currents from humid air. They hadn’t meant to do it. A student failed to unplug one of their machines at the end of the day. The next morning, researchers found a spray of microscopic tubes, one-thousandth the diamet
A Chinese proverb about the butterfly effect teaches that small changes can have great consequences. Who would have thought that a farmer drilling a well to tap groundwater for his crops would cause the earth to wobble on its axis? Yet climate scientists report that farmers, towns
Senator John Fetterman (D) recently shared this observation with the public. You all should need to know that America is not sending their best and brightest to Washington, D. C. Congressional in-fighting, and scandals among the elected elite support the senator’s view.
When a high-speed train is barrelling down the track, a person who knows the trestle ahead has been washed away has one obligation–to run in the direction of the impending disaster in the hope of assisting survivors. Those of us who sense our country is nearing a failed state
Writing a book is a form of producing life. Like the biological procedure, dealing with afterbirth is tricky. Exposing the fruits of one’s labor to critical appraisal is heart-pounding stuff. The creator adores the offspring, but the eyes of strangers, like a camera, take an obj
Sitting down to lunch with my broker, his conversation turned to an old worry. “The national debt keeps growing. Congress has to reign it in.” “What’s your solution?” I asked before taking a sip of coffee. “Should children of low-income families go without lunch? Shoul
Language, which is vital to humankind, can take us down many paths some of which lead to self-delusion. I learned this lesson in a philosophy class years ago in college. The professor opened the session with a simple question. “Who can define the word chair for me?” Eager to
Last week I attended a play with two delightful residents from my retirement center. The performance was wonderful and when we returned home, after walking the distance of a single street, we were in good spirits and ready for a peaceful night’s rest. In my youth, after a perfor
Surrounded by books in a well-trafficked bookstore, I sat down to coffee with a former student. We’ve been meeting this way for many years. By now, he is in his early 70s while I am staring down at 87. Happily, we are both in robust health, and I always look forward to our con
Henry David Thoreau’s, Waldon Pond was assigned reading in my undergraduate years but I managed to avoid the book. Not until my 70s when I was recuperating from surgery did I turn to it and then, only because it was the one volume I could reach without getting out of bed. I fl