The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “science”

Cosmic Threads: A Solar System Quilt from 1876
Cosmic Threads: A Solar System Quilt from 1876

A serenade to the universe in wool and silk.

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How to Make Difficult Decisions: Benjamin Franklin’s Pioneering Pros and Cons Framework
How to Make Difficult Decisions: Benjamin Franklin’s Pioneering Pros and Cons Framework

A worksheet for the moral mathematics of decision-making from America’s original prophet of self-improvement.

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How a Jellyfish and a Sea Slug Illuminate the Mystery of the Self
How a Jellyfish and a Sea Slug Illuminate the Mystery of the Self

A humbling evolutionary antidote to the hubris of exceptionalism, with a side of etymology.

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The Dalai Lama on Science and Spirituality
The Dalai Lama on Science and Spirituality

“What science finds to be nonexistent we should all accept as nonexistent, but what science merely does not find is a completely different matter.”

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The Scientific Poetics of Affection: Lewis Thomas on Altruism and Why We Are Wired for Friendship
The Scientific Poetics of Affection: Lewis Thomas on Altruism and Why We Are Wired for Friendship

“Left to ourselves, mechanistic and autonomic, we hanker for friends… Maybe altruism is our most primitive attribute, out of reach, beyond our control.”

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How to Break a Code: 100-Year-Old Insight from Cryptography Pioneers William and Elizebeth Friedman
How to Break a Code: 100-Year-Old Insight from Cryptography Pioneers William and Elizebeth Friedman

“Deciphering is both a science and an art… In no other science are the rules and principles so little followed and so often broken; and in no other art is the part played by reasoning and logic so great.”

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How to Be a Good Creature: Naturalist Sy Montgomery on What 13 Animals Taught Her About Otherness, Love, and Being Fully Human
How to Be a Good Creature: Naturalist Sy Montgomery on What 13 Animals Taught Her About Otherness, Love, and Being Fully Human

“Our world, and the worlds around and within it, is aflame with shades of brilliance we cannot fathom — and is far more vibrant, far more holy, than we could ever imagine.”

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An Illustrated Field Guide to the Art, Science, and Joy of Tea
An Illustrated Field Guide to the Art, Science, and Joy of Tea

From leaf to cup, by way of the history of human civilization.

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The Mesmerizing Microscopy of Trees: Otherworldly Images Revealing the Cellular Structure of Wood Specimens
The Mesmerizing Microscopy of Trees: Otherworldly Images Revealing the Cellular Structure of Wood Specimens

Stunning images that occupy the lacuna between art and science.

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Physicist Alan Lightman on the Illusion of Absolute Rest
Physicist Alan Lightman on the Illusion of Absolute Rest

The beautiful and disorienting science of why we are mostly restlessness and empty space.

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