The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “science”

Alan Lightman on Immortality and Our Touching Longing for Permanence in a Universe of Constant Change
Alan Lightman on Immortality and Our Touching Longing for Permanence in a Universe of Constant Change

A heartening perspective on mortality by way of the physics of the cosmos and the poetics of the night-blooming cereus cactus.

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Where Do Babies Come From? A Sweet and Honest Primer on How Reproduction Works by Illustrator Sophie Blackall
Where Do Babies Come From? A Sweet and Honest Primer on How Reproduction Works by Illustrator Sophie Blackall

How to answer the question that stumps every grownup.

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Blast Off: Visionary Vintage Children’s Book Celebrates Equality, Diversity, and Space Exploration
Blast Off: Visionary Vintage Children’s Book Celebrates Equality, Diversity, and Space Exploration

“The blackness of space was dotted with stars.”

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Perseverance, Self-Transcendence, and the “Slow Churn” of Creativity: A Conversation with Artist Rachel Sussman
Perseverance, Self-Transcendence, and the “Slow Churn” of Creativity: A Conversation with Artist Rachel Sussman

How deep time puts our fleeting human lives in perspective, what it takes to persist, and why any meaningful creative endeavor requires sacrifice.

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Upside Down Day: Rare and Wonderful Vintage Children’s Book by the Head of NASA’s Public Affairs Office
Upside Down Day: Rare and Wonderful Vintage Children’s Book by the Head of NASA’s Public Affairs Office

An ode to those times when everything seems backwards.

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Artist Matt Freedman’s Courageous Visual Diary of Cancer
Artist Matt Freedman’s Courageous Visual Diary of Cancer

A graphic chronicle emanating honesty and humor — our two greatest weapons in the face of helplessness.

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The Backfire Effect: The Psychology of Why We Have a Hard Time Changing Our Minds
The Backfire Effect: The Psychology of Why We Have a Hard Time Changing Our Minds

How the disconnect between information and insight explains our dangerous self-righteousness.

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What the Science of “Sleep Paralysis” Reveals About How the Brain Works
What the Science of “Sleep Paralysis” Reveals About How the Brain Works

How a neurological nightmare illuminates the wondrous workings of the brain-body connection.

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The Dark Side of Certainty: Jacob Bronowski on the Spirit of Science and What Auschwitz Teaches Us About Our Compulsion for Control
The Dark Side of Certainty: Jacob Bronowski on the Spirit of Science and What Auschwitz Teaches Us About Our Compulsion for Control

“Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible… We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power.”

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The Science of Humor and the Humor of Science: A Brilliant 1969 Reflection on Laughter as Self-Defense Against Automation
The Science of Humor and the Humor of Science: A Brilliant 1969 Reflection on Laughter as Self-Defense Against Automation

“Our life has become so mechanized and electronified that one needs some kind of an elixir to make it bearable at all. And what is this elixir if not humor?”

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