The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “science”

Poems of Space: Pioneering Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell Reads “Halley’s Comet” by Stanley Kunitz
Poems of Space: Pioneering Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell Reads “Halley’s Comet” by Stanley Kunitz

An ode to the transcendent meeting point of outer space and inner space.

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Oliver Sacks on What a Pacific Island Can Teach Us About Treating Ill People as Whole People
Oliver Sacks on What a Pacific Island Can Teach Us About Treating Ill People as Whole People

On the redemptive acceptance of the terminally ill as “a living part of the community.”

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Descartes on Opinion vs. Reason, the Key to a Wakeful Mind, and the Discipline of Critical Introspection
Descartes on Opinion vs. Reason, the Key to a Wakeful Mind, and the Discipline of Critical Introspection

“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to apply it well.”

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The Trailblazing 18th-Century French Mathematician Émilie du Châtelet on Jealousy and the Metaphysics of Love
The Trailblazing 18th-Century French Mathematician Émilie du Châtelet on Jealousy and the Metaphysics of Love

“It is the privilege of affection to see a friend in all the situations of his soul.”

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The Heroism of Being a Contrarian: Jacob Bronowski on the Essential Character Trait of the Creative Person
The Heroism of Being a Contrarian: Jacob Bronowski on the Essential Character Trait of the Creative Person

“The creative personality is always one that looks on the world as fit for change and on himself as an instrument for change.”

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An 8-Year-Old Girl’s Poetic Tribute to Newton
An 8-Year-Old Girl’s Poetic Tribute to Newton

“Isaac Newton died when he was eighty-four, his ideas travel to develop more.”

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Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: A Lovely Children’s Book About the World’s First Computer Programmer
Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: A Lovely Children’s Book About the World’s First Computer Programmer

How a little girl with dreams of flying changed the world in footnotes.

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Mathematician Lillian Lieber on Infinity, Art, Science, the Meaning of Freedom, and What It Takes to Be a Finite But Complete Human Being
Mathematician Lillian Lieber on Infinity, Art, Science, the Meaning of Freedom, and What It Takes to Be a Finite But Complete Human Being

Mathematics and poetry converge in an ode to the “sweet reasonableness” at the heart of a psychologically balanced character.

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Our Smallness and the Cosmic Scale: How Big the Universe Is Relative to Us, Animated
Our Smallness and the Cosmic Scale: How Big the Universe Is Relative to Us, Animated

A humbling celestial reflection on what enlarges the minuteness of human life with meaning against the vast backdrop of the universe.

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The Measure of All Things: How Two French Astronomers Nearly Lost Their Lives Revolutionizing the World with the Invention of the Meter
The Measure of All Things: How Two French Astronomers Nearly Lost Their Lives Revolutionizing the World with the Invention of the Meter

“The fundamental fallacy of utopianism is to assume that everyone wants to live in the same utopia.”

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