On Monday, Richard kicks off the week by giving history the finger. Galileo’s finger, that is: The middle finger of Galileo’s right hand is a satisfying sight. Not because the resemblance to an obscene gesture is unmistakable (though that’s pretty amusing). And not because such a gesture might suggest that in the end a scientist who suffered persecution for the sin of being correct had gotten the last word—well, two words (though that would be amusing, too).
It would be fun to walk with Helen, she’s always seeing interesting things. This time she’s on her way home from the library and she sees one of her favorite biological events. The 17-year-cicadas are in a genus called Magicicada. It does seem almost like magic to me, or maybe science fiction, the way our timelines line up for just a few weeks, as if we were on planets whose orbits cross only once every 17 years.
Erik tells himself he is ruled by logic. He has written about the benefits of vaccines and herd immunity. And then he takes his kid to the doctor: The sight of one little needle turns me into a raging antivaxxer.
Jessa writes about a researcher who studies plant roots in hopes of addressing the growing global demand for food: The stakes are higher than hunger. Plot the Food Price Index for all of the years of the 21st Century and you get a timeline of social and political instability. Just before major unrest, there’s reliably a spike in food prices.
And Friday, I reduxed a post about a weather phenomenon known as June Gloom (which is also know in the Pacific Northwest, very delightfully, as Juneuary). Hope the weather and your spirits are sunnier this weekend.
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Photo: NASA Blueshift via Wikimedia Commons