Groundwater and Gravity

4/20:   I write an email to a scientist.   I explain that I work in an old building that sits in a sort of pit, partly surrounded by a hill.  Midway along the hill is a little terrace on which is a street, and along the street, a sidewalk and a wire fence; and they’re all [...]

Blammo! Yay! Lists!

One year ago today, the People of LWON published their first post. It was by Josie Glausiusz, it was on flesh-eating algae, and we thank her for setting that tone. Writing LWON — that is, writing what we want to and in the way we want to write it — turns out to be a [...]

Talking Universe Blues, Part 1

(This post is the first in a three-part series. “Talking Universe Blues” will continue over the next two Fridays.) “Does gravity exist in other universes?” The question, I admit, stumped me. Did she—fourth row, on the aisle—mean that gravity might be leaking into our universe from a parallel universe? Unlikely. Her puzzled, perhaps lost, expression didn’t [...]

Must Come Down

About ten years ago I was killing time in the sprawling Barnes & Noble on Union Square in Manhattan.  I had pushed my chair away from a little table, crossed my legs, and opened a book on my lap.  I don’t remember which book.  I can’t even remember whether it was one I’d grabbed off [...]

Abstruse Goose: Molecule

I’ve often had the same thought myself.  You have too, haven’t you. http://abstrusegoose.com/208