Talking with New Hampshire Public Radio’s Word of Mouth presenter Virginia Prescott about the twin boom on 19 September…
Talking with New Hampshire Public Radio’s Word of Mouth presenter Virginia Prescott about the twin boom on 19 September…
IN Greek mythology, twins Castor and Pollux are so tightly bound that when mortal Castor dies, divine Pollux surrenders half his immortality to stay with him, and the pair are transformed into the constellation Gemini. In a modern reversal of the myth, twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly were reunited in March after Scott returned from a year’s stint on the International Space Station – an event eagerly awaited by medical researchers who saw their chance to conduct tests on the twins to assess the effects of space on the human body…
This article first appeared in Aeon on 18 August 2016. To continue reading, click here.
In English at last: Swiss writer Charles Ferdinand Ramuz’s magnificent 1937 novel Si le soleil ne revenait pas, or What if the sun… as translator Michelle Bailat-Jones has rendered the title. Read more here.
MAX PLANCK, the inventor of quantum theory, once said that science advances one funeral at a time. He meant—or, at least, is presumed to have meant—that the death of a dominant mind in a field liberates others with different points of view to make their cases more freely, without treading on the toes of established authority. It might also rearrange patterns of funding, for they, too, often reflect established hierarchies…
This article first appeared in The Economist on 26 March 2016. To continue reading, click here.
IMPERIAL War Museum, London, 4 May 2016. China’s participation in the First World War was a defining moment in modern Chinese and world history and the beginning of China’s journey toward internationalisation. The aim of this symposium was to extend the dimensions of our collective memory of the war – and the ensuing ‘flu pandemic – along with investigations of the significance of these to China’s subsequent role in international relations. Held on May Fourth, the date of the symposium commemorates the May Fourth Revolution which followed China’s betrayal at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919…
I spoke at the symposium on the possible Chinese origins of the flu that wasn’t Spanish.