It’s not one thing, but another
Our astronomer adds some complication to the season.
Articles Tagged with perception
Plato’s fallacy
Education is good, but it has its limits
A scientist cautions against the idea behind the philosopher-king.
Extremes
They need not actually be spectacular
Our astronomer, somewhat reluctantly, talks about the Supermoon
The angle of the light
A photographer and appearances
Our photographer draws our attention to how differently the same objects appear in different light. It’s a lesson easily generalized.
Science and the long shot
Why new discoveries are over-hyped
We often hear of new scientific results that promise great things, especially in the health field, but then hear no more of them. Most scientific ideas don’t work out. Why, then, do we still hear the hype?
It doesn’t look like that
The universe is photoshopped
Our astronomer points out that that pictures of outer space don’t actually show what you’d see if you went there.
The scientific cult of personality
Do electrons care about Feynman?
Our chief consultant explores an unexpected feature of scientific magazines.
Why an f-stop?
It’s all the astronomers’ fault
Our photographic consultant is reminded how complicated things are for beginners, no matter how straightforward it all seems to the professionals.
Thinking in stories
The limits of doing your science in metaphors
It’s vital not to confuse an illuminating explanation of science with the science itself.
Business books
A different form of literature
Our consultants encounter a type of writing that seems terribly strange, until they realize what it’s for.