The book is primarily a biography, but views its subject through the lens of science and writing efforts. Clear lines are drawn between Poe’s life events, the scientific community’s academic conversation, and Poe’s literary output. From “Sonnet-To Science” to this cosmological treatise Eureka, Poe diligently worked to bring the ethereal nature of poetry and the tangible study of sciences.
REVIEW: MAKING THE MONSTER
Two hundred years ago, a young woman — barely more than a teenager — wrote a daring novel that questioned the limits of science and discovery, and challenged notions of agency, self, family and moral obligation. Her character created a monster, but she fabricated something much more complicated.
ACCENT: AMERICAN ECLIPSE
A total solar eclipse is coming on August 21, 2017. The last time America experienced one like it was 1878. In the days of the Industrial Revolution, the western expansion, and explosive empirical discovery, America was eager to show well-heeled European scientists that they too could conduct successful observations.
REVIEW: MASTERMIND by Maria Konnikova
I’ve read all the books, watched all the movies and the TV episodes. My sister and I were even Holmes and Watson one Halloween. I try to apply his logic in my daily life — mostly just for fun. And still I have not been able to determine how Sherlock survived the Reichenbach Fall (a…
In a Word | Futility Closet
nescience n. ignorance; lack of knowledge agnoiology n. the study of ignorance In 1927, Hungarian physiologist Albert Szent-Györgyi isolated a substance in lemons and oranges that seemed to prevent scurvy. He couldn’t identify it chemically, so he called it “ignose,” meaning “I do not know.” When the editors of the Biochemical Journal asked for a…