What if you knew that 30 days after you die, the earth would be destroyed? Would it change the way you live? Take philosopher Samuel Scheffler's thought experiment HERE.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Jack El-Hai talks about Walter Freeman, the man who invented and promoted the surgical technique called the lobotomy.
James Watson, one of the discoverers of DNA's double-helix structure, talks with Steve Paulson about making the discovery and what sort of environment produces scientific breakthroughs.
Iris Chang is the author of “The Chinese in America: A Narrative History.” She talks with Steve Paulson about that history.
James Gleick's biography of the man who invented gravity, calculus and celestial mechanics, also reveals that Newton was the pre-eminent alchemist of his age.
In "Humans, Aliens and Autism" Ian Hacking analyzes the use of the alien metaphor as applied to people with autism.
J.G. Ballard’s futuristic 1975 novel, “High Rise, is about a group of people living in a luxury high-rise apartment building where neighbors organize themselves according to their respective social classes. Literally. The lower class lives on the lower floors, the middle class in the middle and the upper class occupies the most luxurious apartments on the highest floors. Tribal-class warfare ensues. Here’s an excerpt.
If you’re looking for the model of a compassionate doctor, you could start with James Orbinski. As a former member – and president – of Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, he’s served in some of the world’s desperate places. He writes about his experiences in the book “An Imperfect Offering.”
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