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.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Siberia is enormous, but Ian Frazier has crossed it all, from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, in a barely functioning van.
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.
Chuck Lakin is a home funeral educator. As a woodworker, he's designed wooden coffins, including some that can be used as furniture until they're needed. Here, he shares some of his favorite resources with information about funeral and burial options.
James Bradley tells what happened on the next island over from Iwo Jima, where eight American airmen were captured and beheaded.
Cary Sudler returns to his ancestral home to apologize to the black members of his family for the injustice of slavery
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.
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