"Physics in My Generation" is a collection of essays, on scientific philosophy and social topics, by Max Born. It was published (2nd revised edition) in 1969, and collects essays from 1921 to 1966. Born is an interesting thinker and writer. This book of his essays has been my frequent reading companion for the past month. Now that I've finished ( Read more... )

"As alike as peas in a pod" is a familiar saying. Is it true? Today was the beginning of pea harvest in our garden, so I set out to test that hypothesis. A peapod and a camera were all the equipment needed ( Read more... )

On page 45 of his book "Stars: Their Birth, Life and Death", I. Shklovskii states an interesting operational definition of vacuum: A volume of space is operationally a vacuum, if a particle is likely to be able to traverse that space without colliding with other particles ( Read more... )

On holidays, I took along a really thin book - the writings of Epicurus. Epicurus was a prolific author but we have very few of his writings - three short letters that were included by Laertius in his lives of the philosophers to indicate Epicurus' views on scientific method, meteorology (including astronomy), and ethics - the proper conduct of ( Read more... )