Alex Beam remembers my dad and his tradition: Boston is awash in tourism “trails,’’ such as the Freedom Trail, the Women’s Heritage Trail, and so on. Just recently, Emerson College journalism professor Manny Paraschos created the Boston Journalism Trail, celebrating his contention that “Boston is the birthplace of American journalism.’’ It may well be. Our… Continue reading

Excellent article in the Times Literary Supplement about the work of one of my favorite authors, Alice Munro. When The View from Castle Rock appeared in 2006, Alice Munro was widely quoted as saying she thought the book would be her last, suggesting that at the age of seventy-five she might not “have the energy… Continue reading

Larry Moran has a great post on the dangers of taking science headline grabbers too seriously. In this case, early claims in the 1990s that life originated 3.5 billion years ago…. What does all this tell us about early life? It tells us that the evidence for life before 3 billion years ago is being… Continue reading

Oh boy, I’m in trouble now. From the latest Science Random Samples: Scientists at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, have unsettling news from what they say is the first-ever study of chronic multitaskers. A team headed by psychologist Eyal Ophir compared 19 “heavy media multitaskers” (HMMs), identified by questionnaires on media use, with 22… Continue reading

Meanwhile, Moon based research projects are not exactly encouraging. From this week’s Nature News briefing: Lunar losses: India formally abandoned its first lunar orbiter on 30 August, after scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) abruptly lost radio contact with the probe. Chandrayaan-1 , launched last year to map the Moon, ended its mission… Continue reading