Lives on Earth

science

  • Humboldt’s Vision of Nature

    Our ecological imagination—our sense of nature as a global, interconnected and sacred whole—has roots in many sources. A relatively unfamiliar one is the work of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), a manic, prolific explorer and naturalist of the German Romantic era. Humboldt’s… Continue reading

  • Chet Raymo on Santa Claus, Hot Stoves, and the Blooming, Buzzing Confusion

    We cannot live without some sorts of make-believe in our lives. Without made-up maps of the world, life is a buzzing, blooming confusion. Some elements of our mental maps (Santa Claus) satisfy emotional or aesthetic inner needs; other elements of… Continue reading

  • Our Talky Mind

    Stream of consciousness is a common term for it. Mind wandering and daydreaming are others. More narrowly, self-talk refers to our constructive or negative mental judgments of ourselves. Default mode network, from neurology, names the interacting regions of the brain that… Continue reading

  • Hope Jahren’s ‘Lab Girl’ and the Dramatic Life of Plants

    People admire plants, but we don’t easily relate to them. We don’t sympathize with a plant’s struggles, nor do we particularly identify with any one plant the way we might empathize with our pet dog or cat. Compare the range… Continue reading

  • Finding Spirituality in Science

    I presented this lecture at the college and community Science Seminar at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey in January 2016. My thanks to Dr. Paul Scheuler, organizer of the series. The talk focuses on three questions about life… Continue reading

  • Religion for Atheists

    In his 2012 book Religion for Atheists, Alain de Botton has this message for atheists: don’t let your outrage at religion blind you to its wisdom about suffering and its contributions to culture. Religions (in the book, mostly Christianity, some Judaism… Continue reading

  • Spirituality From Science

    Several pieces of scientific information have been important to me in finding perspective and direction in my life. This information is spiritual to me, which is to say that it gives me a sense of having a meaningful place in… Continue reading