To what extent does the future govern the present in our lives? In an earlier blog (Time: Real and Imagined; January 2, 2016), I raised this question. Let’s say I was guaranteed (impossible, of course) that I would live an extended life, but I was also assured that planet Earth would be destroyed a year [...]
Ask yourself to distinguish between a novelist and a scientist. You will no doubt say that the novelist writes narratives derived from his or her imagination and past experiences. Novelists thrive on subjectivity. The scientist, you may say, probes nature objectively, and keeps an arm’s length away from subjectivity. The writer depends on himself to [...]
In her comprehensive biography, The Invention of Nature (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016), Andrea Wulf tells how Alexander Humboldt (1769 -1859) was the first to understand that the natural world “was interwoven as with ‘a thousand threads’.” Humboldt saw “unity in variety.” He was the first to consider different plants, animals and inanimate nature interdependent and [...]
Perspective is a tricky, subjective devil, suggesting a relative hierarchy. Most would say a person’s perspective reflects what he or she recognizes and believes is most important. When complaining about this or that, I commonly put my mind at rest by telling myself to relax and “keep some perspective.” At times I have joked about [...]
Think back on your life. What stands out? What do you remember first, and then what comes to you more slowly as you reconstruct your memories? Or, what made you choose one or another event among the thousands that comprise your life? This was one of the challenges I faced when writing my memoirs. I [...]
I remember when at the dawn of my career in science a lady I met for the first time at a social occasion deduced correctly by my name that my father was the world-famous cellist, Gregor Piatigorsky. Then, she took me by surprise by asking in a deadpan, serious voice, “Are you a failure like [...]
