Share this on WhatsApp In a recent column, I speculated that the coronavirus pandemic will make us more socialist, by which I mean simply that governments take more from the rich and give more to poor. I specified that this shift would be consistent with democracy. Now, following my pattern of veering between Pollyannaism and dread, I’ll consider whether […]
Share this on WhatsApp A year ago, as we contemplated the prospect of weeks or months sheltering in place, we thought up a novel community service project. People were stuck at home. Could we help them use their free time to learn a valuable new skill? Could we teach an online course for thousands centered […]
Share this on WhatsApp When astronomers discovered the first worlds orbiting other stars thirty years ago, they also began taking what might be called the galactic planetary census, tallying up the numbers and types of exoplanets in the Milky Way. Although it’s infeasible to thoroughly survey all of our galaxy’s hundreds of billions of stars, […]
