Spoiler: Microbiomes in space!
Big Think has launched a line of apparel and goods that celebrate the life and work of four geniuses.
Here's why scary stories were once an integral part of Christmas Eve festivities.
- Gathering around a fire to share ghost stories was a beloved Christmas tradition in the late 1800s into the early 1900s.
- Victorians also sent bizarre Christmas cards with morbidly humorous designs featuring murderous frogs and anthropomorphic insects.
- Historically, December 25th has a close link to pre-Christian solstice festivals that viewed mid-winter as a time when light dies and the veil between the world of the living and dead is most thin.
Scientists are expert observers. Because of this, they can help us develop a keener view of the world — the cosmos.
- There are many people who have discomfort engaging with a scientific perspective of the world — for some, for instance, it conflicts with what they were taught during their religious upbringings.
- We can all gain a greater view of life — the cosmos — by getting to know scientists, especially when we're at an impasse in our lives.
- Scientists' view of the world retains a "distance" to it — it's observational, fact-driven. This helps with finding consistent principles in nature.
We live in contradiction. How we confront that fact matters.
- Absurdism is the philosophical school that recognizes the tension between meaning and a meaningless universe.
- Camus and Kierkegaard wrote extensively on the topic, though modern thinkers continue to contribute to the literature of the Absurd.
- In a politically divided time, the Absurd has come to the forefront of national discussion.