Nina and I were in the Rock 'n' Roll section of a used record store. (Yes, such places still exist.) "Papa," she said, "What about the Doors?" "Hm," I said. "Heavy emphasis on poetic lyrics. Surrealism. But with a spooky psychedelic late 60s sound." "Oh," she said....

"Oh dear," the doctor said, studying the grid of hot itchy bumps on the back of my arm. He singled one out and poked it. "This little fellow, this is tree pollen. But this big guy here is the real culprit. Ragweed." I'd already told him I was allergic to ragweed, a...

It’s amazing the things you learn from a newspaper. A couple of weeks ago, in these very pages, I read about a worrisome rise in the abuse of two illegal drugs: bath salts and synthetic marijuana. Synthetic marijuana sounded pretty bad, but I was alarmed -- and...

There’s nothing like the smell of a brand new hardcover, fresh from the printer: the bland acidity of pristine paper; the inky sharpness of the dustjacket; a subtle hint of glue. The hardcover in question this week is Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms, a...

In fine spring weather, and in the company of one or more of her human companions, Brooke, the basset hound, will mince daintily across the threshold of the French doors, traverse the wide purple Trex planks of the back porch, toenails clacking, and settle in the...

I’ll admit to being one of those boys who dreamed of walking out the front door, strapping on a jetpack, and flying loop-the-loops over the neighborhood Or if not a jetpack, then perhaps a flying car, maybe a bubble-topped model like George Jetson’s; or,...

The man at the other end of the table closed his laptop and thrust it into its case. “Colossal waste of time,” he muttered. The rest of us looked up in amusement. We all felt it, too, but there were rules in the Quiet Room. One of them, apparently, was no...

A few weeks ago, Harvard University and MIT announced a new joint venture called edX, an experiment in online learning that promises to throw open the gates of these elite institutions and make world-class educational content available -- for free -- to anyone who...

You know you’re living in modern times when the chatter at the bakery counter isn’t about weather, or politics, or even the high price of gasoline, but instead about Facebook’s I.P.O “I’m thinking of getting me some of that Facebook...

Two years ago, in these pages, I wrote about an amazing feat of robotic engineering. It was the summer of Deepwater Horizon. We didn’t know the full extent of the spill at the time, which would eventually be tallied in millions of barrels of crude, but the...

An event like last week’s solar transit of Venus tends to make a splash in our neighborhood in Baltimore, which is about a mile up the road from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI), headquarters of the Hubble Space Telescope. On Tuesday, while...

As tall ships and fireworks mark the bicentennial of the War of 1812, the conflict that gave Perry County its name by way of the naval hero Oliver Hazard Perry, it’s worth asking a simple question: Why don’t we remember that war very well? The War of 1812...

Unlike my daughter, I’m not a huge fan of the circus, but one of the most thrilling live performances I’ve ever seen involved a family of seven, a wobbling human pyramid, and a high wire. This was in Sarasota, Florida, once the winter home of the Barnum...

Last Thursday, with a media circus in full swing on its famous marble steps, the Supreme Court handed down a fascinating decision. And no, I’m not talking about the very sensible affirmation of the Affordable Health Care Act. I mean instead the repeal of the...

For the record, I am not proud of any of this. The scenario: a July parking lot; an oven of a car, the air conditioner blowing hot air in my face; a truly obnoxious driver. The “obnoxious driver,” in this case, is the jerk in the Volvo waiting for my...