The Alchemy of What Moves Us

What Is (Was) Alchemy?∗

A serious scientific journal seems to be the wrong place for a paper on alchemy. However, we believe that the history of science includes knowledge of the complex relations between specific scientific disciplines and what is called the “world-view” (Weltanschauung): the image of the world corresponding to a given stage of cultural development. The world-view, born of the “marriage” of Aristotle...

What moves us? How mobility and movement are at the center of human evolution.

Movement is central to the survival of all free-living organisms. Consequently, movement and what anthropologists often refer to as mobility, which is the sum of small-scale movements tracked across larger geographic and temporal scales, are key targets of selection. Movement and mobility also underpin many of the key features that make us human and that allowed our lineage to adapt to changing...

Alchemy and Uncertainty: What Good Are Models?

Bunnell, Fred L. 1989. Alchemy and uncertainty: what good are models? Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-232. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 27 p. Wildlife-habitat models are increasing in abundance, diversity, and use, but symptoms of failure are evident in their application, including misuse, disuse, failure to test, and litigation. Reas...

"What We Feel, and What Doth us Befall": A Study of Letter Motif in Macbeth 

The present essay is an attempt to scrutinize Macbeth's letter to Lady Macbeth formalistically with much care and seek hints which may lead us back and forth to understand what befell before and after the composition and emission of the letter. The letter seems to help us plunge into Macbeth's consciousness, and of course later to that of Lady Macbeth; it is a transparent aid to perceive the hi...

US moves to improve health decisions.