Other Science News

Perhaps it is the fact that my grandson is visiting, but this piece from Marginalia caught my eye. It is the background story of Ferdinand the Bull, whom I first met as a child in the book and Disney short.

“There are times when I’m walking down the street in New York, just feeling the force of the earth on my feet, and the sheer improbability of this chain of events stops me in my tracks: None of this had to be.

Background

“This is as good as science itself can get us. We can describe the biological functions of a fertilized egg, and the abilities of a fetus as it develops slowly into a person.

Well, this was sure eye-opening.

“Most medical communications are difficult to read. To determine why, contributions to three issues of the New England Journal of Medicine were studied, and the prose analyzed.

“Humans, it seems, have far fewer genes than had been expected — in fact, only a third more than the lowly roundworm. How can this be? And what does it mean?

“The paucity of my listening powers dawned on me as a byproduct of starting to meditate.

“One chilly November morning in 1964, the Medical Expedition to Easter Island set out from Halifax on a Canadian Navy vessel. On board were microbiologists, virologists, parasitologists, medical doctors and 200 sailors.