Writer
Jonathan H. Esensten
Latest Content
Teach Ignorance, Too
PASADENA—Albert Einstein spent some of his last years stalking the wide, palm-lined avenues of this sunny town. According to local
Let’s Be Negative
There is a dark joke among scientists that if an experiment works right the first time, there must be something
A Virus’ First Victim
Students have quarantined themselves to allay the fears of their roommates. Travel to certain areas is officially discouraged by the
Death to Intelligent Design
Just months before he died, Harvard professor Stephen J. Gould co-signed a letter with his scientific rival Richard Dawkins. In
Let's Repeat the Obvious on Israel
Being a Zionist has never been easy. It means having to constantly repeat the obvious without sounding shrill or tedious.
Anthrax? Censor It, Quick
What if Osama is reading the scientific literature? That’s the question the editors of some of the world’s top science
God in the Genes?
For most scientists, God is irrelevant. And that is a very good thing. When science and religion intersect, an unseemly
The Broken Phallus of Harvard Yard
The only thing more surprising than the rapid erection of a nine-foot tall snow phallus in Harvard Yard last week
Enforcing Cell Phone Etiquette
Rinng! Rinng! It’s shopping period, and the cell phones are back, interrupting lectures, concerts and dinners with their incessant beeps,
No Israeli Science Boycott
In the latest example of resurgent European anti-Semitism, administrators at the University of Paris 6 (which specializes in natural sciences)
It’s Time for a Class War
Forget Iraq. The real axis of evil extends from the boardrooms of corporate America right to the Oval Office. Not
Aliens, Clones, the News at Ten
What’s scarier than sects that worship space aliens and obsess over cloning humans? Perhaps it’s that a well-known science journalist
Does Your Cereal Kill Insects?
Soccer, six-week vacations and socialism are particular European obsessions. However, not all European preoccupations are so innocuous. Breakfast cereal, for
Larry Says: Let’s Get Rich
How is former Chinese leader and Communist Party chief Deng Xiaoping like University President Lawrence H. Summers? It’s not their
One Pill, Two Days, No Sleep
Sleep is just a waste of time. Let’s be honest. Hitting the sack for eight hours every night is just
