• QFT: The World is Stranger Than You Thought

    Beginning with studies of electromagnetism, scientists have come to understand reality in such a way that there really is no such thing as tiny bits of matter that exist independently and that cannot be divided. Atomism (in any traditional sense) is dead. Reality is not what we thought it was.

  • On the Importance of Forgetting

    Most attention in our culture is given to the importance of remembering. But it turns out that forgetting can be just as important. The inability to forget can be as destructive as the inability to remember.

  • The History of the Multiple-Choice Question

    The same forces that gave us the Model-T also gave us “Which of the following best completes the sentence?” And the multiple-choice question became an essential tool for the new educational theories of the industrial age.

  • Origami, Neusis and Angle Trisection

    The history of mathematics tells us that oftentimes approved technique is as much a matter of philosophical commitments and aesthetic sensibilities as it is a matter of pure utility.