Time’s Mysteries
Auld Lang Time
Thursday, December 31st, 2009New Year’s Eve is the proper moment to contemplate time. There is nothing logical in this. There is no great discontinuity in anything but our calendar as the clock strikes twelve but the feeling is right. All the better if eyes are bathed, as mine are now, in the ancient light of far away stars. [...]
Boltzmann’s Grave
Saturday, August 1st, 2009Ludwig Boltzmann died on September 5, 1906 and was buried in his hometown of Vienna. His monument is dominated by an imposing bushy-bearded bust that stares down glowering. Above that bust is a single line, a mathematical equation first formulated by Boltzmann- S = k log W. Besides the fact that this appears at a [...]