Alan Lightman

Jun 4, 2023 | pressherald.com | Amy MacDonald |Alan Lightman |Elisa Boxer |Betty Culley

Two picture books and a middle-grade novel use mysterious ants, the plight of a sea turtle, and the lure of the “invisible” world to draw young readers into their stories. “Isabel and the Invisible World”By Alan LightmanIllustrated by Ramona KaulitzkiMIT Kids Press 2023, 44 pages$18.99Age: 4-6 For any child, the notion of an “invisible world” is a rich one, filled with fears, fantasies, possibilities, wishes, dreams and dreads.

Jun 2, 2023 | bigthink.com | Alan Lightman

The Well — Spiritual experiences can be explained in terms of a highly evolved brain. But they also can be extremely meaningful. Key Takeaways The great physicist Isaac Newton was a strong believer in God, as was essentially everyone in his day.

May 11, 2023 | nybooks.com | Alan Lightman

Reviewed: Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick Pantheon, 531 pp., $27.50 Richard Feynman was the Michael Jordan of physics. His intellectual leaps, seemingly weightless, defied explanation.

Apr 26, 2023 | press.princeton.edu | Alan Lightman

I live less than a mile from Walden Pond. There, in the woods on the east side of the pond, Thoreau built his small cabin and wrote his great book. It is probably true that Thoreau left his cabin from time to time to walk into the town of Concord, one mile away, to see his family and others. But for the vast majority of the two years, he remained in that cabin alone, thinking, writing, and simply experiencing life.

Mar 30, 2023 | nautil.us | Alan Lightman

One morning in Maine, soon after dawn, I stood by the ocean just as a light fog began moving in. The rising sun became a gauzy fire. Suddenly, the air started to glow. Fog scattered the sunlight, bounced it around and back and forth until each cupful of air shone with its own source of light. In all directions, the air beamed and shimmered and glowed, and the gulls stopped their squawking and the ospreys became quiet. For some time, I stood there spellbound by the silence and the glowing air.