There is a category of object that has to be got right first time, and a large bell is among the more demanding examples.
It is cast in one piece…
The distinction worth holding is between measuring and comparing. A ruler asserts a length and can be wrong about it. The instruments below compare one thing against another, or against…
Almost everything strange about smell follows from two facts: it is chemistry rather than physics, and it takes an unusually direct route into the brain. Here are twelve consequences.
1.…
There is a category of biological feature that only makes sense as a leftover, and the third molars are the most familiar example.
They appear late, typically in the late…
There is a particular kind of double-take that everyone has experienced. A washing machine looks startled. A car in a car park appears smug. A pattern in wood grain resolves,…
Sound behaves very differently in water than in air, and most of the differences are counterintuitive.
It travels roughly four to five times faster. It carries very much further. And,…