The Mechanics of Asteroid Deflection

Number of words: 341 Didymos, a 2,650-foot-wide asteroid, has an atypical cosmic companion— a 535 foot-wide satellite named Didymoon (10). These new two celestial bodies are not making a dangerous rendezvous with Earth, but they do provide an interesting opportunity for an apocalyptic dress rehearsal. NASA and ESA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will head … Read more

The Moral Hazard of Corporate Bailouts: A Critical Review

Number of words: 802 The U.S. government is enacting measures to save the airlines, Boeing, and similarly affected corporations. While we clearly insist that these companies must be saved, there may be ethical, economic, and structural problems associated with the details of the execution. As a matter of fact, if you study the history of … Read more

The Unraveling of Authority: Derozio’s Impact on Society

Number of words: 1,405 In April 1831, a bunch of Calcutta’s notables, bhadralok in local parlance, all managing committee members of Hindu College (later, Presidency College and now, Presidency University), met. They had to decide the fate of a young professor in the educational institution they ran—a young man who was part-Portuguese, part-English, and part-Indian. … Read more

The Evolution of Scientific Thought and Nature

Number of words: 83 Before the seventeenth century, the goals of science were wisdom, understanding the natural order, and living in harmony with it. In the seventeenth century this attitude, which could call as an ecological attitude, changed into its opposite. Ever since Bacon the goal of science and technology has been knowledge that can … Read more