From Einstein's Dreams  - An Excellent Merge of Science and Art

     Sometimes I wish that writing could be the bread and butter of my academic life.  I thought I'd be an English major when I first came to Mount Holyoke.  For better or for worse, my ambitions quickly turned to science, biology in particular.  I've also dabbled considerably with physics and chemistry.  That being said, I tend to pay close attention whenever I read something related to one of these areas of study.  I am quick to notice mistakes and judge an author who has not done enough careful research into a piece that makes heavy use of a branch of the physical sciences.

     This was a piece that delighted me.  I can appreciate both good writing and good science, but I have a particular fondness for when these things are combined in a piece that creates something more than the sum of its parts.  Alan Lightman understands the concept of time dilation, at least as much as I do and probably more.  He illustrates this concept with lovers, families, people who want the world to stay slow and still versus people who would rather escape the confines of a single everlasting moment.  He uses an interesting quirk of our natural world to create an imaginary world.  I love it when someone can play around with a scientific concept without doing anything to fumble their understanding of it.  This is a very pleasant pice of writing indeed.