Wonder on the Web

Issue 33: Links to amazing stuff.

The Story of Sharks

If you have a fear of the sharks that reside in our oceans today, you may not want to click over to see what their predecessors looked like. But we think you’d miss out on a fascinating read: how sharks have survived many global shifts, the odd features of their ancient species, and the megalodon that “made the great white shark look like a goldfish in comparison.”

The Likeness of God

Realism in portraiture is not fashionable in modern art. And yet, there’s innate theological value in displaying likeness in portraiture, as a Mockingbird essay reflecting on the work of Christian painter Catherine Prescott finds:

Second-century church father Irenaeus, who had perhaps too much to say on the topic of the image and likeness of God, suggested that even though we often think that the Son of God was made in the image of man, the truth is that man was made in the image and likeness of the begotten, not made Son of God. The Son of God (alias: the Word) shows us who we were modeled after and restores us to our intended likeness.

Looking through Prescott’s portraits, we think you’ll say, Amen.

On the Torsion of Species

“Life is a mess,” says David Kaplan in the beginning of his latest “In Theory” video for Quanta magazine. A beautiful, extravagant mess. We’d love to organize organisms into simple boxes called species. But the more we learn, the harder that is to do. You’d think that genetic analysis would help us draw clearer lines. But no.

Honorable Mentions: Autumn Poems

We wholeheartedly agree with L. M. Montgomery’s character Anne Shirley when she says, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it? Look at these maple branches. Don’t they give you a thrill—several thrills?”

Autumn makes poets out of us all, which means we had a number of delightful fall poems to choose from for this issue. Here are some of them:

Day in Autumn,” Rainer Maria Rilke
October” and “After Apple-Picking,” Robert Frost
September, 1918,” Amy Lowell
Autumn Psalm,” Jacqueline Osherow

And from a fall 2014 issue of The Behemoth: “Hurrahing in Harvest,” by Gerard Manley Hopkins (and the accompanying essay we published with it).

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Also in this Issue

Issue 33 / October 15, 2015
  1. Editor's Note from October 15, 2015

    Issue 33: Martian gardens, making choices in Colombia, and a relatively instantaneous trip. /

  2. Can We Farm Mars? Should We?

    We’ve found evidence of flowing water. Next up: Planting crops? /

  3. The Breaking with Dawn

    Can I have the meteor shower and the sunrise? Must a moment cost me? /

  4. A Ray of Light: The Timeless Life of a Photon

    The journey of 15 quintillion miles would seem instantaneous. /

  5. The Autumn

    ‘For every breath that stirs the trees, /Doth cause a leaf to fall.’ /

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