Philip Ball’s latest book is Beyond Weird, about quantum mechanics.
Few writers have seemed less likely to produce a modern myth than Bram Stoker, not only because of the limits of his ability and imagination but because for much of his life he was furiously overworked as house manager for Henry Irving’s Lyceum Theatre in London. Aside from Dracula, Stoker wrote nothing of note, and plenty that was excruciating. ‘There is a semi-heroic,...
Chemical reactions reflect human dramas, which reflect celestial movements, which reflect the mind of the divine. The alchemist’s lab work and the philosophy were inextricable: working with material...
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