The affair that began with two suppressed tapes and open warnings to TEDx organizers that they must not step outside mainstream science has run its course. I imagine that TED now realizes there are more toes to be stepped on than Dawkins'.
When we chat with friends about food and drink, the word "calorie" inevitably works its way into the conversation. The calorie these days seems more concrete and real than ever before, commanding respect and fear.
When a body of tested scientific knowledge is said to be "only a theory," the scientific meaning of the word is perverted with the effect of trivializing issues that may have life and death consequences for the entire world.
Science and religion then have far more in common than many would like to admit. They are both looking into an external past for a truth that can only be found in an internal present.
The Grand Design exposes a major departure on the part of physicists arising from the realization that there is no single theory, or for that reason, a single reality, that can be ascribed to the universe.
Stephen Hawking has stated that he believes aliens exist. But where are they all anyhow? And if they're traveling, will we be the next species to follow them into the unknown?
Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory claimed to have overcome the precepts of relativity and quantum mechanics. Wouldn't it be nice if Shel Silverstein were around to write a song about our metaphysical mess?