”The public has a distorted view of science because children are taught in school that science is a collection of firmly established truths. In fact, science is not a collection of truths. It is a continuing exploration of mysteries.”

— Freeman Dyson

BIRTHDAYS:

1697 Jean-Marie Leclair l’aîné (Jean-Marie Leclair the Elder), French Baroque violinist and composer. Violin Concertto in D Minor, Op. 7, no. 1

1727 Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, French economist and statesman (First Minister of State 1774-76)

1754 Asmus Jakob Carstens, Danish-German Neoclassical painter.

1866 Léon Bakst, Russian painter and scene and costume designer.

1873 Carl Eldh, Swedish artist and sculptor.

1898 Ariel Durant, Ukrainian-born American researcher and writer. She was the coauthor of The Story of Civilization with her husband, Will Durant. They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

1926 Oliver Selfridge, English-American computer scientist and leading artificial intelligence researcher known as the “father of machine perception”

1969 John Scalzi, American science fiction writer (Old Man’s War, Redshirts).

MISCELLANEOUS:

ATTENTION STARGAZERS. This Week’s Sky at a Glance, May 9 – 18

THE COVID 19 INJECTIONS AND LOCKDOWNS BEGAN ON MARCH 15, 2020. THE TRAGEDY THAT ENSUED WAS ENTIRELY AVOIDABLE. TO ANYONE CONSIDERING DOING THIS AGAIN IN THE FUTURE – HERE IS YOUR HOMEWORK READING ASSIGNMENT:

Nuremberg Code (1947)

Disease Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza (2006)

Great Barrington declaration (2020)