SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " puzzle " 100 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Sign in to save shuffle history.
Sunday Puzzle: 'In' at the Finish
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle along with Weekend Edition Puzzlemaster Will Shortz and WVIA listener Mary Ann Paulukonis of Pittston, Pennsylvania.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 26, 2026, puzzle No. 733
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
NYT Strands hints, answers for September 13, 2026
Every hint, nudge and outright answer you need to complete today's NYT Strands puzzle.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 19, 2026, puzzle No. 756
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Scoring more last piece of Crewe puzzle
Crewe's attempt to score more this season is the "last piece of the puzzle" to add to their unbeaten start to League Two, says assistant boss Ryan Dicker.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 13, 2026, puzzle No. 750
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Resident Evil Requiem Writer Teases DLC Plans, Immediately Says He Probably Shouldn't Have
Screenwriter Haris Orkin has teased plans for Resident Evil Requiem’s DLC.
Rangers Face Major Obstacles in Potential Seager Trade
A looming work stoppage, Corey Seager’s ironclad no-trade rights, and a massive contract create a complex puzzle for the Texas Rangers as they weigh moving their star shortstop.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 16, 2026, puzzle No. 723
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 4, 2026, puzzle No. 741
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 5, 2026, puzzle No. 742
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 21, 2026, puzzle No. 728
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Sunday Puzzle: So-so
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe and WYPR listener Katherine Jakuta of Baltimore, Maryland play the puzzle with Weekend Edition puzzle master Will Shortz.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 18, 2026, puzzle No. 725
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 8, 2026, puzzle No. 745
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Will AI change who gets ahead?
Why women’s AI fluency could become an increasingly important factor in leadership, visibility and career opportunity Editor’s note: This Leading Fearlessly column first appeared in the Fearless e-newsletter on Sept. 14. I was recently catching up with a former colleague who told me she was avoiding “getting on the AI bandwagon.” Her comment puzzled me.…
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 22, 2026, puzzle No. 759
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 16, 2026, puzzle No. 753
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
NYT Strands hints, answers for September 26, 2026
Every hint, nudge and outright answer you need to complete today's NYT Strands puzzle.
NYT Strands Answers Today: Hints & Clues For Sunday, October 4 (Grab Your Tokens)
Looking for help with today's NYT Strands puzzle? Here's an extra hint to help you uncover the right words, as well as all of today's answers and Spangram.
Jon Gruden Questions Steelers’ Offensive Line Chaos Amid Struggles: ‘Why?’
Jon Gruden has seen plenty of offensive lines during his coaching career; however, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ current setup has left him genuinely puzzled. The former head coach watched the unit shuffle players between positions through the offseason and into the regular season, and now the results are becoming harder to ignore. The Steelers entered the […] The post Jon Gruden Questions Steelers’ Offensive Line Chaos Amid Struggles: ‘Why?’ appeared first on Gridiron Heroics.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 9, 2026, puzzle No. 746
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
NYT Strands hints, answers for October 4, 2026
Every hint, nudge and outright answer you need to complete today's NYT Strands puzzle.
🧩 Grêmio puzzle: Renato tests options to solve problem
Grêmio coach Renato Gaúcho has been using the FIFA break to test options and find the best setup for the midfield.The Tricolor manager knows he will not be able to count on the suspended Noriega in ...
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 23, 2026, puzzle No. 760
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 19, 2026, puzzle No. 726
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 17, 2026, puzzle No. 754
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Mobile Trivia Launch Could Matter For AMC Stock And AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC)
AMC Entertainment Holdings recently introduced AMC Movie Trivia Game Show, a free mobile app created with Hoyt Games and puzzle designer David L. Hoyt, offering daily movie-themed puzzles and thousands of trivia challenges across major app stores. The game links directly to AMC Stubs, turning loyalty membership into in-app bonuses that could deepen engagement with frequent moviegoers and digital audiences. We will now look at how AMC Entertainment Holdings' investment narrative interacts...
ADHD and autism diagnoses have surged. A massive study may help explain why
A large Danish study found that children diagnosed with ADHD or autism today more closely resemble their peers in the general population than those diagnosed 10 years ago. The shift suggests that rising diagnosis rates may partly reflect broader identification and changing diagnostic patterns, rather than only an increase in the underlying conditions.
A Girlhood Museum: Look into ‘Warm, Cozy and Whimsy’ Bedroom
A giant beanbag chair sits in the corner of Emily Arjune’s bedroom, positioned just at the perfect angle to face her television. Nearby, a furry red Spider-Man lamp casts a warm glow over a collection of artwork, greenery, completed puzzles and knickknacks. The room is more than a place to sleep between classes at the …
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 21, 2026, puzzle No. 758
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Scientists find a new layer of Alzheimer’s hidden in the genome
Scientists found that the 3D organization of DNA is disrupted in several types of brain cells affected by Alzheimer’s disease, altering how important genes are switched on and off. The discovery reveals a previously underexplored layer of the disease that could open new paths for understanding and eventually treating Alzheimer’s.
29 New Changes in the Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake — Redesigned Puzzles, Updated Miniboss Fights, and Deeper Dialogue
I played more than an hour of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2, and as someone who’s finished the original several times, I noticed a lot of small changes that shine some light on the thought process behind recreating this adventure. It seems everything was on the table when considering what to tweak: altered puzzles more closely fit the modern controls, redesigned miniboss fights spice things up across each round, and new shortcuts and context clues make navigation more intuitive.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 1, 2026, puzzle No. 738
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 27, 2026, puzzle No. 734
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 23, 2026, puzzle No. 730
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 30, 2026, puzzle No. 737
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 13, 2026, puzzle No. 720
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 15, 2026, puzzle No. 722
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Live Science crossword puzzle #65: Animal that kills the largest number of people
Test your knowledge on all things science with our weekly, free crossword puzzle!
'Wild Horse Nine' review: Is John Malkovich at the center of a meta puzzle?
Martin McDonagh reteams with Sam Rockwell for another dark comedy about charismatic killers.
Responsibilities in close social relationships explain differences across cultures
Do you think that a person who reorganizes their life so that their aging parents can live with them would be likely to push another out of the way on the subway? What about greeting strangers with a smile?The answers to these questions are at the heart of a puzzle social psychologists have been debating for 30 years: how to best understand differences between cultures.
AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) Could Be 24% Undervalued Following Its New Mobile Game
AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) just moved into mobile gaming with its AMC Movie Trivia Game Show, a free puzzle app tied into the AMC Stubs loyalty program and developed in partnership with Hoyt Games and David L. Hoyt. For context, AMC Entertainment Holdings has seen strong recent share price momentum, with a 30-day share price return of 24.39%, a 90-day share price return of 47.83%, and a year-to-date share price return of 90.06% at a latest share price of $3.06. That short term strength...
Engineers solve puzzle of Arctic sea ice movement
UC Riverside researchers discover a way to explain the previously confusing movement of Arctic sea ice, offering a way to potentially predict where the ice will travel as the ocean gets warmer.
Unpuzzled Parents Connect puts caregiver mental health in focus at Moms Reset Conference
Unpuzzled Parents Connect hosted its Moms Reset: Unplugged conference in Vienna, offering moms raising children with special needs support, resources and time to connect.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 25, 2026, puzzle No. 732
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 22, 2026, puzzle No. 729
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 15, 2026, puzzle No. 752
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Scientists Solve Decades-Old DNA Mystery—It Could Matter for Cancer
The co-author told Newsweek the findings add a crucial piece to the puzzle of how cancer can develop.
NYT Spelling Bee Answers for September 21, 2026
Feeling stuck on today’s puzzle? We can help.
Sunday Puzzle: Back to school
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle along with Weekend Edition Puzzlemaster Will Shortz and LAist listener Bill Etienne of Laguna Niguel, California.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 11, 2026, puzzle No. 748
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 20, 2026, puzzle No. 757
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 3, 2026, puzzle No. 740
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 24, 2026, puzzle No. 731
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
NYT Strands hints, answers for September 30, 2026
Every hint, nudge and outright answer you need to complete today's NYT Strands puzzle.
NYT Strands hints, answers for October 22, 2026
Every hint, nudge and outright answer you need to complete today's NYT Strands puzzle.
'We may need to think differently': Star system with 'backward' planet moving the wrong way around its star has scientists puzzled
A newly discovered exoplanet orbits its star backward, and it's a mystery why. The system and others like it could shed light on how some complex planetary systems form.
Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Spangram, Answers: Wednesday, September 30 (An Instrumental Destination)
Looking for help with today's NYT Strands puzzle? Here's an extra hint to help you uncover the right words, as well as all of today's answers and Spangram
NYT Strands hints, answers for September 14, 2026
Every hint, nudge and outright answer you need to complete today's NYT Strands puzzle.
Stony Brook Researchers David Miloschewsky and Supartha Podder Resolve a Decades-Old Puzzle About the Limits of Quantum Computing
Finding a path through a maze is hard, even for quantum algorithms. A quantum computer can find the exit of a certain kind of maze far faster than a classical computer. But can it also give you directions? David Miloschewsky and Supartha Podder of Stony Brook University’s Department of Computer Science have proven that finding
October 2026 Satellite Puzzler
Your challenge is to tell us the location of the satellite image and why it is interesting.
Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Spangram, Answers: Sunday, September 27 (It’s Skin Deep)
Looking for help with today's NYT Strands puzzle? Here's an extra hint to help you uncover the right words, as well as all of today's answers and Spangram.
Main Street Ledger: Rising Healthcare Costs Are Just One Piece of the Affordability Puzzle
Affordability continues to be at the center of conversations at kitchen tables across America, and on the campaign trail — with interventions in the credit card market once again being floated as a potential solution to ease financial pressures. While families are still feeling the pinch from the rising cost…
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 18, 2026, puzzle No. 754
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
NYT Strands hints, answers for October 6, 2026
Every hint, nudge and outright answer you need to complete today's NYT Strands puzzle.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 28, 2026, puzzle No. 735
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 20, 2026, puzzle No. 727
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Scientists solve a 50-year mystery and discover a new human blood group
Scientists have identified the genetic cause behind the mysterious AnWj blood group antigen, solving a puzzle that began in 1972 and establishing a new blood group system called MAL. The discovery could make it much easier to find extremely rare AnWj-negative patients and donors and protect them from potentially dangerous transfusion reactions.
Unravelling Sunderland’s Europa League Eligibility Puzzle
Matt Donne takes a closer look at UEFA’s regulations regarding replacements for injured players — can we adapt to cope?
A tiny defect in a crystal reveals a big quantum surprise
Researchers have solved a long-standing challenge in understanding how tiny defects in materials like diamond and silicon carbide behave when exposed to light. Their new computational method revealed a surprisingly important energy-loss mechanism in silicon carbide that scientists had previously underestimated. The finding helps explain a mystery that has puzzled researchers for years and could improve the design of quantum computers and sensors.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 14, 2026, puzzle No. 721
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 10, 2026, puzzle No. 747
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 17, 2026, puzzle No. 724
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 7, 2026, puzzle No. 744
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Puzzle Rides marks a decade in Scottsdale
Katie Dufort was working on a combination during an escape-room outing with her daughter when an entirely different puzzle suddenly clicked into place.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 14, 2026, puzzle No. 751
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Issue of N.Y. school funding back in court
At issue now is a relatively small piece of a years-long puzzle over how New York funds its schools.
UFC 332 preview, predictions: Worst main event in history?
UFC 332 is set for Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Sat. night (Oct. 3, 2026) with the preliminary card streaming on Paramount+, followed by the main card on the CBS network — home to this 2008 record breaker. There exists a subset of combat sports fans who remain puzzled as to why a […]
AMC Movie Trivia App Launch At AMC Stock Has Changed Its Investment Story
AMC Entertainment Holdings has launched AMC Movie Trivia Game Show, a free mobile trivia app created with Hoyt Games and puzzle designer David L. Hoyt, featuring daily movie themed puzzles and AMC Stubs integration. The app shifts part of AMC Entertainment Holdings' customer interaction into mobile gaming and extends the loyalty program into everyday engagement beyond theater visits. The next point of consideration is how AMC Entertainment Holdings' investment narrative might be influenced...
10 Hours With Johnathan Blow's New Puzzle Game Order Of The Sinking Star
Order of the Sinking Star is game of twists and turns
'We're losing our scientists': west Africa's STEM struggle
A handful of pupils puzzled over equations on the blackboard of an Abidjan maths class.Only a few hands went up timidly.
Studying Science in an Anti-Scientific Time
This Chronicle Review Deep Cut was first published in 2025. By Julianne Werlin Thanks for reading The Chronicle Review! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Subscribe The last two decades have not been kind to science studies. Already bruised and battered by the “science wars” of the 1990s, by the 2000s sociologists of science — who had long argued that science had to be understood in its human context — were encountering the funhouse-mirror version of their own views in right-wing critiques of climate scientists. It was enough to give some prominent scholars pause. “Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?” asked Bruno Latour, the most famous sociologist of science in the world, in 2003. “Should we apologize for having been wrong all along? Or should we rather bring the sword of criticism to criticism itself and do a bit of soul-searching here: What were we really after when we were so intent on showing the social construction of scientific facts?” In response, Latour proposed a change of method and attitude. Science studies, now chastened and contrite, would no longer seek to strip facts of their authority, but to enrich and enhance them. What this meant in practice was never fully clear. But his diagnosis of problems resonated, even if his solutions did not. Latour’s exercise in public hand-wringing signaled a shift in mood. By 2016, with the first election of Donald Trump, the idea that skepticism of science was a right-wing position, not a left-wing one, had become a commonplace, discussed eagerly in The New York Times. For liberals, vaccine denial during the Covid era and Trump’s second-term attacks on the funding of scientific research, covered extensively in these pages, added a new urgency to the defense of science on both practical and principled grounds. There was little appetite for a sociology or philosophy of science that emphasized the messiness and missteps of the scientific process rather than its integrity and triumphs. The distinguished historian of science Peter Dear’s new book, The World as We Know It: From Natural Philosophy to Modern Science (Princeton University Press, 2025), which seeks to tell the story of 18th- and 19th-century science for a general public, may seem comfortably remote from these bitter contests. In its 16 short chapters, Dear draws swift, sure sketches of major discoveries from Newton to Einstein, ably guiding the reader through debates on stellar nebulae, animal taxonomy, atomic chemistry, evolution, and other flashpoints in the history of science. But though a work of history, Dear’s book must still negotiate our polarized present. In a blurb on its back cover, the historian of biology Lynn K. Nyhart alludes to the “present moment, when scientific knowledge is being swamped by misinformation and its institutions are under siege.” Dear himself, in his conclusion, refers to the “yard signs” and “bumper stickers” that proclaim “Science Is Real.” One antidote to both anti-science propaganda and to reductive slogans in science’s defense is a robust history and philosophy of science: exactly what Dear’s scholarship has long offered. But his new book illustrates how difficult such work has become. Dear, an emeritus professor of history at Cornell University, is best known as a creative and philosophically minded historian of the Scientific Revolution. His edited volume The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument (1991) analyzed the rhetoric of Galileo’s thought experiments to brilliant effect. Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution (1995) was a major contribution to the analysis of scientific experiments in early modern Europe and beyond, while Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge in Transition, 1500-1700 (2001), now in its third edition, remains one of the best overviews of the profound epistemological upheavals of 16th- and 17th-century science. But Dear has also ventured into later periods. Nearly two decades ago, in The Intelligibility of Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World (2006), he turned to the 18th and 19th centuries to sketch a history and theory of scientific knowledge. Aimed at a generalist audience, Dear’s simple prose belied serious philosophical ambitions. Science, Dear argued, has two aspects: “natural philosophy,” the quest to understand the true nature of the universe, and “instrumentality,” the applied skills and technologies that allow us to manipulate the world for human advantage. Both strands are ancient, but the innovation of the phenomenon we call “science” was to yoke them together. As Francis Bacon wrote, “Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known, the effect cannot be produced,” an insight typically abridged to “knowledge is power.” Or, in Bertrand Russell’s characteristically blunt phrase, science has two functions, “1. to enable us to know things, and 2., to enable us to do things.” So far, so conventional. But Dear took issue with this familiar story in one respect. Bacon’s formula implied that theory and practice could be fused in a single method. In fact, Dear argued, the quest to understand nature and the desire to manipulate it were coupled only loosely. They could come together, but they could also pull apart. Focusing on natural philosophy, the “knowing” half of the scientific circle, he used a series of case studies from cosmology, taxonomy, chemistry, electromagnetism, and quantum theory to show how theories changed over time, in dialogue with practice, but never reducible to it. Take the case of matter, the basic substrate of the physical world. In the 18th and 19th centuries, scientists not only disagreed about what it was, but also about how well it could be known. In 1789, the chemist Antoine Lavoisier dismissed speculation about the atomic composition of chemicals as “discussions entirely of a metaphysical nature,” as he sought to orient chemistry away from philosophical abstraction and toward laboratory results. But in the 19th century, atoms returned with a vengeance in the atomic chemistry of John Dalton, who wanted to explain the underlying structure of nature. It was not just that Dalton and Lavoisier had a different set of experimental results, or even a different theory, Dear showed. What counted as an explanation had changed. In arguing that scientific theories depended on their intelligibility to human beings with complex arrays of beliefs and commitments, Dear was in sympathy with science studies. Key figures such as the sociologist Steven Shapin emphasized the importance of psychological mechanisms like trust in the formation and acceptance of scientific ideas. But in focusing on the scientific pursuit of knowledge, not its politics or economics, Dear resisted the more cynical perspective of some of his colleagues. The Intelligibility of Nature strikes a very different note than Shapin’s collection of a few years later, Never Pure: Historical Studies of Science as If It Was Produced by People With Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and Authority (2010), to name just one example. Walking a very fine line, Dear depicted science as driven at once by complex social dynamics and by the intellectual power of real discoveries. It was a testament not only to his own acumen but also to the vitality of the field that he was able to do so. Nearly two decades later, The World as We Know It returns to the questions broached in The Intelligibility of Nature. Like Dear’s earlier study, it begins with the Newtonian cosmos and ends with debates between Einstein and Bohr on quantum physics. Beyond its terminal figures, many of the same characters appear in both studies, including the naturalists John Ray and the Comte de Buffon; the chemists Étienne François Geoffroy, Antoine Lavoisier, and John Dalton; as well as Charles Darwin and Michael Faraday, among others. Its subject is nearly identical: As in The Intelligibility of Nature, The World as We Know It considers natural philosophy as opposed to instrumentality, here defined as the “desire to create a picture of what the world is really like — the world as God knows it — rather than simply having instrumental or operational control over it.” The two books also overlap in insights — and sometimes even in language. The reader who has learned in The Intelligibility of Nature that Buffon’s method of classifying animals “reflected his belief in the importance of the senses and empiricism in learning about nature (a doctrine associated with Newton and the philosopher John Locke)” will experience a sense of déjà vu on reading, in The World as We Know It, that the classification “reflects Buffon’s commitment to the epistemological stance of Newton and his philosophical underlaborer John Locke, who stressed the role of the senses in creating natural knowledge.” Later in the passage, we read that, “because of its stress on understanding the ways of life of animals in their environments, Buffon’s approach could almost be labeled (anachronistically) as ‘ecological.’” And again, “an anachronistic way of putting it would be to say that Buffon recommends an ecological mode of understanding.” Likewise, in The Intelligibility of Nature we read of Dalton that he was initially drawn to meteorology, and that: He did a bit of experimental work on these things, especially having to do with the water-holding capacity of gases, but his real interest lay in understanding what, at an underlying natural-philosophical level, was really going on physically.” Whereas, in The World as We Know It: He did experimental work on these things, especially concerning the water-holding capacity of gases — although not at a very refined level quantitatively — but he was continually trying to develop a theoretical conception of what was happening physically. The final full chapter of each book closes on the same resigned note. Intelligibility: These days, most serious work on the natural philosophical underpinnings and implications of quantum mechanics is performed not by physicists but by philosophers of science. Among scientific practitioners themselves, Bohr’s attempt to use instrumentality as sufficient grounds for a respectable science has met with a high degree of success. And again, in The World as We Know It: Bohr’s and Einstein’s concerns are now questions that are mostly discussed by philosophers of science rather than by physicists themselves. The marginalization of these sorts of questions amounts to the demise of natural philosophy, at least in physics, in the 20th century. Quantum mechanics “works,” and that’s good enough for most scientists who encounter it. Examples could be multiplied. When handling the same subject matter, some echoes are inevitable. Scholars should not feel that because they have written “Isaac Newton died in 1727” in one book, in the next they must describe him as perishing, expiring, or meeting his maker. But the repetitions of language and arguments (not to mention six reproduced images) threaded throughout The World as We Know It are more extensive than that. They should have been caught by Princeton University Press or its reviewers, and revised. Because the two books have so much in common, it is easy to see where they diverge. The World as We Know It is a less theoretical work than its predecessor. The sociology of knowledge that organized The Intelligibility of Nature has been reduced in scale and folded into readings and examples. The taut interplay between history and theory, which gave the earlier study so much interest, is there, but it is subtle. In the earlier book, the case studies demonstrated theoretical claims about the character and development of science. In the later work, each narrative of discovery is an end in itself. Insights emerge from the history, but they do not control the organization of the study. With the theory muted, it can be hard to understand the logic uniting Dear’s sprawling history of more than two centuries of scientific knowledge. The 16 brisk chapters cover an enormous amount of material. But the closer the volume edges to comprehensiveness, the more obvious the missing elements become. A chapter on “Institutions and Pedagogy,” describing the birth of the research university, illustrates the problem. Inserted roughly halfway through the book, the unnumbered chapter is designed as an “entr’acte,” in acknowledgement that it does not fit the study’s organization around scientific discoveries. Yet as Dear is well aware, no general history of the development of modern science can bracket its 19th-century institutionalization and professionalization. It was the 19th-century university, after all, that gave us the “scientist,” a term coined by the Cambridge philosopher William Whewell. Dear’s history of scientific discoveries implies a wider social and institutional history, but it remains largely subterranean, only occasionally extruded under the pressure of the narrative. It must be said that the balance is not all on the side of the earlier study. There are some advantages to the more historical, less theoretical organization of The World as We Know It. Dear’s accounts of paradigm shifts are remarkably lucid, no small accomplishment given that they span fields and centuries. He makes excellent use of the wealth of new scholarship on Darwin and his influences, to which he has himself contributed. It is satisfying to see puzzle pieces from Buffon’s natural history, Georges Cuvier’s animal taxonomy, Thomas Robert Malthus’s demography, and Charles Lyell’s geology recombined seamlessly in the Darwinian jigsaw. Likewise, Dear’s discussion of stellar nebulae, divided between chapters two and 15, shows vividly how Newton, Kant, Herschel, and Hubble reimagined insights and observations as they sought to discover whether the diffuse light that filtered through early telescopes was a glowing, gaseous substance or discrete but distant stars. Yet despite such pleasures, the book remains a more modest work than The Intelligibility of Nature. Dear has clearly not changed his views about the history of science. But in the two decades that have elapsed, the discipline and the world around it have changed, making it harder to write a sociologically and philosophically ambitious history of science for the general reader. That is a shame, because in the age of Silicon Valley and biotechnology, both the reciprocity and the tensions Dear identified between the epistemological and instrumental ambitions of science are more evident than ever. In recent years, some of the most exciting new books on the history of science in early modernity have focused precisely on this pressure point. Important studies such as Pamela H. Smith’s From Lived Experience to the Written Word (2022), James Poskett’s Horizons: The Global Origins of Modern Science (2022), and Vera Keller’s The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge (2023) all shed new light on how early modern science negotiated the relationship between its instrumental and epistemological ambitions, or in Russell’s phrase, knowing and doing. There is every opportunity for a philosophically informed approach to draw new insights from this wealth of material. Dear, unfortunately, has not done so in The World as We Know It. But for future scholars of the history of science, his body of work over nearly four decades may provide just the model. Julianne Werlin is an associate professor of English at Duke University. Thanks for reading The Chronicle Review! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Subscribe
Order of the Sinking Star: Jonathan Blow on making ' the biggest puzzle game ever'
Order of the Sinking Star is due out on Thursday and has roughly 1,500 puzzles for players to try
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 6, 2026, puzzle No. 743
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Sept. 29, 2026, puzzle No. 736
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
NYT Strands hints, answers for September 29, 2026
Every hint, nudge and outright answer you need to complete today's NYT Strands puzzle.
Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Oct. 2, 2026, puzzle No. 739
Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.
Wardogs, Valheim 1.0 And Other New Indie Games Worth Checking Out
Our weekly indie games roundup includes a double deckbuilder, capybara puzzles and an undead William Wallace.
Scientists Just Cracked a Quantum Mystery That's Puzzled Physicists For Decades
The Kondo effect conquered.
Live Science crossword puzzle #62: Ancient capital of the Aztec Empire
Test your knowledge on all things science with our weekly, free crossword puzzle!
Long-Time Columbus Blue Jackets Goaltender Lists House For Sale
Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins’ future has been in doubt for quite a while, and now there’s another piece to the complicated puzzle.Earlier this week, Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch reported that the 32-year-old goaltender had listed his home in New Albany, Ohio for sale. The 6,026 square foot, 5 bedroom home was […] The post Long-Time Columbus Blue Jackets Goaltender Lists House For Sale appeared first on HEAVY.
NYT Strands Hints for October 11, 2026
Scroll down for hints and conversation about the puzzle for Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026.
Introducing Strands: Sports Edition, a New Daily Sports Puzzle From The Athletic | The New York Times Company
The Athletic today announced the launch of Strands: Sports Edition, a new sports-themed daily word search game crafted in collaboration with New York Times Games. Strands: Sports Edition is a sports…
NYT Strands hints, answers for October 17, 2026
Every hint, nudge and outright answer you need to complete today's NYT Strands puzzle.