One of the greatest gifts adults can give -- to their offspring and to their society -- is to read to children.

Except for children (who don't know enough not to ask the important questions), few of us spendtime wondering why nature is the way it is . . .

It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.

Philosophers and scientists confidently offer up traits said to be uniquely human, and the monkeys and apes casually knock them down -- toppling the pretension that humans constitute some sort of biological aristocracy among the beings on Earth.

We live at a moment when our relationships to each other, and to all other beings with whom we share this planet, are up for grabs.