Andrew Abbott

Rome was the superpower of the first and second centuries. But by the third century, this mightiest of empires was starting to crumble. The fall of this superpower wasn’t the result of an all-out invasion, a disease, disaster, or internal uprising. Many different factors took their toll as Rome declined. But one of the biggest…

I’m sure you’ve had this experience recently. Your computer screen flashes on, you click the news link, and there it pops up, front-and-center amid the headlines, “CORONAVIRUS.” Every news page seems to be giving special coverage to this latest, nearly global, virus. A scare this big hasn’t hit our planet since Ebola, SARS, and Swine…

On a mountaintop half-way around the world, a monument to scientific study stands aloof and foreboding. It’s a ramshackle stand of eerie buildings and lonely towers rigged with antenna. They stand as a testament to this past-its-prime laboratory in the deserts of Armenia. But the weird thing about this lab is that its actually still…

Radiation doesn’t wait to be invited. It’s influence can seem negligible or highly dangerous depending on the type of radiation and the amount. But the radiation that this article talked about was definitely the dangerous variety. That’s obvious enough based on the location, since the site was bathed in left over radiation from the disastrous…

The sight of a human face has a personal impact that hardly anything else can match. There’s power in a human face that shows what numbers and data can’t show. But believe it or not there are scientists today who think they’ve gotten to the point where they can even capture a human face in…

I just read about a reunion of 40 family members with a 92-year-old Greek woman who played a big part in their lives–for many before they were even born. Melpomeni Dina was a teenager living with her two older sisters in Veria, Greece, when they learned of a Jewish family of seven who were hiding…

When I was scanning the year-end headlines on the web last week, one particular title grabbed my attention. It read in large type, “2019 in photos.” As I flipped through the assortment of eye-popping images, one particular scene grabbed my attention. It was a huge stone structure with baroque spires engulfed by jagged, orange flames—Paris’…

Beginning a new year very often has a sense of eager anticipation, adventures in store, and a feeling of starting over. We’ve probably all had conversations or at least overheard them about new year’s resolutions and contemplated our own resolve for another year. But for veteran astronaut Scott Kelly, his 2019 began with a strange…

Are you a fan of white noise? I had never realized the power of white noise until I tried to fall asleep in a noisy campground one night. I wanted to drift into a deep sleep, but every time I felt critically drowsy there as another holler or conversation that popped up in the campsite…

Who hasn’t felt the exhilaration of a looking up into a bough of graceful red autumn leaves? I’ve enjoyed this sight several times this Fall season already. There are few sights that bring a sense of refreshing seasonality like Autumn leaves do. But just recently I learned that this feeling of abundance at Fall has…