Word: moderns
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When MIT professor and meteorologist Edward Lorenz realized in 1961 that long-term weather-forecasting was all but impossible, the discovery chagrined weathermen. But his underlying idea--that even the most minute aberrations could have vast repercussions on larger systems--gave birth to the modern field of chaos theory. He captured the public's imagination with the elegant concept in a 1972 paper titled "Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?" Though Lorenz initially used a seagull as his example, he settled on the more poetic creature, giving rise...
Nine colleges have offered Sarah Simon, of Wellesley, Mass., a spot in their class of 2012: Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Princeton, Stanford, University of Chicago, Vassar and Williams. But she's a dancer--ballet six times a week, modern twice, jazz once--and Columbia University in New York City would give her access not only to an exceptional ballet program at its sister school Barnard but also to the epicenter of the dance world. Unfortunately, Columbia has put her on the waitlist. Though she's not whining about her wealth of options, Simon, a senior at Noble and Greenough School...
...picture on your March 10 cover with a halo of light around Obama's head looks like something out of a campaign flyer. Inside, there was the contrived photo of the Senator's well-worn soles, with a copy of his book in view, that looks like a modern-day version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The icing on the cake is your recent cover story "A Mother's Story," which serves as a convenient valentine to the Obama campaign just weeks before the Pennsylvania primary. Craig Garshelis, SAN FRANCISCO...
...contracting firm, and went to Brigham Young University, where she met her husband, an accountant named Christian who goes by "Pancho." They got married at 21 and have three sons. They still live just outside Phoenix in a town called Cave Creek, in a large modern house guarded by towering saguaro cacti. Smart, funny and cheery, Meyer does not seem noticeably undead in person. An observant Mormon, she doesn't drink alcohol and has never seen an R-rated movie. She's not perfect--although Mormons avoid caffeine on principle, she drinks the occasional cherry Diet Pepsi. "It's about...
Meyer and Rowling do share two important traits. Both writers embed their fantasy in the modern world--Meyer's vampires are as deracinated and contemporary as Rowling's wizards. And people do not want to just read Meyer's books; they want to climb inside them and live there. James Patterson may sell more books, but not a lot of people dress up like Alex Cross. There's no literary term for the quality Twilight and Harry Potter (and The Lord of the Rings) share, but you know it when you see it: their worlds have a freestanding internal integrity...