Just as the discoveries of dark matter and dark energy shook the foundations of physics, our continued inability to unearth the identity and nature of most of the universe continues to shake them, and, consequently, it limits our understanding of our place in the universe. We still do not know much about the dark sector except that it exists; yet researchers often ascribe properties to dark matter based on presumptions that mimic known physics and are not intrepid enough. It seems to me that methodologies that might enable us to ask new questions, and find new properties or new roles for the dark in our universe, generate fear. Do we dread the dark so much that we project our fears onto the very phenomena about which we are scientifically ignorant?
Like most people, I have been walking more than usual during the pandemic and enjoying it. My meetings with students and colleagues have turned into walking meetings around campus for over a year. Now, I have a problem: School is starting soon, and I don't want to go back to the classroom. We all saw this coming. Give employees a taste of the outdoors, and they might not want to go back to their offices and desks. So I am thinking of teaching my fall courses outside.
Yet while I was researching this possibility, I discovered a problem. I had always read that walking increased cognitive functioning and problem solving, but it turns out that it's not that simple. In 2014, a new study showed that walking decreased rational and linear thinking and increased divergent thinking and imaginative mind-wandering. Uh oh. Will my students learn less if I teach them while walking?
Last week, the Swiss tennis legend looked squarely into the camera and shared the news: He would need another knee surgery “to give myself a glimmer of hope to return to the tour in some shape or form.” The emotion in his voice was as clear as his message: His recovery holds no guarantees about whether he will return to competitive tennis, to say nothing of the rarefied heights he has occupied for decades, as one of the greatest ever to hold a racket.
Federer, who turned 40 this month, will miss the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 30. Because he is at such a career crossroads, the time is opportune to reflect on the man behind and within the image — to consider how a sensitive and hot-tempered teenager evolved to become not only an equipoised champion, but also his sport’s preeminent global ambassador.