Great science is timeless and not only within Albert Einstein’s frame of reference. It answers mysteries, reveals deeper structures, goes after truth with explanations that survive far longer than the human scientists who make the discoveries. That said, the discoverers, their intuition, and their process are fascinating in themselves, as this week’s collection of science-based reporting from the recent school year attests.
By midafternoon, the summer sky that emerged pale blue over Scituate Harbor is weighed down with gray, coal-rimmed clouds. The wind carries the smell of low tide and the clanging of moorings securing the yachts and powerboats of the wealthier citizens of this coastal Massachusetts town. But this is a working harbor, too, and over at the pier, Frank Mirarchi is mending a net at the stern of his 55-foot fishing trawler, the Barbara L. Peters.
For nearly half a century, Mirarchi has been pulling cod, haddock, and flounder out of the Gulf of Maine, which stretches from the tip of Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. But he’s worried that his son Andrew, who works the trawler with him, won’t have anywhere near that kind of longevity at sea.