William Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut who took Earthrise photo, killed in plane crash

William Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut who took Earthrise photo, killed in plane crash

Retired major-general William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic Earthrise photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90. His son, retired air force … Read more

American author Paul Auster, prolific and experimental man of letters and filmmaker, dead at 77

American author Paul Auster, prolific and experimental man of letters and filmmaker, dead at 77

Paul Auster, a prolific, prize-winning man of letters and filmmaker known for such inventive narratives and meta-narratives as The New York Trilogy and 4321, has died at age 77. Auster’s death was confirmed on May 1 by his literary representatives, the Carol Mann Agency, which did not immediately provide additional details. Auster had been diagnosed … Read more

Bleak, beautiful Oppenheimer tells us about our apocalyptic future

Bleak, beautiful Oppenheimer tells us about our apocalyptic future

There are few figures in American history as mythologized as J. Robert Oppenheimer — in no small part due to the man himself.  So building a cohesive story about him — the physicist who helped define an entire scientific field so new and arcane it was called “boys’ physics”; the precocious child-genius who delivered a … Read more