Across the page the symbols moved in grave morrice, in the mummery of their letters, wearing quaint caps of squares and cubes
If you have an imagination, you don’t have to be the protagonist in H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine to travel through time. If you’ve ever eagerly awaited (or painfully dreaded) an upcoming birthday, recalled winning the lottery (don’t you wish), or fantasized about eating lunch while listening to your teacher drone on about why the river in the novel symbolizes the birth of modern civilization, you’ve mentally traveled through time.
Mental time travel is what got me through some of my postdoctoral days; watching spots (proteins) move across a computer screen was usually less than riveting. Besides alleviating boredom, the ability to use past experience (retrospection) to predict future scenarios (prospection) is extremely useful; you’ll be far more careful about when and where you leave your bicycle outside if it gets stolen.
{ National Association of Science Writers | Continue reading }
photo { Richard Kalvar }
