It Must be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science,ed. Graham Farmelo (New York: Granta Books, 2003).

Barrow, John D., The Constants of Nature (New York: Pantheon, 2002).

W. H. Auden's poem Septem-ber 1, 1939, was written while he was in New York during the Nazi Blitz of London. The last stanza reads:

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

We are in a similar mad and violent time. We need to show our affirming flames in the streets, in the classroom, and through the media. Those are the more obvious places. But there are smaller ways to keep the love of learning and life alive. The life of the mind has to prevail, and the idea that there are wonderful things to know and worlds to explore beyond the violence and the killing has to be sustained. This is a time for educators to be militant and active, but also for us to keep the spirit of inquiry alive.