Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, although best known for his literary work, was also a keen and outspoken natural scientist. In the second polemic part of Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours), for example, Goethe attacked Isaac Newton's ground-breaking revelation that light is heterogeneous and not immutable, as was previously thought.This polemic was unanimously rejected by the physicists of the day, and has often been omitted from compendia of Goethe's works. Indeed, although Goethe repeated a...

We kick off December with several holiday-themed stories. First up is John M. Floyd’s tale of a Christmas scam artist (with thanks to Acquiring Editor Barb Goffman). Then we have Paula Messina’s tale of a stray Christmas tree found on a beach. Finally, blasting off to outer space, we have an AI reindeer full of mischief in a story by Theresa Duck.Of course, we have our usual assortment of mystery, fantasy, and science fiction stories, including originals by Dave Zeltserman (thanks ...

There should be a bit of poetry in every day, and John Kendrick Bangs wrote a fitting poem for each day in the year. In 1920, a book was published with one of Bangs' poems for each day. This project covers the month of May.