Chet raymo biography of christopher

On one level, An Intimate Look at the Night Sky is a unique star guide: twenty-four beautiful star maps, created specifically for this book, cycle through the seasons and across the heavens, revealing what you can see with the naked eye throughout the year on a clear night in the northern hemisphere. On another level, Chet Raymo challenges our imagination—to see what is unseeable in the universe, to perceive distance and size and shape that is inconceivable, to appreciate ever more fully our extraordinary place in the cosmos.

His elegant essays on the heavens blend science and history, mythology and religion, making clear why he is one of the most insightful and passionate science writers of our time. After reading An Intimate Look at the Night Sky , which is as visually appealing as it is intellectually stimulating, you will marvel as much at the wisdom of the ancients as at the advances of modern science.

For nearly forty years, Chet Raymo has walked a one-mile path from his house in North Easton, Massachusetts, to the Stonehill College campus where he has taught physics and astronomy. The woods, meadows, and stream he passes are as familiar to him as his own backyard, yet each day he finds something new. In The Path , Raymo chronicles the universe he has found by closely observing every detail of his route.

With each step, the landscape he traverses becomes richer and more multidimensional, opening door after door into astromnomy, geology, biology, history, and literaure. The light from the star Arcturus I see reflected in the brook beneath the bridge at night has been traveling across space for forty years before entering my eye. I have attended to all of these stories and tried to hear what the landscape has to say I have attended, too, to language.

How did the wood anemone and Sheep Pasture get their names? What does the queset of Queset Brook signify in the language of Native Americans? Scratch a name in a landscape, and history bubbles up like a spring. The path also reveals the stories of nineteenth-century industrialists who transformed natural resources into power, and turn-of-the-century landscape architects, such as Frederick Law Olmsted, who championed an ideal of nature tamed by conscious intent.

Recognizing that his path is commonplace, and that we all have such routes in our lives, Raymo urges us to walk attentively, stopping often to watch and listen with care. His wisdom and insights inspire us to turn local paths—whether through cities, suburbs, or rural areas—into doorways to greater understanding of nature and history. Whether the subject is human nature, rivers, or stars, The Path conveys a love of nature that combines the insights of science with joyous writing.

Mount Brandon is one of several holy mountains in Ireland that attract scores of believers and secular trekkers from around the world. For thirty-two years, Chet Raymo has lived part of each year on the Dingle Peninsula, near the foot of the mountain, and he has climbed it perhaps a hundred times, exploring paths that have been used for centuries by pilgrims in search of spiritual enlightenment.

But the history and geography of Mount Brandon are what drew Raymo to it and offered him a lens through which to view the modern conflicts between science and religion. As he guides us up the mountain, Raymo weaves folklore and natural history, spiritual and physical geographies. He tells the stories of the pagan hero Bran and the Christian saint Brendan, whose name the mountain evokes.

He also teases out the scientific story of the mountain and its environs—spinning planet, drifting continents, grinding glaciers, globe-spanning ocean currents, animal and plant migrations—and discovers to his surprise and delight how well our new empirical knowledge of the world is accomodated by the faith of the earliest Irish Christians.

When Ireland converted from paganism, it became home to a kind of Christianity that was unique in Europe—intensely intellectual yet attuned to nature, skeptical yet celebratory, grounded in the here-and-now yet open to infinity—a faith that did not so much look upward to the heavens as westward into the wild dark sea. Raymo takes us to a time on the wave-lashed edge of the Western world when Mediterranean Christianity ran up against Celtic nature worship, and the Irish, for a few exhilarating centuries, forged a fusion of knowledge and mystery that has special relevance for us today.

There has long been a suggestion that Valentine was a doctor, and Raymo has built his story around the romance of the physician Valentine and the blind Julia, daughter of a Roman jailer. Raymo channels his extensive knowledge of physics and astronomy into several books, including An Intimate Look at the Night Sky. Not only a guide to the stars, the book includes the author's meditations on astronomy from historical, religious, and philosophical perspectives.

Calling the work a "delightful, inspiring introduction to astronomy," Gilbert Taylor added in Booklist: "Intending to engender a feeling of closeness with the universe, Raymo infuses his own sense of connectedness to the heavens into his summaries of the planets, the comets, and the other stuff up there. Another of Raymo's books that draws heavily on his scientific wisdom was written with his daughter Maureen E.

Raymo, an accomplished paleoclimatologist. Written in Stone: A Geological and Natural History of the Northeastern United States tracks geologic changes that have occurred in the northeastern states over hundreds of millions of years. John Rowen, writing in the New York State Conservationist, stated that "the Raymos bring a new sense of wonder to familiar places … using theory and accessible examples in the field.

Several of Raymo's works have focused less on imparting scientific knowledge than on exploring the link between science and religion. Skeptics and True Believers: The Exhilarating Connection between Science and Religion is one example, exploring two extremes: "skeptics," who reject all that does not stand up to the rigors of scientific investigation, and "true believers," who often deny objective evidence because of religious faith.

Writing for Science magazine, Mark W. Richardson wrote that he was "filled with admiration for the clarity and force of [Raymo's] … writing, and for the many deep insights contained in this book. It is accessible to anyone wishing to explore the 'exhilarating connections between science and religion. In The Path: A One-Mile Walk through the Universe Raymo traces the one-mile commute between his home and office, a route he walked each day for thirty-seven years while working as a professor and letting not a flower or pebble go unnoticed.

Genco wrote that "Raymo has a rare gift: he encourages readers to look at everyday life with fresh eyes. Delaney-Lehman commented that "Raymo instills a sense of wonder in the workings of the natural world and exhibits a deep faith in science and technology. For many years he has divided his time between Boston and the Dingle Peninsula of Ireland, at the base of Mount Brandon.

Climbing Brandon takes the reader on a tour of a region steeped in Celtic myth and religious monuments. In the Irish Independent, reviewer Ann Dunne commented: "No less delightful for being erudite, crammed full of fascinating facts, Climbing Brandon is a charming and thought-provoking book, equally accessible to the casual hill walker or those seeking meaning in today's hectic world.

Raymo's body of works includes fiction as well. His first novel, In the Falcon's Claw: A Novel of the Year , presents the fictional memoirs of an Irish monk at the end of the first millennium. The Dork of Cork tells the story of an Irish author with dwarfism and the life of his mother, an unwed escapee from Nazi-occupied France. Published in , the book was later adapted for the film Frankie Starlight.

A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called The Dork of Cork a "philosophic, imaginatively plotted tale," commenting that Raymo "so skillfully manipulates the author-within-an-author narration that it's easy to forget that Frank is a fictional entity. His unique, epiphanic and bluntly truthful story forces a reconsideration of the beautiful and the grotesque.

For twenty years, Raymo's thoughts on science and humanity were published weekly in a column for the Boston Globe. We too walk a fine line; not between skepticism and faith, but between skepticism and cynicism. We try to stay firmly on the side of skepticism, open to whatever winds of wisdom blow our way, and as for knowledge of the world, we cherish the scientific way of knowing—tentative, partial, evolving.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Raymo, however, is not necessarily seeking to teach science; instead, he uses these essays to examine the point where science and the human experience mesh. Raymo's "wide-ranging essays are not science lessons," Bartusiak continued.

Raymo uses scientific fact as a springboard to contemplation, both serious and humorous," He discusses topics such as measuring astronomical distances; the effects of acid rain ; the concepts and applications of animal rights; the " Star Wars " Strategic Defense Initiative missile defense project; nuclear power; and the nature of small invasive insects.

Throughout, Raymo retains a grasp of the tension between science and spirituality. This is further reflected in the book's title, which refers to a fifteenth-century Flemish triptych, which to Raymo represents the point at which religion first felt the encroachment of science and technology. The center panel of the triptych depicts the Annunciation, while in the right panel, Joseph attends to his carpentry, "with a little mechanical mousetrap on his workbench.

Even while the donors adore the Virgin, the age of technology—and gadgets—is dawning on Joseph's workbench," Bartusiak observed. Several of Raymo's works have focused less on imparting scientific knowledge than on exploring the link between science and religion. Skeptics and True Believers: The Exhilarating Connection between Science and Religion is one example, exploring two extremes: "skeptics," who reject all that does not stand up to the rigors of scientific investigation, and "true believers," who often deny objective evidence because of religious faith.

Writing for Science magazine, Mark W. Richardson commented that he was "filled with admiration for the clarity and force of [Raymo's] … writing, and for the many deep insights contained in this book…. Skeptics and True Believers raises profound questions about how we face, filter, and deny realities about the universe as received from science.

Raymo again explores the connection between religion and science in Natural Prayers. With this work, Raymo is concerned not with the divide that has traditionally separated those who practice science and those who pursue religion, but with the larger context in which science and religion can coexist and complement each other.

Chet raymo biography of christopher

He "sees prayer as paying attention to the marvels of nature and being reverent in the face of its mysteries," commented Spirituality and Practice reviewers Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Raymo sees God not as a separate divine entity, but as a force found within all aspects of nature itself. In answer to the question of how to communicate with and pray to such a force, Raymo suggests we can do so "by paying close and appreciative attention to the universe," noted Donna Seaman in a Booklist review.

A Publishers Weekly writer remarked: "Celebrating the moon or dragonflies, Virginia Woolf or Thoreau, Raymo shows how scientific observation can become worship. In The Path: A One-mile Walk through the Universe, Raymo traces the one-mile commute between his home and office, a route he walked each day for thirty-seven years while working as a professor and letting not a flower or pebble go unnoticed.

Genco wrote that "Raymo has a rare gift: he encourages readers to look at everyday life with fresh eyes…. Delaney-Lehman commented that "Raymo instills a sense of wonder in the workings of the natural world and exhibits a deep faith in science and technology. For many years he has divided his time between Boston and the Dingle Peninsula of Ireland, at the base of Mount Brandon.

Not only for those interested in Ireland, this fine, short book should appeal to readers interested in earth spirituality as well. Raymo's body of works includes fiction as well. His first novel, In the Falcon's Claw: A Novel of the Year , presents the fictional memoirs of an Irish monk at the end of the first millennium. The Dork of Cork tells the story of an Irish author, who is a dwarf, and his mother, an unwed escapee from Nazi-occupied France.

Published in , the book was later adapted for the film Frankie Starlight. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called The Dork of Cork a "philosophic, imaginatively plotted tale," commenting that Raymo "so skillfully manipulates the author-within-an-author narration that it's easy to forget that Frank is a fictional entity. His unique, epiphanic and bluntly truthful story forces a reconsideration of the beautiful and the grotesque.

For twenty years, Raymo's thoughts on science and humanity were published weekly in a column for the Boston Globe. After retiring from the column, Raymo felt compelled to continue his musings in a new medium: the Internet , where he regularly writes on the site ScienceMusings.