Apocalypse soon

摘要

PESTILENCE, war, famine, death. I recently came face-to-face with all four at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in a rare viewing of Albrecht Diirer's 15th-century woodcut Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In Diirer's time fear of the apocalypse loomed large. It wasn't so different when I was a child. Fear of nuclear Armageddon was a constant presence, but it helped fuel the US government's investment in science and science education, propelling the country to the top - and directly benefiting me.