now we enjoy the additional wonder of having the glorious sounds recorded, traced electronically on disks of plastic, and played with fidelity by machines most of us cannot hope to understand. Making and playing music is only one of many things man can do that inspire He can write prose and poetry that affect our emotions and our isions and how we act. He can design and build beautiful buildings and monuments. He has taught himself to build all sorts of things from materials that were first mined from the earth and later from materials that he learned to assemble in laboratories. He learned how to fly in the air, and then to travel beyond the atmosphere to the moon, and perhaps one day, beyond the moon. He learned how to descend to the oceans bottoms. These things are awe-inspiring There have been many individuals, often unlikely, who have inspired awe by doing things beyond our animal nature. A few examples make the point. Consider that the greatest of English language writers was a poorly educated, self-taught poet and playwright, William Shakespeare Consider that another uneducated and self-taught man became an unrivalled master of prose and something more, Abraham Lincoln. Consider that the founder of the science of genetics was an Augustinian monk who failed the examination to be certified as a high school science teacher, Gregor Mende l. Consider that aseptic surgery evolved from the theories of a scorned doctor in nineteenth century Vienna who lowered the risk of death from childbirth by urging attending physicians to wash their hands before participating in delivery, Ignaz Philipp Semme weiss. Consider that the men who first achieved powered flight were two self-educated bicycle mechanics working in Akron, Ohio, at the turn of the twentieth century, Orville and Wilbur Wright, and the man who showed the possibility of transoceanic flight was a college dropout, Charles lindbergh And man has developed a field of endeavor that seems to have no limits scientific exploration, what was once called natural philosophy. Ii only a few centuries, man has probed the smallest of the small, down to sub-atomic particles, and the largest of the large, outer space and the galaxies. Each time it appears that the smallest or the largest has been dentified, something smaller or larger is di ed. Along the exciting journey of scientific exploration, a few of our fellow men have emerged as anomalies, exceptional achievers. In this context, Isaac Newton comes to mind as perhaps the greatest anomaly of our species. Born in poverty in rural middle seventeenth century England after his father had died, then abandoned by his mother at age three when she remarried to a man who did not want the child, in solitude he grew to master the mathematics of his day and then to invent new mathematics the calculus, to solve the mysteries of planetary motion and othernow we enjoy the additional wonder of having the glorious sounds recorded, traced electronically on disks of plastic, and played with fidelity by machines most of us cannot hope to understand. Making and playing music is only one of many things man can do that inspire awe. He can write prose and poetry that affect our emotions and our decisions and how we act. He can design and build beautiful buildings and monuments. He has taught himself to build all sorts of things from materials that were first mined from the earth and later from materials that he learned to assemble in laboratories. He learned how to fly in the air, and then to travel beyond the atmosphere to the moon, and perhaps, one day, beyond the moon. He learned how to descend to the oceans’ bottoms. These things are awe-inspiring. There have been many individuals, often unlikely, who have inspired awe by doing things beyond our animal nature. A few examples make the point. Consider that the greatest of English language writers was a poorly educated, self-taught poet and playwright, William Shakespeare. Consider that another uneducated and self-taught man became an unrivalled master of prose and something more, Abraham Lincoln. Consider that the founder of the science of genetics was an Augustinian monk who failed the examination to be certified as a high school science teacher, Gregor Mendel. Consider that aseptic surgery evolved from the theories of a scorned doctor in nineteenth century Vienna who lowered the risk of death from childbirth by urging attending physicians to wash their hands before participating in delivery, Ignaz Philipp Semmelweiss. Consider that the men who first achieved powered flight were two self-educated bicycle mechanics working in Akron, Ohio, at the turn of the twentieth century, Orville and Wilbur Wright, and the man who showed the possibility of transoceanic flight was a college dropout, Charles Lindbergh. And man has developed a field of endeavor that seems to have no limits – scientific exploration, what was once called natural philosophy. In only a few centuries, man has probed the smallest of the small, down to sub-atomic particles, and the largest of the large, outer space and the galaxies. Each time it appears that the smallest or the largest has been identified, something smaller or larger is discovered. Along the exciting journey of scientific exploration, a few of our fellow men have emerged as anomalies, exceptional achievers. In this context, Isaac Newton comes to mind as perhaps the greatest anomaly of our species. Born in poverty in rural middle seventeenth century England after his father had died, then abandoned by his mother at age three when she remarried to a man who did not want the child, in solitude he grew to master the mathematics of his day and then to invent new mathematics, the calculus, to solve the mysteries of planetary motion and other