The geometer of race. (Cover Story)

From: Discover | Date: November 1, 1994| Author: | Copyright information

INTERESTING STORIES often lie encoded in names that seem either capricious or misconstrued. Why, for example, are political redicals called "left" and their conservative counterparts "right"? In many European legislatures, the most distinguished members sat at the chairman's right, following a custom of courtesy as old as our prejudices for favoring the dominant hand of most people. (These biases run deep, extending well beyond can openers and scissors to language itself, where dexterous stems from the Latin for "right," and sinister from the word for "left.") Since these ...

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