How is it that computers can drive cars, interpret MRI scans, and recognize our children in photographs? For decades, we hand-crafted image analysis algorithms for computers to follow. Now, we set computers loose with more general algorithms and mountains of data, and the machines learn on their own. Both of these approaches are fascinating, incorporating … Continue reading Upcoming book announcement! “How We Taught Computers To See”
We often want to grab molecules. We may wish to extract oxygen molecules from the air we breathe, or sugars from our food, or, more deliberately, toxins from a water supply. Nature provides many pairs of molecules that bind to each other — hemoglobin and oxygen, for example — and many more have been invented. … Continue reading Oats + Bacteria = A Light-activated Trap
[Pay graphs updated Aug. 19, 2026, described below.] The University of Oregon (UO) has budget problems, a shortfall of around 25 million dollars per year that will expand if unchecked about 65 million dollars per year, driven largely by falling out of state enrollment (link). For scale, UO’s total annual budget is around $1.8B, and … Continue reading Vice Presidents Flourish at the University of Oregon
I wrote four months ago about the strange, nonsensical proposal from a technology company, Reflect Orbital, to put mirrors in space to reflect sunlight onto the Earth at night, which customers could use to power solar panels to generate electricity. The cost: $5000/hour for the light of one space mirror. As I calculated in my … Continue reading The idiocy of space mirrors continues
If you’ve ever wondered: What has the enrollment in the introductory “Physics with calculus” (PHYS 251) course at the University of Oregon (UO) been over the past 30 years? What about Business Administration 101? You’re now in luck, because I’ve made an online dashboard that allows you to plot the enrollment history for any UO … Continue reading A historical course enrollment visualizer
What makes a college course popular or unpopular? I’ve long been interested in courses for non-science majors that satisfy “general education” requirements, their aim being to foster overall scientific literacy and to convey an understanding of topics that are important to society. I often teach such courses at the University of Oregon, for example a … Continue reading Online courses, supply and demand, and academic integrity
I wonder if fraudulent or foolish investment schemes are more likely to attract victims if the schemes involve high technology, saving the planet, or, especially, both. This came to mind when reading a baffling article published in the New York Times two days ago [1], about a company that wants to put mirrors in space … Continue reading Space mirrors, solar panels, fools, and their money
There are basic facts about the living world that we learn when very young. One is that mammals and birds are warm-blooded. More technically, mammals and birds fall into the category of endotherms, organisms that use internally-generated heat to maintain some preferred body temperature, and I always supposed that the omission of other creatures from … Continue reading Some Like it Hot: Plant Edition
Once again, highlights of the books I read in the past year, including a tale told by a beech marten, memoirs by people much older than me, and a recurring theme of work. (Previous years: 2024, 2023, 2022, …, 2015.) Memoirs I live in Eugene, Oregon, nicknamed “Track Town USA” and the birthplace of Nike, … Continue reading The Year in Books, 2025, in which I learned about work
On a Sunday evening in March, nine months ago, I sat on an airport floor in Los Angeles staring at my laptop, attending an online meeting of the University of Oregon’s faculty union, facing the possibility of going on strike the next day. In August, I wrote emails trying to persuade the university administration not … Continue reading Remembering the year when I almost went on strike
