Once again, a post about notable books I read last year, some great, some awful. (Past years’ lists: 2018 , 2017, 2016, and 2015.) Fiction This was the year of long books, at least more so than most years. I finally read all 963 pages of Anna Karenina, which was wonderful — sprawling, fast-moving, and … Continue reading The Year in Books, 2019
I’ll start this year-in-review post with some highlights of the year in fiction, noting the larger than usual amount of science fiction I read — a mistake I will hopefully not make again — and then write about non-fiction, graphic novels, and movies. (Past years’ lists: 2017, 2016, and 2015.) Fiction My two favorites of … Continue reading The Year in Books, 2018 (in which I am reminded that I don’t like science fiction)
When borrowing an elephant femur a few weeks ago I was reminded of the nascent Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, which we’re constructing at the University of Oregon as a center for translational or applied life-science research. The femur was for my Physics of Life class, as I’ve written about before [link]. In brief, … Continue reading On Elephants, Oregon, Science, and Art
It’s time again to think back on my favorites of the books I read last year. (Links: the 2015 and 2016 posts.) Looking back at my notes, it’s striking how many of 2017’s books were awful; usually I have better luck. Awful Books The “abyssmal” category for fiction includes Kapitoil by Teddy Wayne (an inept … Continue reading Highs and lows: Books, 2017
As in 2015, I’ll write a quick post about my favorite books and movies that I read or watched in 2016. Like last year, there’s (almost) nothing in this list relevant to the blog’s usual themes of science and academia — I’ve got two posts on grant writing and teaching half-written, though, so we’ll be … Continue reading Books, books, and movies, 2016
Summary: The background artwork at the café in the new UO Science Library features sketches from UO faculty and student notebooks. If you’re here, go check it out! [Update: Note Eric Johnson’s comment on the sunshades! Update: Lara Nesselroad, below, notes that there is an informational placard next to the artwork!] The Science Library here … Continue reading Science Sketches and Café Cartoons
A few years ago, after too many instances of starting a book and then realizing that I’d read it before, I began to keep a list of the books I’ve read, making a brief note in it each time I finish something. The list makes it easy to look back on what I’ve read in … Continue reading A random walk through bookshelves — books and movies 2015
I’m a bit behind in writing summaries of recently published papers from my group. Here’s one that’s a few months old — I’m spurred to write now since I just learned two days ago that it got onto the cover of JACS, the flagship journal of the American Chemical Society: M. D. Hammers, M. J. … Continue reading Seeing the smell of rotten eggs
As in each of the past six years, I co-organized a Physics + Human Physiology day camp for 11th graders for a week in July, in which we explored wide swathes of science and also learned a bit about how college works. (It’s part of the SAIL umbrella of camps — see here and here.) … Continue reading The ice cream and the dead people
Like last year, several of us from the Physics Department manned a booth at the Oregon Country Fair, the long-running hippie / arts / music / performance / counterculture festival that occurs each year outside Eugene. I worked there today, which was lots of fun. Though our booth was mostly about energy — lots of … Continue reading “You should do birthday parties!” — Year 2 at the Oregon Country Fair
The Eighteenth Elephant 