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I think of the ones I consider my favorites / I think of the people that are working for me

I finished a stint on a National Science Foundation grant review panel this afternoon — my eighth, I think, and the second in which I was a “virtual panelist,” joining by videoconference a panel physically held in Washington, D.C. Thinking of the pros and cons of being a virtual panelist brings up the broader questions … Continue reading I think of the ones I consider my favorites / I think of the people that are working for me

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On the injection of thawed meat through garden hoses

Biophysicists are, I think, expected to have broad-ranging interests and skills. When I was interviewing for faculty positions, for example, I was asked in all seriousness, “When I cook a chicken in a pot and it makes a squishy sort of jelly, what is that?” Despite being vegetarian and never having experienced chickens-in-pots, I babbled … Continue reading On the injection of thawed meat through garden hoses

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City of Glass

Greetings from New York City. My work is very simple. I have come to New York because it is the most forlorn of places, the most abject. The brokenness is everywhere, the disarray is universal. You have only to open your eyes to see it. The broken people, the broken things, the broken thoughts. The … Continue reading City of Glass

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On how impractical cuisine can save the humanities

A few weeks ago, following a post on Steve Hsu’s blog, I read an interesting essay by Steven Pinker on science and the humanities: “Science Is Not Your Enemy An impassioned plea to neglected novelists, embattled professors, and tenure-less historians.” It seems these days there’s a deluge of text on the state of the humanities, … Continue reading On how impractical cuisine can save the humanities

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Graphs of Science Funding

  There was some conversation in the department today about science funding trends, the discouragingly low success rates for grants, etc. Just to have a place to point to, I’ll post some graphs, with almost no commentary.  Here’s science funding over the past few decades, in constant dollars, from Paula Stephan’s excellent How Economics Shapes … Continue reading Graphs of Science Funding

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Books + Berkeley

When I was an undergrad at Berkeley, aside from doing radio astronomy, I worked in Paul McEuen’s lab examining electronic transport in nanostructures, working especially with a  great postdoc named David Cobden. Looking through the contents of last week’s Nature, it was a fun surprise to see pieces by both of these people: one paper, … Continue reading Books + Berkeley