ready for their close-up
Hollywood celebrities relish their photo ops, and exert a great deal of effort in putting their best face forward. But while biological entities like cancer …
Biophysics
much depends on dinner
Physicists are pondering all manner of difficult problems and daunting challenges here at the 2007 APS April Meeting in Denver, but among the most pressing …
tongues of fire
There's very little these days that will keep me up past my usual bedtime; chalk it up to one too many all-nighters in college, but …
on butterfly’s wings
One of the best-known poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins — a Victorian-era minister whose writings frequently centered on the glories he observed around him in …
talk to the animals
I have an almost embarrassing affection for the animated film Finding Nemo, especially for Dory, the little blue fish with short-term memory loss, the biggest …
feast or famine
The last month has been pretty brutal for me in terms of travel: it seems like every few days I'm hopping on an airplane and …
along came a spider
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Jen-Luc Piquant had recommended a mixture of honey and sugar paste as a homeopathic alternative treatment for my …
flu fighters
You may have noticed a distinct dimming in the hum of cocktail party chatter lately. Oops. Sorry about that. Blogging has been light this week …
under my skin
A few weeks ago I went on a weekend bike ride along the Mount Vernon trail here in DC, braving the throngs of roller bladers, …
the little sea squid that could
Las Vegas, Jen-Luc and I have decided, is a fascinating mix of high and low culture, a city in which seedy shops for tacky souvenirs …