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Badness you can get easily in quantity; the road is smooth and it lies close by. But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat — long and steep is the way to it, and rough at first.

–Hesiod

More later…

I’m currently writing up several papers and have been working on a series of talks.

One of my graduate advisors recommended that I try giving a proposal in the form of a story. It seemed a little unnatural. After all, scientific research is based on reproducible, testable facts and logical deduction… which are not necessarily [...]

I think this almost goes without saying — that introductory chemistry classes (and to some degree, also organic chemistry as well) doesn’t fit real research activity in the subject. Moreover, while many concepts taught in introductory classes are absolutely required for further chemistry study (i.e., you need to understand ideas about bonding, writing chemical formulas, [...]

As many people have heard, 2005 is the “Year of Physics,” celebrating the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s three revolutionary papers.

I’ve been really enjoying the Quantum Diaries project, which recruited 28 particle physicists from around the world to write about working as physicists as well as their latest research.

(from site description)

Quantum Diaries aims to put a [...]

I probably read 30-40 books a year in my free time, and they usually don’t involve much in the way of science (though the occasional sci-fi page-turner is fun). My mother sent me a reader’s copy of How to Clone the Perfect Blonde by Sue Nelson and Richard Hollingham this fall to review for the [...]