Save our Science (S.O.S.)
Many young British and European scientists came as a rite of passage for advanced training in top American Universities and now they mostly come from East Asia and India. I went home after a year at Duke and came back
Academia
The Sound of Noise & Silence
Among many things we will remember after the coronavirus pandemic, the world was quieter than normal. When I compared a busy avenue-street intersection in Manhattan before and during the lockdown, I found a 6 decibel (dB) difference, four-fold in amplitude.
In memoriam – Howard W. Jones, Jr. M.D. (1910-2015)
FROM SUN TO SHINING SEA Dr. Howard Jones passed away a year ago today in his 105th year. The following is extracted from the prologue I wrote for “Howard & Georgeanna” (2015) to remind us of our loss. Since pioneer days, very
Milton’s Mulberry Tree
According to tradition, a mulberry tree was planted at Christ’s College in Cambridge the same year that John Milton was born (1608). The tree shaded the poet when he went up to university as an undergraduate, and survives in what
The Genius of Charles Darwin
The gleam of a great idea often glows first and fiercest in an unknown eye and out of a dark corner. How many college dropouts and loners tinkering in their garages have become celebrated silicon entrepreneurs? How many great writers,
Cost of Knowledge
I no longer sleep-walk when writing articles for scientific or medical journals, because I was woken to the drumbeats of an academic spring. As young scientists we were taught we must either “publish or perish” but I now hear the