Monthly Archives: September 2011

All over the news today: Elon Musk announces his intention to eventually somehow build a reusable rocket, which he’s been saying since the beginning of SpaceX anyway. Nowhere to be found: China launches its first space station (admittedly an overstatement … Continue reading →

I went to the evening service of the “Worship and Study” Minyan at Harvard Hillel. The service was a bit uncomfortable for me, as it’s essentially the Conservative interpretation, to which I’m still unaccustomed. Whenever there’s Hebrew happening I am … Continue reading →

I’ve just come back from my second Dissertation Advisory Committee meeting, and I did indeed receive some excellent advice and feedback. One item unanimously agreed item stands out: I need to at least attempt to use my system in a … Continue reading →

My physiology lecture yesterday was especially entertaining, filled with off-topic anecdotes like “You don’t need a blood system to survive” (under ideal conditions, for about 4 months, for certain definitions of “blood system”). I think my favorite concerned the lungs … Continue reading →

Lots of presentations, no time for weblog. Today was a presentation for my Physiology class, on a topic about which I knew next to nothing (thank goodness for expert friends). Next week is my Dissertation Advisory Committee meeting, a progress … Continue reading →

I went to a birthday party today and returned with a gift bag consisting of 17 freshly dug potatoes, weighing at least 10 pounds and representing only a small fraction of the potatoes that were present. This might be more … Continue reading →

In New York City last weekend I walked several times past this building: The building is known as 33 Thomas St.. The Wikipedia article calls it “an extreme example of the Brutalist architectural style”, which seems like a perfect description … Continue reading →

The average human heart beats 3 billion times in a lifetime. There are 7 billion people on planet earth. So if you saw a photo of a different person with every heartbeat, in a lifetime you would see a bit … Continue reading →

This month’s issue of the Harvard Medical School magazine has a perfectly nice article describing a recent publication co-authored by some HMS researchers on the Ebola infection pathway. The article, and the discovery, are excellent: “This research identifies a critical … Continue reading →

This is my third night in New York. I’ve stayed with a different friend or relative each night, which has been great both to spend time with as many people as possible and to avoid wearing out my welcome. The … Continue reading →