2023 Silent Journey – Reflections Our child’s school had a 2-day event recently called “Silent Journey & Discovery.” The school let the parents — no children — come and spend time in classrooms for each age group, flowing “up” chronologically throughout both days. The first day was a brief silent walk through each room in … Read more
What I did below (indented) was first to free write this once, and then loosely edit it ~2x. There are whole pages more I could say, dozens of links I could provide, and extra super-conspiratorial objections like those of some baby-boomers I could also respond to… stuff like A) the vaccines are made from aborted … Read more
2,200 words Read time @ 250 words/minute: 9 minutes I wrote this essay because I often wear a rock necklace, and am sometimes asked why I do so. In addition to responding to the general question, the purpose of this essay is to differentiate between blind faith in some mystical “powers” of rocks and crystals, and … Read more
In 2013, in my first semester of graduate school, I had an idea: “What if we could trace the effects of a single nutrient from physics/chemistry/geology up through biology, past neuroscience and behavior, through all other areas of the university, from economics and art history to geopolitics and beyond?” Not until 2017 did I realize … Read more
Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology, Johnjoe McFadden “Dig deeper and you will always find quantum mechanics lurking at the heart of our familiar reality.” Remember this. This is probably the most intellectually challenging book I’ve ever read, but it was worth it, and I’m as excited to review it … Read more
Hello! — If you’re new to my blog… how about reading What “Inclusion” Means to Me first? 2022 Addendum #1 — Written in 2017 when my wife was pregnant, this essay has recieved some disproportionate traffic lately. Although I disagree with a few sentences here and there, and I’m delighted to see more visible female … Read more
Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body Jo Marchant (2016) “AS INDIVIDUALS, rather than putting our faith in mystical rituals and practices, the science described in this book shows that in many situations, we have the capacity to influence our own health by harnessing the power of the (conscious and unconscious) mind.” … Read more
The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science (TED Books), Siddhartha Mukherjee, 2015 “Is medicine a science?” ““Doctors,” Voltaire wrote, “are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.”” I read this book because of a … Read more
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari, 2015 The best history book I’ve ever read. In his first of four sections, on the cognitive revolution, Harari traces humans past their success out-competing other hominid species. Whether deliberately or proximally (and likely both), we eliminated all our competitors. This revolution came about perhaps because … Read more
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, Mary Roach (2013) Mary Roach’s Gulp was everything I’d hoped for, and a wonderful book for me to read. To call it interesting would be a massive disservice – the content is rich in story, wild yet grounded facts, and prose colorful enough to stimulate any sense while reading. … Read more