I am happy to announce that I have received a Marie Skłodowska Curie Global fellowship! My lab is going to be at CalTech, USA.
#Californians here on the #Fediverse , I hope to bump into you nice folks sometime. I could use some pointers on how to navigate the place and the system while I'm there. In exchange, I can make some #chai for you!
The first volume, at least, is on the Internet Archive. Now...the thing is, back at #Caltech in 1993 or so, I read ALL of the equally terrible Battlefield Earth and I can't honestly tell you how I managed that, because I have had a look through the book recently and (to quote Todd in the Shadows, speaking of Mission: Earth) that shit is unreadable. It's the sort of book you wish you could somehow play back at 4× speed. I can only assume that the Mission: Earth experience is roughly similar.
And yet, I powered through Battlefield Earth for some reason. Now to be fair, the alternative was enduring Caltech undergrad life. But I've also got this weird vague ghost of an idea that the book gives you a glimpse of Hubbard's genuine cosmology—like, he's telling you what he really thinks the Universe is like and what awaits humanity out among the stars.
Seriously. https://youtu.be/kd0xTfdt6qw?list=PLyQSN7X0ro23NUN9RYBP5xdBYoiv2_5y2
That's awful. He's like a bad software manager burbling in confusing circles around his supposed point and I don't think that's an accident at all because you can bet that #software managers probably think that Richard Feynman was the ideal science teacher and yearn to imitate his breezy discursive manner.
How much money, I wonder, has #Caltech made by marketing this awful man?
RE: https://seattle.pink/@mxchara/116173448051670979
I felt a little bad about bombing @TheBreadmonkey like this so I went to watch Richard Feynman lecture on physics, on YouTube...and he is TERRIBLE. I think he's a disgrace.
No kidding, I used to be in awe of this guy, but I was in awe of him without actually seeing him at work, or what is presumably something like "work" for him. I feel as if I understand the #Caltech experience a little better now.
This man is an anti-educator. He's not trying to impart information. He's trying to impart the sense that he, personally, is the master of deep complicated things that are absurdly simple for a man of his talent, ridiculously simple, so simple that he never quite gets around to fully explaining them. Mainly, Feynman is advertising himself. He's trying to be a "cool professor" of the sort who isn't actually any good at teaching—and if you called him on it, he'd get testy and tell you that his real work is elsewhere. Here in a classroom, Feynman is slumming.
New Chemical Discoveries Pursued Through Lab and Digital Tools
Caltech scientist Melissa Ramirez uses computers and robots to create new spirocycle molecules for potential medicines. Learn how technology speeds up drug discovery.
#DrugDiscovery, #Chemistry, #Caltech, #AIinScience, #Robotics
https://newsletter.tf/caltech-scientist-makes-new-medicine-molecules/
Scientists at Caltech are using AI and robots to discover new medicines faster. This is like having super-fast lab assistants to help create new drug parts.
#DrugDiscovery, #Chemistry, #Caltech, #AIinScience, #Robotics
https://newsletter.tf/caltech-scientist-makes-new-medicine-molecules/
Renowned Astrophysicist Carl Grillmair Fatally Shot at Home; Suspect Arrested
Astrophysicist Dr. Carl Grillmair was shot and killed at his Llano, California home on Monday. A suspect, Freddy Snyder, has been arrested and charged with murder.
#CarlGrillmair, #LlanoShooting, #Astrophysicist, #FreddySnyder, #Caltech
A famous scientist, Dr. Carl Grillmair, was killed at his home. This is a serious crime that has shocked many.
#CarlGrillmair, #LlanoShooting, #Astrophysicist, #FreddySnyder, #Caltech
Clouds: still the biggest plot twist in climate math. According to the article, they cause over half the spread in warming forecasts—2 to 6°C over the next 50 years—so Caltech’s Tapio Schneider is unveiling CLIMA in Japan in March while the Allen Institute for AI backs Chris Bretherton’s ACE2 (released 2024). Physics-first or data-first… which coughs up the hairball? 😼
Climate scientists trying to predict how much hotter the planet will get have long grappled with a surprisingly stubborn problem -- clouds, which both reflect sunlight and trap heat, account for more than half the variation between climate predictions and are the main reason warming projections for ...
Ajay Iyer
Mx. Chara Aznable (they/them) of Pnictogen
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