From Anomaly to Expectation

20 years ago I said I didn't think "fascism was knocking at the door" but there I was last night, against my better judgment, flipping among news stations the other day and was still somehow shocked by what is happening. My mind oscillates between cynical helplessness and dissociation. One says nothing I do matters. The other suggests I can protect myself by not looking too closely. Neither is a durable civic posture.

Performance Curves in Education

A student writes, “Increasing effective nuclear charge decreases atomic radius.” It may have been memorized, reconstructed from an electrostatic model, copied from a friend, or polished by AI. The words alone cannot tell me which.

When ‘Too Early to Sue’ Becomes Too Late to Vote

The rightward tilt of US courts has become a full-blown downward spiral. 

The Lighthouse, the Ancient Light, and the Moral Terrain

Stanley Hudson once described his dream on The Office: he wanted to own a decommissioned lighthouse, live at the top, and have nobody know he was there. It is funny because it is perfectly Stanley. No coworkers. No meetings. No Michael Scott. Just sea, silence, and enough distance from humanity to make even retirement feel insufficiently private.

But the lighthouse is a strange place to choose if what you really want is to be left alone.

Carry the Catalyst (Away)

I have been interested in abiogenesis for most of my adult life. I was writing about the chemistry of the first cells on this blog twenty years ago, and at the University of Florida I approached a neighboring question from another direction.

Collections of Atoms III: Coexistence to Communion

Peaceful coexistence sounds like a treaty signed between strangers. You remain there. I remain here. Neither of us destroys the other. The border holds.

Collections of Atoms II: Description Becomes Causation

A thermostat contains a model of the room.