Random Thoughts

Of Momshells And Snowmanning: How Holidays Change Popular Language

I rarely win when it comes to cultural language stuff. Before 1999, an attractive older woman, for example, was to me a "Momshell" and no woman had any objection to a portmanteau of mom and bombshell (if they heard it- but a woman should not hear ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Dec 17 2024 - 1:25pm

Holiday Chess Riddle

During Christmas holidays I tend to indulge in online chess playing a bit too much, wasting several hours a day that could be used to get back on track with the gazillion research projects I am currently trying to keep pushing. But at times it gives me ple ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Jan 6 2025 - 4:49am

Lessons, Advice, And Reflections On Editing A Scholarly Book

In 2023, I bit the bullet by signing a book contract with Springer to work on a difficult compilation of scientific misconduct and problematic science publishing practice. It was planned as an edited book that required expert contributors of the field to ...

Article - Payal Joshi - Feb 5 2025 - 1:26pm

Science Of Sheryl Crow: Cell Phones Cause Cancer But Organic Food Prevents It

Progressives love to get celebrity endorsements for their beliefs, and for good reason; while the right is stuck with Clint Eastwood wandering around unintelligibly- and he disagrees with about half their platform- the other side's famous true believe ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Feb 6 2025 - 10:18am

Are Infectious Diseases A Social Justice Issue? A History Of The World In Six Plagues Has Answers

As we approach the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdowns, there has been ample time to look at what went wrong, and perhaps how we didn't learn much from history. There are many examples and while politicians ignored it, storytellers have not. I ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Feb 20 2025 - 7:38pm

Number Theory In The English Department

(Image by Henry Reich)        One thing, singular. Two or more things, plural. Subjects must agree with verbs in number: It is, they are. ...

Article - Fred Phillips - Mar 10 2025 - 2:23pm

'Here Is The Letter That Has Destroyed My Universe' And 4 More Astrophysics Revolutions

On this day, April 25, in 1929, the world learned how astronomer Edwin Hubble had discovered that the universe was much larger than we had believed. On this day in 2025, you can preorder a book and on the 29th learn about this and four other Astrophysics d ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Apr 25 2025 - 4:00am

How Things Are Made

If the supply chain collapsed tomorrow, could you build a toaster?  Would you really even want to try? People make homemade jam and all-natural weedkillers that are ironically stuffed with chemicals but no one makes their own toaster. It would be among the ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 3 2025 - 8:52am

RIP Richard Garwin, 'The Only True Genius' Fermi Ever Met

Richard Garwin, who died on May 13, 2025, at the age of 97, was sometimes called “ the most influential scientist you’ve never heard of.” He got his Ph.D. in physics at 21 under Enrico Fermi – a Nobel Prize winner and friend of Einstein’s – who called Gar ...

Article - The Conversation - May 19 2025 - 4:30am