Every time i’ve had to replant anything with serious roots and shake the dirt out i just can’t unsee the parallel
The books I'm reading at the moment.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - I love this book. It puts you in the perspective of the time and space you occupy, I found a lot of my own thinking and feelings within the pages of this book. A guy born in AD 121 has very clear view on life that is still relevant today.
Great Adaptations by Kenneth Catania - A professor of biological sciences takes you on a journey with him while he studies various animals adaptive abilities. Star nosed moles, electric eels, tentacled snakes... Very interesting insight in how these creatures evolved and adapted.
What we cannot know by Marcus du Sautoy - Explains concepts from the ground up, I like the illustrations that accompany the text and practical examples. Lays foundations to the known and wonders into the future of research and the possibilities that come with it as well as limitations. Covering themes from quantum physics and cosmology to sensory perception and neuroscience.
Labyrinths of reason by William Poundstone - "Blue sky, sunshine, deja vu glazed with dread." How do you know this isn't all a dream? Is anything certain? Ontology, logic, mathematics, deduction, epistemology, memory formation, paradoxes and puzzles.
A brain for numbers by Andreas Nieder - Humans' understanding of numbers is intuitive. How are infants able to perceive numbers even before they learn the words for them? How do our brains process numbers? Can animals count? He shows how it is an adaptive ability and that plenty of animals have the number sense too. There is a variety of research and supporting evidence mentioned which I really like.
Surface display of the various structures that play a role in either coloring (e.g. valence circuits) or encoding (interoceptive and cognitive circuits) emotional awareness states source
Hunter gatherer, prying open the seeds, got curious enough, started peeling its own skin, digging underneath, born with scars on your hands, stardust, sun sent, the first flesh you ever tasted, your own, folded flesh underneath the bone, and two eyes gazing in oblivion, oblivious of obvious
Light photons, which make up the world around us, were observed inside a vacuum. Their natural locations were completely random.
Human DNA was then inserted into the vacuum. Shockingly the photons were no longer acting random. They precisely followed the geometry of the DNA.
About a month ago I was presenting at the annual conference of the Dutch Physical Society Fysica 2021. Now, I got the June issue of their magazine, in which they look back at the highlights of the conference. I was in a good company indeed!
In the Young’s Speakers Contest I ended up closely second with 34% of the votes from the 700 people listening to the story of my research. (The winner got 38%.)
Although I did not win the contest, I was presenting at the same stage with two Nobel Prize winners in Physics and got a brilliant response from the audience. This meeting will for sure stay in my memory and the magazine page goes directly on a display in my home office. I am immensly proud of myself and take this achievement as a great motivation to keep doing what I love — high quality research.
Recording of the whole virtual meeting via the link below. If you are curious about my work, jump to the presentation at 01.37.19 – Adela Melcrova: ‘No pores: The unexpected physics of a new antibiotic’. https://www.fysica.nl/