“She Has Autonomy. She Has A Strong Will. But She Can’t Move. So In Many Ways Her Life Is My Life.

touched by the sun

by Denny Bitte

Man dies. Come from darkness, into darkness he returns, and is reabsorbed, without a trace left, into the illimitable void of time.

Leonid Andreyev. (via drunk-on-books)

Dead Poets Society (1989)

“I came to America when I was six years old. Mom said she brought us here so that we’d have opportunities in life. She said that back in the Bahamas, it’s only the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots.’ She wanted us to have more choices. But I don’t think she fully understood how things work here. She was a news reporter back in the Bahamas. But the only job she could get here was taking care of oldpeople. My dad could only work construction. We moved to four different states just so they could find work. They always told me, ‘Just study hard in school and everything will work out fine.’ So that was my plan. I got all A’s up until the 11th grade– except for one B in math. My goal was to get top twenty in my class, then go to college, then get a degree, and then get a job. I realized the truth my senior year. My guidance counselor told me I couldn’t get a loan. I couldn’t get financial aid. Even if I could find a way to pay for school, I probably couldn’t get a job. I felt so mad at everyone. There were some kids who completely slacked off in school, but even they were going to college. I started having panic attacks. My dad told me not to worry. He called me a ‘doubting Peter.’ He invited all his friends over to a fish fry to help raise money. And he did get $3,000. But that wasn’t enough. So I searched really hard on the Internet and found the Dream.us scholarship. My mom was so excited when I got it. They’re paying for me to go to Queens College. Now my mom’s really scared again because DACA got revoked. She’s crying all the time at work. I try to tell her that no matter what happens, we’re not going to die. We just might have to start over.”

Rabies Viruses Reveal Wiring in Transparent Brains

Scientists under the leadership of the University of Bonn have harnessed rabies viruses for assessing the connectivity of nerve cell transplants. Coupled with a green fluorescent protein, the viruses show where replacement cells engrafted into mouse brains have connected to the host neural network.

The research is in Nature Communications. (full open access)

Earlier this fall, I attempted my first corn maze. It didn’t work out very well. Early on I unknowingly cut through an area meant to be impassable and thus ended up missing the majority of the maze. Soap, as it turns out, is a much better maze-solver, taking nary a false turn as it heads inexorably to the exit. The secret to soap’s maze-solving prowess is the Marangoni effect. 

Soap has a lower surface tension than the milk that makes up the maze, which causes an imbalance in the forces at the surface of the liquid. That imbalance causes a flow in the direction of higher surface tension; in other words, it tends to pull the soap molecules in the direction of the highest milk concentration. But that explains why the soap moves, not how it knows the right path to take. It turns out that there’s another factor at work. Balancing gravitational forces and surface tension forces shows that the soap tends to spread toward the path with the largest surface area ahead. That’s the maze exit, so Marangoni forces pull the soap right to the way out! (Video credit: F. Temprano-Coleto et al.)

Tuz Gölü - Cereal  / WORDS & PHOTOS: Peter Edel

FOR THE AMERICAN COLOUR FIELD PAINTER BARNETT NEWMAN, THE EMPTY, BOUNDLESS LANDSCAPE ENHANCED AN INDIVIDUAL’S SENSE OF PRESENCE WITHIN THEM. THE TUZ GÖLÜ, THE SALT LAKE LOCATED IN THE CORE OF TURKEY’S ANATOLIAN PENINSULA, IS ONE OF THE PLACES IN THE WORLD WHERE THIS UNDERSTANDING IS EXPERIENCED MOST PROFOUNDLY.

Wanting to feel productive, the grad student prints multiple articles with reckless abandon.

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Director - Peter Weir, Cinematography - John Seale

“Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Don’t be resigned to that. Break out!“