Ever get hit with the realization that you should have asked for help three mistakes ago? One incident from when I was a science apprentice continues to haunt me. I was an undergrad working in a cell biology lab. Among my regular tasks were two that involved different kinds of cuvettes--small rectangular tubes. One was used to assess bacterial growth; you put a sample of bacteria in liquid culture in the cuvette and measured how much light was blocked by the bacteria. That one was clear; the other cuvette had metal … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Was Canceling The Acolyte a Mistake?
Science Corner
Passing the Baton at the Emerging Scholars Network
It has been a profound privilege to lead the Emerging Scholars Network over the past five years, and in particular, through the COVID pandemic. We launched ESN Conversations which now has over sixty recorded conversations on our YouTube channel. We addressed issues of racism, anti-Asian hate and published the first article on Critical Race Theory within InterVarsity. And we began an online post-doc group, with the help of Washington University post-doc/now faculty member, Ben Wormleighton. I was very pleased to work … [Read more...] about Passing the Baton at the Emerging Scholars Network
Science Corner: A Priest, a Poet and a Mathematician Walk into an Abbey
I recently had the great privilege to spend 9 days in London with my family on a sort of mini-sabbatical after 15 years of service at my day job. A subtle but recurring theme to the visit was how often religion and science came up together. For starters, we patronized several bookstores, and every time the science section and the religion section were in the same room. Now, in a suburban Barnes & Noble in the US, that would be unremarkable because the whole store is basically one room. But these were older buildings, … [Read more...] about Science Corner: A Priest, a Poet and a Mathematician Walk into an Abbey
Science Corner: Dreaming in the Academic Clouds
So far, the explanation for dreams which resonated most for me came from Anil Seth's book Being You. The overall thesis of the book is that our conscious experiences are really predictions about the world around us which are updated based on input from our senses. Dreams, then, are what happens when the predictive aspect is decoupled from sensory corrections. Thus our dreams contain elements from our actual experiences but unconstrained by the need to correspond to anything, even themselves moment-to-moment. That … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Dreaming in the Academic Clouds
Sinai and Synapses: Loving the Lord with all my mind and my neighbor as myself
One very clear memory from my freshman year of college is of a Sunday afternoon that I spent in the library trying to learn the details about the oxidative-phosphorylation, one chemical pathway in mitochondria (i.e., the powerhouse of the cell). I spent hours sitting with my notebook, pen, and biology textbook trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together. My initial motivation was trying to understand enough to pass the test I had the next day. But puzzling through the processes involved in passing electrons … [Read more...] about Sinai and Synapses: Loving the Lord with all my mind and my neighbor as myself