SCALES #1
Hello,
I've started a newsletter! The unpublished pilot episode goes into great detail justifying why I'm doing so, my thoughts about the shortcomings of social media in 2017, &c., &c., but I won't subject you to that. Instead I'll just say that I'm doing this for purely selfish reasons — an outlet to write, a place to compulsively share links that I would otherwise throw into the maw of Twitter.
Any good idea in how this newsletter is put together is shamelessly ripped off from other newsletters I'm subscribed to.
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One thing I've been thinking about recently in lab is the physical craft of experimental science. Recently I heard someone talk about how so-and-so was "probably the best one of us to have been making [a certain kind of] measurements". It seemed odd to me to rank someone as "best" at a type of experiment — a measurement is a measurement, right? I assume all scientists are equally careful, more or less, in making sure the data they share is reliable. The sorts of things I think about differentiating measurements are being a little smarter about designing the experimental setup, or having more resources for fancier equipment.
But, after working this past fall to build a new experiment with an experienced lab scientist, I've become a lot more sensitive to the importance of craft. There can be fine (or coarse) handiwork involved in designing and building parts: delicate operations with tweezers, careful filing down of sharp metal edges, thoughtful consideration of the properties of different materials. These kinds of skills and thinking tend not to show up in scientific publications, which is one reason I've overlooked them, but they're still an important part of the discipline. They can determine whether the paper itself ever can be written in the first place.
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So I've been listening to this podcast...
Aziz, a Sudanese refugee detained by the Australian government on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, sends dispatches to an Australian reporter via WhatsApp voice messages on a smuggled phone. The latest episode of The Messenger would be unbearably bleak if not for Aziz's heroic perseverance and humanity.
Junot Díaz reads and discusses "Seven", a story of immigration by Edwidge Danticat.
Special thanks to the Should We Make Plans? episode of Should We— for providing the final push to actually do this newsletter. It took me multiple attempts to warm to this podcast, but I've been won over by its comforting and encouraging charms.
Links
Playing Soccer in New Orleans.
Tim Carmody's latest guest-hosting run on Kottke.
Science!
HoloGondel travels up and down the Swiss Alps on a cable car, imaging cloud particles using holograms.
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Thanks for bearing with me as this thing decides what exactly it's doing.
—Adam