If you want your university or business to safely return & *stay open*, the lowest-risk way is 2x/week testing w/ fast-turnaround. If you demand it, you may get it. If you stay silent, there's ~98% chance you won't. Well done Othman Laraki, Color & Carl T. Bergstrom. @OpenCovidScreen

1. One of the best things about being a scientist is that your workplace is filled w/ other scientists doing some weird cool stuff. But we can develop a tunnel vision about our own work & forget how much fun it is just to walk around & talk to people, still something I love to do

Champaign-Urbana Folk & Roots festival is online. Free all weekend, drop in!

As I write I keep coming back to a couple papers by Paul Flory, not because I am citing them but because I wish I could write with this clarity. #polymers #polymerchat

Turkey chili #ThanksGivingAtHome

Caraway seeds seem to very much prefer the oil-water interface

Want to learn about viscoelastic flow instabilities? Check out this virtual (free!) workshop on the subject from Jan 4-7, 2021, with tutorials, talks, and discussions to bring together interested researchers and identify/clarify open questions. Details at bit.ly/3qxUkid!

Postdoc position available for #softmatter #polymerphysics #fluidmechanics enthusiasts & members of The Society of Rheology APS DPOLY APS DSOFT ACS PMSE Division. Focus: #rheology & #fizzics of #plantbased #proteins for #meatalternatives #dairyalternatives. Funding/collaboration: Motif FoodWorks, Inc.

How mRNA went from a scientific backwater to a pandemic crusher wired.co.uk/article/mrna-c…

Here in Italy people started to share this figure claiming that this is the diagram of the 5G chip that has been inserted in the covid vaccine. In reality it is the electric circuit of a guitar pedal and I believe that putting it in the covid vaccine has been an excellent idea💡

#ChemistsWhoCook Samin Nosrat (cook who chemistries?): "It turns out that a lot of ceramic cooking pots are slightly alkaline, and that alkalinity is what makes bean skins tender—that’s why I typically add a pinch of baking soda when I make beans." newyorker.com/culture/the-ne…

On the intertwined history of the science & technology of rubber, its importance for polymer science more generally, & the recurring role Manchester played in that, from 1805 on. Long blogpost, prompted by a course I'm teaching to UoM Materials students. softmachines.org/wordpress/?p=2…

This The New York Times map shows off something I often advise: labeling thematic data in situ, so that people don't need to check the legend. When you can, tell people what the map symbols mean, right there. There's no advantage to making the reader work for it. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Want to see how an astrophysics paper is happening in fast forward? Here you go! That was the last paper of my own PhD and my PhD advisor made the movie to visualize how the scientific writing process happens. 1/5

Known by bluegrass banjo players since the 1940s! Often the band plays a swing feel while the banjo plays straight, puts every 2nd banjo note ahead of the beat. It makes it feel like the banjo is pushing ahead -- exciting! See Earl Scruggs in youtu.be/jmR2qIESbh4 at 0:45