I submitted a paper 99 days ago. Editor: "... I have not been able to secure reviewers ...  I exhausted your suggested reviewer list and several additional potential reviewers. If you want us to continue ... to supply us with a list of 5-10 additional potential reviewers.

A gut-wrenching tale of bacteria and immune cells -- a blog post about a recent paper from my research group. eighteenthelephant.com/2024/11/30/a-g…

The Year in Books, 2024 My annual post of highlights of the past year's reading, "...featuring the end (for now) of my education in twentieth-century semi-organized crime, a book on semi-organized twentieth-century chimpanzees, and more." eighteenthelephant.com/2024/12/31/the…

Thoughts on last term's image analysis course, including the question of why, in 2024, should one learn about image analysis methods. -- Image Analysis Course Recap, Fall 2024 eighteenthelephant.com/2025/01/10/ima…

A very cold bike ride this morning (27 F), but even better than usual scenery crossing the Willamette.

Why Don't Academics Care About Artificial Intelligence? -- A new blog post. (Probably more general than academics...) eighteenthelephant.com/2025/02/03/why…

A new blog post, on a surprising (to me) source of light: The Bright Side of Life (Literally) eighteenthelephant.com/2025/03/04/the…

U. Oregon faculty union: Strike Authorization Vote opens March 11. U. Oregon Board of Trustees, announcing a March 7th Ad Hoc Board Meeting: "Subjects of the meeting will include employment contracts for intercollegiate football coaches." Great leadership... University of Oregon GoDucks

The Chinese translation of my pop-science biophysics book! (Arrived yesterday.) (steve hsu: get ready for further acceleration of STEM in China...)

The most important, and the most pointless, course I've taught -- thoughts on my first time teaching intro physics. eighteenthelephant.com/2025/04/11/the…

"Are we missing 400 students?" -- A new post, probably only of interest, if to anyone, to Oregonians or maybe others at state universities. Do we have fewer out-of-state students than expected? eighteenthelephant.com/2025/05/06/are…

I have completed my university's new "cybersecurity awareness training." It is an utter waste of time. You will be shocked to know that the answer to "There are actions you can take to reduce security risks... True or False" is *True*!

Is this appalling message supposed to be uplifting? I would guess this is just a (badly) made-up statistic, and 10% of young adults aren't driving under the influence. Otherwise, we should just give up on society. At a #Seattle light rail station this morning. (Sound Transit - 🚆 🚈 🚍 )

(for tree planting) Boxed Water , #BetterPlanet

I put together a rough presentation on how US science funding works, for my & neighboring research groups, mainly aimed at grad students. Lots of neat graphs! (Each could be a story of its own...) Quiz questions! I pasted it into a blog post: eighteenthelephant.com/2025/06/11/an-…

Course recap of last term's "The Physics of Solar and Renewable Energies". The possibly interesting part is the wind power graph, fairly near the start. eighteenthelephant.com/2025/07/18/cou…