Walking back from an errand yesterday morning, I was startled by the length of my shadow, almost 10 meters long. Yesterday, the first day of winter, marked the pinnacle of shadow-length. From today onward, as the days will begin to lengthen, as solar angles become more generous, concentrating solar radiation on less area, the march... Continue Reading →
Life at the End of Quantum Tunnels
Recently a biochemistry student told me that her classmates looked like they had seen a ghost when their professor seemingly took a left turn from a lecture on cellular respiration and started to discuss quantum tunnelling. But this 90-year discovery keeps surfacing in different contexts, reminding us that without the tunnelling effect, there would be... Continue Reading →
Poor Educational Tools: memes of the smartphone and social weed-ia
With a well developed craft, imagination and proper tools, a good chef can cook a delicious meal from any palatable ingredients. While teaching I often regarded different technologies in the same light. The nature of the technology supposedly did not matter. How it was used---that was the key. But I was being naive. A meal... Continue Reading →