Solid lines signify effectiveness; dotted lines signify fraction of total effort spent on low-level technical work. The person spending...

It’s fascinating to learn of what was previously accepted but no longer is. We used to think the world was flat, and we used to think...

Studying science is different from doing original science. The skillset for getting good grades in undergraduate math/sciences classes...

Computer simulations are an indelible part of modern engineering and science. Take for instance the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in...

All views here are my personal views, not necessarily the view of any employers, past or present. (A quick reminder: The human suffering...

The Winter Olympics in Beijing have begun, but not without controversy. Late last year the US, the UK, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, and...

With COP26 having just ended, there remains the ever-present question of whether it is “fair” for countries like China and India to be...

Daniel Yergin is supposed to be required reading for everyone interested in energy. This specialist has made a name for himself not just...

It’s not uncommon, in scientific talks that have some vague relevance to climate change, for the speaker to say something like, “we need...

In climate change policy discussions, for years there has been debate about which types of regulations should be used to reduce...

Imagine that you eat a sandwich for every meal. But there’s poison in the sandwich. A decent amount. Let’s say the LD50 of this poison is...

As the pandemic was shutting down California and other states last March, I ordered copies of The Plague by Albert Camus and Love in the...

When climate change comes up in conversation, something curious often happens. After the topic is broached someone will state that they...

I just watched The Social Dilemma, the documentary about social media companies. The film discusses the negative effects of these media...

I often see political discussions break down into dishonest disbelief. “How could you possibly think that?” a person says. I call it...

On a positive note, We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer contains some of the best climate-related prose I’ve read. There is...

I'm unsatisfied with most general interest articles about quantum computation. Even those geared towards physicists and other scientists,...

This week all counties in the San Francisco bay, where I live, declared that residents should “shelter in place” because of the...

I was recently asked for my opinion on the do-gooder startup Nori: is it a reasonable way to erase a person’s contribution to climate...

The largest source of my aggravation in the climate change fight, these days, is not climate denial. Factually, yea, climate denial is...