On April 11, 2018, the University of Siegen, my hometown, awarded the Ehrendoktor degree to me. It spurred a week of events in Siegen, including the signing of the Golden Book in Siegen’s Rathaus, and the Fuerst-Johann-Moritz Gymnasium, my former highschool. We just came back, exhausted, after a wonderful week meeting many nice people. Below … Continue reading
. This is the layout of the Palace in the Forbidden City, Beijing. You can see the layout on a big sign as you enter the Forbidden City. I noticed that the layout can be interpreted as the schematic diagram of a modern electron microscope, with field emission gun, two condensor lenses, objective lens, two … Continue reading
. Ribosomal subunit on the beach! The fact it is so low in resolution is not surprising, given the wear and tear over millennia. What is surprising is the … Continue reading
Some buddy called Ribo is featured here eating his cake and having it. How it came to this wordplay is too complicated to explain. Ask Elizabeth. At any rate, here we are in Granlibakken (a word that might also go back to a confusion of terms, a total miscommunication between a Finnish sailor and a … Continue reading
Long time ago I used to make little boxes and panorariums, like works by Joseph Cornell. Some have survived the many moves, but barely. Everything has become shaky and unreliable. It is astounding that the head is still in place. I’m sure the circuit board no longer works. It’s a curiosity, really, but I haven’t … Continue reading
. Colleagues of mine whom I invited to come to Stockholm presented me with this exquisite gift. It represnts a different direction of viewing the world from the one I was familiar with. I appreciate the empathy expressed in this deed: they all recognize what they would do if in my skin — do things … Continue reading
. A few days ago my brother in law, husband of my sister who succumbed to cancer almost 20 years ago, sent me a drawing I must have given her once. He placed it in a large rustic wooden frame. It’s less than 2 x 2 inches, and depicts one of the creatures of netherworld … Continue reading
Nobel Media/The Nobel Foundation Signing the book in the office of the Nobel Foundation. With me is my wife Carol. The book has been kept since 1952. Every page represents a year. Even if nothing had impressed me before, this book certainly sends shivers down my spine. Obama’s signature right next to Venki Ramakrishnan, … Continue reading
SPORKNIK . . . is a truly new dining experience. It has now been officially featured in THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE following an interview Heather Bellow, the Eagle’s investigative reporter, had with me in a tiny yet quite popular cafe in Great Barrington, Massachussets. Few people know the real story behind this invention. It would take … Continue reading
Star misalignment is a serious condition. We all want to be whole, after all. Is it not tempting to sit down and relax and enjoy the afternoon in Bangalore’s Botanical Garden?
In going on the record saying I would not put my foot in the White House as long as Trump, Pence, Ryan will occupy it I exercised my right of free speech. I’m somewhat troubled by the comments I received, which called me a hero for saying this. What this seems to indicate is that … Continue reading
At Coogan’s, the famous Irish bar just around the corner. We go there sometimes to celebrate a paper in Nature. Ming came all the way from California to celebrate. That’s dedication! Thanks to everybody! — Joachim
. The USA is exceptional, on moral high grounds, when its presidents are one high grounds. Unsurprisingly, the moral grounds of the USA is below average when it is being led by a moron. We cannot rest until this absurdity of a leader is removed, and we will not rest to deal with the incompetent … Continue reading
On Wed Oct 4, 2017, I was notified that I have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Jesus Christ. Holy Cow. I’m a different person now. Someone recognized me on the 1-Train. How come you still take the subway? In other words, privilege is the immediate outcome of this new status. The most satisfying … Continue reading
My ferocious competitor in instant fiction, master of the flies and master of cognitive chaos, has changed the rules of the game. It is not to our advantage. We used to be able to make up stories, tongue in cheek, creating an alternative world to illuminate the real one in which we wake up every … Continue reading
So I curved my hand and left two spaces between my knuckles, and these should have produced two disks of light when exposed to the sun, but instead each became an image of the eclipse, and the incursion of the moon is interpreted as the direction of the movement of the eye.
Trump takes the wind out of my imagination, hence out of my responses to current affairs as a writer. I used to think satire is the way to go in dealing with things that are wrong in this world. Satire sharpens the thinking by pushing things into their extremes. “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, … Continue reading
The reference problem is an old problem. We do measure the actions of people by norms that have been established before. All our actions, our pronouncements, are predicated on assumptions we all hold dear. Even satire requires a general system of reference to be heard and understood. Rogues are by definition people who defy norms. … Continue reading
Seeing a Litfass Säule in Krakow invoked childhood memories from Germany in the 50s where these advertisement columns were everywhere. These were large cylindrical columns made of concrete, erected for the mere purpose of acting as walls for advertisements, such as for concerts, circuses, lectures. Now with … Continue reading
The gallery is in a new building, in Manhattanville. I was the only visitor at that time. I took the picture from the side, to avoid glare. (It occurs to me now that the perspective distortion is a test of three-dimensionality. Hence … Continue reading
