Reflections on some external reading
First: The book by Roel Snieder and Ken Larner "A Guide for Graduate Students and their Mentors"
The small blue book was introduced to me through a seminar prepared by the GGS (Xiaming and Myself) and presented by Dr. Gerhard Pratt. The speaker was fantastic, inspiring, and the best example on how to give a talk. As well, he is charismatic, knowledgeable, and passionate. His love for waves and wave interference and all things geophysics showed in every word and through each slide. He is also a sensitive person, and while telling us about a picture that was taken of himself and his young family on the day he was leaving his mother's company to start a postdoc across the ocean, his voice broke ... his eyes filled with tears .. and I felt his warmth and genuine nature reach to me.
He talked about several books that are worth reading. One of them was Simon Winchester's biography of William Smith "The Map that changed the world", S.J Gould's " Wonderful life", Oliver Sack uncle Tungesten, and Longitude by Dava Sobel ... as well as a couple of other books.
After the talk, we chatted for a bit, and he gave me this book along with a five-pages review by S.J. Gould of Winchester's book.
It took me about a month to read the book, reread the last chapter, and read the review.
The book is such a great advice giver for graduate students and young researchers embarking on going for graduate schools in the sciences (although I can see humanity students using as well). It is divided into several chapters each devoted to a specific issue ..starting by reminding us of Science and the scientific method, how we acquire knowledge, deciding to do research and selecting a good research topic, adviser, and program all the way to giving advice on applying for jobs, negotiation, the academic hierarchy, and some inspiring notes at the end. Two chapters were dedicated to ethics and gender issues. I found that the most beautiful side of the book was using "she" instead of "he" throughout the book when referring to a scientist even though both the authors are males. That is my favorite part, because it is encouraging to see that some people are aware that language used to address scientists plays an important role in mental imaging for all of us.
Anyways, I felt happy for many reasons. One is that I finished reading the book, and I have not finished a single book in a long long time. Two, I feel inspired to join the industry nah just kidding :)
Now, the second reflection is on S.J. Gould's massacre of Simon Winchester's biographic book on William Smith.
I don't even know where and if I should write about this. Gould is a master of writing. He is a God. This was my mental dialogue while reading his artistic critique of Winchester " Holy fuck! .... whoa! what was that?! let me reread this paragraph which started ....five lines ago ... hot damn! how does he put those words together!! what? Hutton wasn't the coiner of this phrase? ... then who made Uniformitarianism? .... My goodness! if you think his work is rubbish, then mine is not even wrong!" and so on.
I am going to go reread this fantastic piece of work again in the hopes that I can retain some of its magnificence within the murky depth of my brain. I will read his next. What a fascinating writer!
The small blue book was introduced to me through a seminar prepared by the GGS (Xiaming and Myself) and presented by Dr. Gerhard Pratt. The speaker was fantastic, inspiring, and the best example on how to give a talk. As well, he is charismatic, knowledgeable, and passionate. His love for waves and wave interference and all things geophysics showed in every word and through each slide. He is also a sensitive person, and while telling us about a picture that was taken of himself and his young family on the day he was leaving his mother's company to start a postdoc across the ocean, his voice broke ... his eyes filled with tears .. and I felt his warmth and genuine nature reach to me.
He talked about several books that are worth reading. One of them was Simon Winchester's biography of William Smith "The Map that changed the world", S.J Gould's " Wonderful life", Oliver Sack uncle Tungesten, and Longitude by Dava Sobel ... as well as a couple of other books.
After the talk, we chatted for a bit, and he gave me this book along with a five-pages review by S.J. Gould of Winchester's book.
It took me about a month to read the book, reread the last chapter, and read the review.
The book is such a great advice giver for graduate students and young researchers embarking on going for graduate schools in the sciences (although I can see humanity students using as well). It is divided into several chapters each devoted to a specific issue ..starting by reminding us of Science and the scientific method, how we acquire knowledge, deciding to do research and selecting a good research topic, adviser, and program all the way to giving advice on applying for jobs, negotiation, the academic hierarchy, and some inspiring notes at the end. Two chapters were dedicated to ethics and gender issues. I found that the most beautiful side of the book was using "she" instead of "he" throughout the book when referring to a scientist even though both the authors are males. That is my favorite part, because it is encouraging to see that some people are aware that language used to address scientists plays an important role in mental imaging for all of us.
Anyways, I felt happy for many reasons. One is that I finished reading the book, and I have not finished a single book in a long long time. Two, I feel inspired to join the industry nah just kidding :)
Now, the second reflection is on S.J. Gould's massacre of Simon Winchester's biographic book on William Smith.
I don't even know where and if I should write about this. Gould is a master of writing. He is a God. This was my mental dialogue while reading his artistic critique of Winchester " Holy fuck! .... whoa! what was that?! let me reread this paragraph which started ....five lines ago ... hot damn! how does he put those words together!! what? Hutton wasn't the coiner of this phrase? ... then who made Uniformitarianism? .... My goodness! if you think his work is rubbish, then mine is not even wrong!" and so on.
I am going to go reread this fantastic piece of work again in the hopes that I can retain some of its magnificence within the murky depth of my brain. I will read his next. What a fascinating writer!
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