I’m behind on posting and we talked about a lot of interesting things today. Some housekeeping:
Earlier this evening I had confused Linus Pauling’s discovery of alpha helicies with August Kekulé’s earlier discovery of the ring structure of benzene, a discovery he claimed came to him in a daydream about the ouroboros.
Pyrophoric materials burn constantly at room temperature in the presence of an oxidizer (i.e., most of the time you’d encounter them).
“Alea iacta est“–”the die is cast”–is what Julius Caesar is reported to have said as he crossed the Rubicon river in defiance of the Roman Senate, his first overt step to becoming emperor.
Maxwell’s demon is hard to explain concisely, but it has nothing to do with fire.
The Vader Sessions. James Earl Jones did the voice for Darth Vader, but he also did the voice for every movie with James Earl Jones in it. After watching this clip, you will never forget this.
