Natalie Angier’s piece is here. For the record, my favorite color is green.

Back from Seoul and Beijing–access to Blogger was not so easy from the latter.

Here’s the latest on the fiscal cliff scenario from ScienceInsider. The NIH and NSF cuts are breathtaking. But note the mention of DOD at the end:

The cuts would be somewhat deeper—9.4%—for defense research programs.

Not good…

I’m waiting for a meeting in my all time favorite part of the NIH campus in Bethesda: the slightly dive-like Clinical Center basement cafeteria (now food court).  It was the locus of many an intense conversation during my postdoctoral years here. In those days the food was foul, the cigarette smoke pungent, but the science talk was great!  Well the smoke is gone, but all the rest is  still here.  Here’s hoping that the NIH sees fit to preserve the black socks and sandals atmosphere long into the future.

On Wednesday of this week, the University begins to stir from Summer with the annual planning conference that, to my mind, marks the beginning of the semester. Classes don’t begin for another ten days or so, but you can already feel the Institution picking up its pace.

Superimposed upon a sense of impending activity are the concerns about the macro-changes that are central to the current higher education debate and the sense that political paralysis may indeed lead to this country going over a “fiscal cliff” in January.

I’m sure these will be among the major topics for discussion in Aspen, later this month….

Spent the last two days rebuilding my office Mac. Not so much fun. Thank you Dropbox and iCloud!

Just announced as the recipient of the 2012 Outstanding Mentor Award by the Biology Division of the National Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR).  This is terrific news for Mason and Krasnow. Congrats Dan!

Advanced Studies is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at krasnow.blogspot.com.

The student population is down and so is the traffic. We’re back from the Memorial Day weekend, but the pace on campus is a bit more relaxed. At the Krasnow Institute, the work on the card-swipe system for the front doors, continues….

This week I’ll be at the NSF in Arlington for a panel review. It’s hard work, but always very interesting.

Mason Deans and Provost 2012