talks, talks, and more talks....

so... i have two talks to prepare in the next couple weeks, though one is coming up in two days. how does one make "using a diode laser to study the carbon 13/carbon 12 isotope ratio" interesting, even to scientists? though the other talks in the series didn't reach out to p-chem types, i suppose i have a duty to make mine reachable by the synthetics...

the other talk will likely be more fun, in that it is on a computational project i did this past semester, and i'll be giving the talk at a computational chemistry conference in july. chatting with peers will (or should) be pretty fun!

i was reading the most recent issue of national geographic today, and i had no idea that the chinese of the ming dynasty were such accomplished seafarers. the ships that they sailed were incredible. i think i'm going to find a book about them and read it!

current reading list:
1. the odd quantum - a great laymans book on quantum mechanics (you need a little math though)
2. the early middle ages (300-1000) - a very dry account, but full of wonderful commentaries and stories about several interesting tribes/groups that shaped the european continent.
3. the one year bible - i've never read the whole thing, and it's high time i did