Booknotes 2007

Book Ideas

100 Top Books By 100 UW Authors some interesting books by University of Washington authors

Luis Alberto Urrea (From The Week 7 April 2006)
He is the author of The Devil's Highway and Then Hummingbird's Daughter.
He recommends Nobody's Angel by Thomas McGuane, The Stand, Desrt Solitaire, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, THe Essential Haiku by Robert Haas, and The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems by Diane Wakoski. An interesting selection - several I alraady like, so my guess is that there is a fair chance that I will enjoy some of the others he has selected.

Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon - maybe???





Books Read by me

January
Truck: A Love Story (Audio) by Michael Perry
Population - 485 - Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren At A Time (Audio) by Michael Perry
Both of these are about Perry's life in New Auburn, Wisconsin when he returns to his hometown after 12 years of living in the "outside" world.

February
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (Hardcover)by Ray Kurzweil

April
At Dawn We Slept

May
The Last Season by Eric Blehm
Lichens by Wiliam Purvis

Kavli Foundation

I read about the Kavli Foundation in an article published in the Seattle Times on 26 Nov 2006. The foundation has created 14 Kavli Institutes that are devoted to nanotechnology, neuroscience and astronomy.

In the nanoscience (nanotechnology) area there are three institutes:

The Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science

The Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology in Holland

Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard University

In the neuroscience area there are three institutes:

The Kavli Institute for Neuroscience at Yale University, led by Pasko Rakic

The Kavli Institute for Brain Science at Columbia University. Directed by Eric Kandel

The Kavli Institute for Brain & Mind at the University of California, San Diego. Led by Nicholas Spitzer and Jeffrey Elman,

In Physics (including cosmology and astrophysics) there are 6 institutes:

The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara

The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University

The Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago

The Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics China at the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University

The Kavli Prizes of $1 million prizes will be awarded every two years beginning in 2008 in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience.

"Some of the most fascinating scientific research today is being done at the nanoscale, the realm of atoms and molecules. I expect that the Harvard Institute will contribute significantly to our knowledge of nanoscale processes, and help to harness them for the benefit of humanity."
Fred Kavli - Sep, 2006

"I like to look far into the future, I think it's important for the benefit of all human beings."

"We don't try to tell the institutes what to do. We try to just select the very best science teams and institutions and support them in what they want to do, and we expect them to choose the very best course of action."

"I am a fully fledged optimist."
Fred Kavli Nov, 2006

Kavli made his money with Kavlico, which specialized in navigational sensors for the defense and aircraft industries. He sold it for $345 million to C-Mac Industries in 2000. He also has substantial Southern California real estate. He immigrated from Norway to the US in 1955.