An Epic Ballade of Texas

My dear old friend Rafael Demarco and his fiancee Carol were married in Brazil this December, and Meg and I attended. Indeed, a good chunk of the Norris attended! Plus, of course, we got there early to tour the country a bit. Meg and I spent one day in São Paulo, but the rest of the time was spent south of there in two of Brazil's three southernmost states. Below is a map of the major cities we visited on our trip (red ovals). The biggest chunk of our trip was spent traveling west to the border of Brazil/Paraguay/Argentina, where we inspected the world's second-largest dam (in terms of energy production). We then took a precarious Christmas-Eve trip (of dubious legality) across the border into Paraguay: [The littered streets of Ciudad del Este] M ost of all, the Norris Family spent Christmas at one of the world's great waterfalls, Iguaçu Falls. Often compared to Niagara falls, upon first approach it does seem similar (though it's located in a...

In the last few months I've had a couple of items of good news at work: I have published a paper (proof that I’ve accomplished something) and secured my own external funding (proof that someone thinks I’ll be able to accomplish something in the future). First off, the paper I published was a nice surprise because of how quickly the whole process went. The project was about developing a new version of a technique called “CRISPR” for use in my organism of choice, the nematode worm C. elegans . (If you haven’t heard of CRISPR, check it out , or wait for a year or two and there will probably be a Nobel Prize for its discovery and application). Anyhow, we were able to develop a new strategy for using CRISPR to quickly and powerfully edit the genome of C. elegans . The whole project from conception to publication took just under a year, which is remarkably quick, and a testament to how well CRISPR works. If you’re interested in the details, check it out here . Seco...