Safi's Books, Speaking, Advising
Forty three years ago, a pair of family friends presented me with an unpublished poem written by Albert Einstein. The poem is unpublished; this post is its first share, as far as I know. The poem was typed in German at the top of a single sheet of paper. Underneath was a handwritten English translation. [ ] The post A Poem from Einstein appeared first on Safi Bahcall .
Jony Ive is the legendary designer of many of the most famous Apple products iPod, iMac, iPad, iPhone. In an interview with Graydon Carter (clip here), the editor of Vanity Fair, Carter asked Ive about the most important life lessons he took away from working with Steve Jobs. Ive replied that the most important [ ] The post The best idea from Steve Jobs appeared first on Safi Bahcall .
On March 20 last year, the WSJ published my op-ed saying the nation needed a “scientist general” to unite industry, academia, and federal agencies in the same way that Vannevar Bush did eighty years ago, on the brink of world war. Bush succeeded because he was able to bridge industry, academia, and federal agencies unlike anyone else [ ] The post A brief note on the president s science advisor…
In this letter: Why good teams kill great ideas, and so many innovation labs fail The beautiful baby problem Inventor vs. champion Changing structure rather than culture How to win the next war The quote at the top is from Kill Chain, by Christian Brose, which anyone who cares about national security should read. [ ] The post How to win the next war appeared first on Safi Bahcall .
From vacuum robots to balls through windows to mRNA: the story of the first covid vaccine In 1995, Dr. Katalin Karikó, a Hungarian born biochemist, suggested a crazy idea: use the body’s own cells to manufacture drugs. Her grants were rejected. She was demoted from her tenure-track job at U Penn. But she never gave [ ] The post appeared first on Safi Bahcall .
The Norse believed the sun god drove a chariot daily from east to west across the sky. The Aztecs believed our sun was fifth in a continuous cycle of suns. The Roman festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti celebrated the rebirth of the sun god every year (the date, by the way, on the Julian calendar: December 25). [ ] The post My father and the mystery of how stars shine appeared first on Safi Bahcall…
Vaccine news Monoclonal antibody treatments (Regeneron, Lilly) and vaccines both continue to show encouraging results (good spreadsheet tracker here and visualization tool here). Much more data (phase 3) is expected in the fall. Although anything can happen in drug development, odds look good for FDA approval and limited roll out by end of year. What s most encouraging to [ ] The post Vaccine…
The English are fools and madmen … they give their children the small-pox to prevent their catching it” -Voltaire, ca. 1770 In March 1717, Sir Edward Wortley Montagu (descendant of the Montagues featured in Romeo + Juliet), newly appointed as the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, arrived in Constantinople. He brought with him his [ ] The post English Fools and Madmen appeared first on Safi…
“Tennis is the sport in which you talk to yourself. No athletes talk to themselves like tennis players. Pitchers, golfers, goalkeepers, they mutter to themselves, of course, but tennis players talk to themselves—and answer. In the heat of a match, tennis players look like lunatics in a public square, ranting and swearing and conducting Lincoln-Douglas [ ] The post Talking to yourself appeared…