Dr. Thomas Kiorboe made me happy today

I am beginning to think that it was a very bad idea to begin a blog when I am also beginning my preparations for my oral exams in March. Ah well. We'll see if I can keep something interesting up. I'll have lots to share after the exam, though, so stay tuned!

I cracked the books this evening and was surprised to find...
(This post is long! Click for more...)

that I was really enjoying one of the books I need to get through before my execution-style questioning: A Mechanistic Approach to Plankton Ecology, by Thomas Kiorboe. Understand that I am in the science business because I am fascinated with the natural world, especially how order arises from apparent chaos and population-sized patterns result from individual-based actions. But I am generally not enthralled by ANYTHING that I feel I NEED to read, especially any publication resembling a textbook.

But Dr. Kiorboe has such a clear writing style and follows his formula derivations with interesting examples that really bring everything home. If I am asked questions that are dealt with in this book, I am going to do pretty well, I think. Unfortunately, I doubt all the questions will be plankton-based.

(How much of a dork am I, hoping that they will ask me to get all mathy about diffusion? Wow. They say grad school changes you, but nobody every told me it'd be like THIS. Maybe Kate expected it...)

Here's my current spokes-species: Euphausia pacifica


Cute little thing, huh?