Adam J Taylor

To Provence and Paris

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:00:00 +0100

Tomorrow I fly south to Provence. I’m meeting a few friends from The Vintage Club¹ to hit the vineyards of Côtes de Provence, Cassis and Bandol, with hopefully a blast up to Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The plan is thus: Swim, drink, eat, drink, swim, drink, eat, repeat.

After seven days, and with a thoroughly marinaded liver, I then blast up to Paris on the TGV for a few days staying with an old friend, and celebrating the recent engagement of another.

This is probably the last guilt free holiday for a few years as I prepare to start my PhD proper (as opposed to the lab rotations of the last academic year) at the end of the month. I truly plan to disconnect, kickback and unwind. I cant wait!

Alumni of The University of Bath Wine Society, aka serious drinkers. ↩

A ship in the harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:43:00 +0100

A ship in the harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

I just love this wonderful, hand-illustrated card that Emily made for my birthday last week, bringing back memories of the indescribable Roche Continents.

"Science is what you can get away with."

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:00:16 +0100

“Science is what you can get away with.”

- Zen Faulkes

"You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on..."

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:20:00 +0100

“You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.”

- Carl Sagan. The title of today’s but does if float. Whilst I concur with the second half of the quotation, I feel very uneasy about the first statement.

berezina replies:

“Scientists have faith that the material world can be explained through observation and logic. So do religious people - at least up to the occurrence of miracles - but also have faith in something beyond observation and logic.”

"The metric academics need to hit is “good enough,” and after that, “better than..."

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:09:58 +0100

“The metric academics need to hit is “good enough,” and after that, “better than good enough,” if time permits. Forget that the word perfect exists. Otherwise, one can sink endless amounts of time into a project long after the scientific mission was accomplished. One good-enough paper that got submitted is worth an infinite number of perfect papers that don’t exist.”

- Iterate toward perfection - Matt Might.

"It was also a wake up call for me, living in cultures that endorse “instant” information and..."

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:45:00 +0100

“It was also a wake up call for me, living in cultures that endorse “instant” information and entertainment, where meanings are spoon-fed and generic… where you try to be what the society wants you to, where you are as good as how much your job pays you. this experience changes my whole view or arts and science and shows me a higher intensity of professionalism. And then there’s Wolfgang Rihm.”

- Lana was just one of the amazing people I met at Roche Continents. Here she recognises a great point: The course as a call for a passionate, engaged life. We all can be so much better.

I really must get around to writing my own thoughts on the whole surreal experience, before the memories start to fade.

Munich was a revelation. Following the sleeper train from Paris,...

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:51:00 +0100

Munich was a revelation. Following the sleeper train from Paris, Christian and I arrived in the city very early, before the morning quiet was spoilt by the din of commuters from the suburbs or tourists roused from their egyptian cotton hotel linen. We hopped from church to church, pausing in the peaceful splendour of each; browsed the Viktualienmarkt, admiring the fishmongers; Sipped coffee in the shade of the Hofgarten, resting our legs.

Once the city began to get busy we met Emily, fresh off the plane, and Matthias, who took us to a lovely Italian restaurent just around the corner from his lab. Tucked in the leafy courtyard we ate simple fish and discussed the wonders that lay ahead of us in Salzburg.

It’s clear why Monocle Magazine recently named Munich the most liveable city in the world. It’s clean, charming, efficient, and with a lovely village-city feel. I look forward to visiting again soon.

Paris was wonderful. A day and a half spent café hopping around...

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:40:00 +0100

Jardin des Tuileries

La Cité

Pont des Arts

Paris was wonderful. A day and a half spent café hopping around the my favorite bits, especially the 7me and Île Saint-Louis. Only one gallery trip: a very humid afternoon in the Musée Rodin, mainly spent dozing in the beautiful garden. I return for a second take in September.

Quid Est Deus. A live translation

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0100

Quid Est Deus. A live translation:

On Monday I had the pleasure of hearing Wolgang Rihm’s epic cantata for choir and orchestra Quid Est Deus (What is God?) performed in Salzburg’s beautiful Kollegienkirche.

It consists of twenty four answers to the question What is God?, taken from a Latin text from the Apocrypha, ascribed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. The programme to the Kontinent Rihm concert series, of which this was a part, provided the original Latin alongside a modern German translation.

Following the concert I, along with several other Roche Continents participents, discussed that, rather than plucking a translation straight from the internet, it might be nice to have a stab at remembering some of our schoolboy Latin and have a go at translating from scratch. Please do contribute and help reveal the answers to this most enigmatic of all questions.

"I looked at the children asleep after dinner before joining Henry [Asquith, the prime minister] in..."

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

“I looked at the children asleep after dinner before joining Henry [Asquith, the prime minister] in the cabinet room. Lord Crewe [Lord Privy Seal] and Sir Edward Grey [foreign secretary] were already there, and we sat smoking cigarettes in silence. The clock on the mantelpiece hammered out the hour and when the beat of midnight struck it was as silent as dawn. We were at war. I left to go to bed, and as I was pausing at the foot of the staircase, I saw Winston Churchill with a happy face striding towards the double doors of the cabinet room.”

- Prime Minister Asquith’s wife, Margot, on 4th August 1914.

Now everything changes

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:13:00 +0100

Roche Continents at the Salzburg Festival was the most surreal event of my life. I’m simply lost for any sort of words to describe it. Amazing people; incredible creativity; beautiful, inspiring and shocking music; Ridiculous generosity.

To maintain the suspense for future participants, I’ll avoid discussing the magical programme of events, but hopefully I’ll post something on the music and people shortly.

In short it was life-changing. A real privilege. This truly marks the start of a new chapter.

Disconnecting

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:38:00 +0100

Today I’m departing sunny England to head, via Paris and Munich, to Salzburg. I’m attending Roche Continents, a week-long programme at the Salzburg Festival exploring the common ground of creativity and innovation in the Arts and Science, along with 100 students of science, music and fine arts from all over Europe.

I really feel that this will be valuable time to disconnect from the present and reengage with reality. Honestly I can’t wait. For some months now I’ve drifted, half awake, through life. This is my morning coffee. I’m hoping to come back on 4 August renewed, invigorated, balanced, and with a new passion.

See you on the other side…

Paris. Alone

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:56:00 +0100

Due to a series of unfortunate events, I now find myself in Paris and free to my own devices for a day and a half on Monday & Tuesday next week. I haven’t been to the La Ville-Lumière for years and, as a somewhat rusty solo-traveler, am feeling somewhat lost. I’d appreciate mining your collective wisdom for your tips, secrets, and recommendations to make Paris alone magical. What should I know?

Douai Abbey (by richardr)

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:48:41 +0100

Douai Abbey (by richardr)

Johannes Brahms. Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45. Extract from the...

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:53:00 +0100

Johannes Brahms. Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45. Extract from the 6th movement.

Dann wird erfüllet werden das Wort, das geschrieben steht:
Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg.
Tod, wo ist dein Stachel?
Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg?

Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?

— 1 Corinthians 15:51-55

Now tell me that choral music doesn’t rock!

cheapdate

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:56:00 +0100

cheapdate:

This is why I have a soft spot for fly-boys (or Drosophilia geneticists): cheapdate is a fruit fly gene whose mutation causes Drosophila to be extra sensitive to alcohol.

I’d also heard a great story about a fly lab where all new genes discovered were named after wines. If you were the lucky investigator who got to naming rights, the PI would buy you a really expensive bottle of it’s namesake. Needless to say, names along the lines of d’Yquem and Latour suddenly became popular.

Fly me to the moon, And let me play among the stars. Let...

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:00:00 +0100

Fly me to the moon,
And let me play among the stars.
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars.

Lift-off of the Saturn V rocket, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr, along with 6,700,000 pounds (3,039,000 kg) of fuel and equipment into the Florida sky, bound for the Moon, on July 16th, 1969. (NASA) (via Remembering Apollo 11 - The Big Picture - Boston.com)

"I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing—to be clear. I have given..."

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:27:18 +0100

“I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing—to be clear. I have given up all thought of writing poetically or symbolically or experimentally, or in any of the other modes that might (if I were good enough) get me a Pulitzer prize. I would write merely clearly and in this way establish a warm relationship between myself and my readers, and the professional critics—Well, they can do whatever they wish.”

- Isaac Asimov on his writing style

I Write Like

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:26:00 +0100

I Write Like:

An academic friend pointed me towards I Write Like, a statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them to those of famous authors. Throwing a sample of my writing its way, I was quite pleased to discover that I write like the biochemistry professor, turned science-fiction author, Isaac Asimov. My friend was somewhat less pleased to be told that his thesis read like Dan Brown.

Realisations

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:59:31 +0100

In no particular order…

Cycling to work next year feels like a real possibility
I need a brief ‘Regenerative Medicine for Dummies’ pitch to tell people what I do.
Cambridge is still one of my favorite places
A weekend away from a computer screen is great for my eyes
Real people are excellent
My fencing has improve dramatically in the last six months, but I still suck
My sister is amazing.