August 2020

What’s Inspiring Us — August 2020 edition

I’m currently working on novel #2 and—because it deals with physics and genetics—I’ve been trying to get my head around concepts like quantum fields, relativity, holography, and refresh what knowledge I ever had about epigenetics. It’s funny, because I probably learned this stuff as an undergrad … but I can’t remember any of it. Not a single thing. I’d swear we stopped at Newton (Einstein who?), memorised a bunch of formulas and constants, and that was physics. And is genetics today even the same species it was in the 90’s?

Maybe all that information was there, and I simply didn’t care to learn it, or I was thinking about my grades or my hair or the latest boyfriend drama instead of setting down fact-based memories. It’s interesting to me that now, decades later, I care so deeply about these ideas. Maybe because I’m older, or because I have a tangible reason for learning them—but I feel so connected with these fields of study. They seem to question the same things I do: where we come from, where we’re going, what it means to be alive. The big questions that underwrite some of the best stories out there. That underwrite all our stories.

I hope you enjoy these resources as much as I have!

Sean Carroll and Carl Zimmer: genes and heredity

Brian Greene, Dean Buonomano, and Lera Boroditsky talk 'The Richness of Time' (2019)

Brian Greene and 3 other physicists talk 'Quantum Reality'