About me
I am a graduate of Grinnell College with a degree in Biological Chemistry. The name of this blog is derived from the name I use in Chinese, 孟柏民 (Mèng Bómín).
I can be reached by email at:
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Monthly Archives: December 2010
The Road to Partition
In a week and a half, Southern Sudan will hold a referendum on whether to seek independence from the north. Tensions between the two regions have been high for decades, with two bloody civil wars lasting a total of 39 … Continue reading
Zimbabwe: an anti-WikiLeaks posterchild emerges
In the release of cables today from WikiLeaks was a revelation that Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, had made private statements to U.S. embassy officials that didn’t accord with his public campaigning for the end of sanctions on … Continue reading
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
I just finished reading the book by Mike Brown that shares its name with this blog post, so I thought I’d post a short review here. The book is essentially an account of the set of discoveries that Mike Brown … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Reviews, Science
Tagged Eris, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, Mike Brown, Pluto, Sedna
2 Comments
Julian Assange and a transparent society
In an interview today with Julian Assange, BBC Radio 4 reporter John Humphrys brought up an issue that’s been buzzing around the media for the past few days regarding the juxtaposition of Assange’s role in facilitating leaks and his indignantion … Continue reading
Posted in Current events, Media, Opinions, Politics
Tagged Assange, BBC Radio 4, Julian Assange, privacy, transparency, WikiLeaks
3 Comments
The New York Times displays racial distribution nationwide
The New York Times has generated a pan-and-zoom map of the United States that shows the distribution of racial and ethnic groups, using a method very similar to that of Bill Rankin and Eric Fischer in the maps that I … Continue reading
The future of WikiLeaks
Now is a critical moment in the WikiLeaks saga that began to unfurl in earnest this year. Yesterday, a break-away faction within WikiLeaks started their own competing outlet, OpenLeaks (or at least a “Coming Soon” placeholder site), which will merely … Continue reading
Posted in Current events, Politics
Tagged Assange, conspiracy, Espionage Act, Julian Assange, Mukasey, OpenLeaks, WikiLeaks
1 Comment
Some criticism of the Mono Lake results
Here’s a post from DNA researcher Rosie Redfield critically analyzing the paper that was released in Science and announced by NASA on Thursday regarding aresenic-tolerant bacteria in Mono Lake. I haven’t read the paper myself (I don’t have a Science … Continue reading
My thoughts on the bacteria of Mono Lake
On Thursday, NASA held a press conference announcing some surprising news with implications for astrobiology. A team of scientists led by Felisa Wolfe-Simon found a form of bacteria living in Mono Lake in California, near the border with Nevada, which … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Current events, Science
Tagged arsenate, arsenic, bacteria, Lake Mono
2 Comments
December has come…
…and that means it’s time for another of the Boston Globe’s The Big Picture’s Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendars. There will be an HST image unveiled every day until Christmas. Granted, all of these images have already been released to … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Science
Tagged Advent Calendar, Bad Astronomy, Big Picture, Death Spiral, Hubble, Phil Plait
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Meng Bomin 