J Leonard Dixon

The purpose of this blog (called: Interesting Scents in Science and Art; Shortened to “Science and Art”) is to discuss diverse topics in science and art and more directed topics in the areas of biofuels and global warming. These are no doubt wide ranging areas and over time I hope that my interests will narrow to a more definable stream of interests. But don’t count on it. I recently found a quote that fits my interests perfectly.

John Naughton reviewed George Dyson book, “Turing’s Cathedral,” in the Observer/Guardian newspaper on March 2, 2013. This book recounts the story behind the building of one of the first computers at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in the 1940s by a team led by the mathematician, John von Neumann. Naughton commented on Dyson’s writing style by writing, “His book is a sprawling, digressive, exhilarating account of how Von Neumann’s machine was constructed, of the people who built it and of what it was used for. But readers seeking an orderly, linear narrative are doomed to disappointment because ideas are to George Dyson as interesting scents are to puppies, and he can’t see a trail without wanting to follow it.”

I love this metaphor and I am sorry to say that it describes my meanderings through science perfectly!

Fortunately, I have two other more specific blogs, one on Obesity and Energy Utilization, and the other on the Mass Spectrometry of Lipids (also known as Lipidomics).