I am very pleased to report that the current issue of the Skeptical Inquirer includes

Dan Q. Posin and his cat, Minerva

my article entitled, “Before Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, There Was Dan Q. Posin.” It is a tribute to an early science communicator who was an inspiration to me. The online version of the article includes several extra photos that do not appear in the magazine.

In a somewhat unusual twist on the typical superstition story, I was interviewed for Nature Careers magazine about superstitious scientists. The article is entitled “A lookout for luck.” Scientists are typically thought to value reason and evidence, but their experiments are often very elaborate and sensitive to the slightest error. As a result, it turns out that a number of these rational types have pet superstitious aimed at bringing them good luck in the lab. The article by Kendall Powell is quite interesting.

I have done two radio interviews recently, both international and both on superstition. The first was for Voice of Islam Radio, based in London. It was quite interesting to be on an Islamic station, sandwiched between discussions of readings from the Quran. The interview was quite enjoyable, but as far as I can tell, it was not archived online.

My second radio interview was also quite interesting. It was for W Radio, in Bogota, Columbia, and for the first time that I recall, the interview was done alternating between English and Spanish. The program hosts posed questions through an interpreter, and I gave my answers in English, which the interpreter then translated back into Spanish. You can listen to the interview here.

That’s all for now.

SV