Donald Trump. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Josh Hawley. We are told that because of being blocked on Twitter, or being accused (correctly) for being linked to QAnon, or losing a Simon & Schuster book contract, these three people are victims of “cancel culture.” Like so much else in white American culture…

In which my shortcomings as a research scientist led to a nice e-mail from the only Nobel Prize winner in my discipline’s history The Who and the Why Atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen died last Thursday at the age of 87. His passing was international news, because he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995…

The topic of the moment in American politics is “originalism,” on public display at the Amy Coney Barrett hearings. For those of us who grew up in the “Christ-haunted” South, the arguments for originalism sound extremely familiar. And I think there’s a reason why. The Complicated Hugo Black Many years ago, when originalism was…

This is what we are bringing down upon our nation by gaslighting a pandemic. This isn’t the flu. This isn’t an “old people’s disease.” This isn’t just an inconvenience for you. This isn’t a vast left-wing conspiracy to keep you from watching sports in person. This. Is. A. Pandemic. Younger people as well as older people are dying horrible deaths. This poor man suffered…

With a look back at the first UGA meteorologist, Josiah Meigs On the occasion of my receiving the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorship, I thought I’d use my 15 minutes-or-fewer of “fame” to shine a spotlight on the person this professorship is named for. It’s also a chance to shine…

Perfect, Then and Now — When I was a junior in high school in 1982, I had a good day on the American College Testing (ACT) standardized test, one of the gateway tests for college admission. I did a little more prep than my friends. I bought a book and practiced a little bit with…

Now that I have your attention — no, I’m not addressing nearly 2,000 misconceptions about the meme and saying of the cultural moment. The list is under ten. And the moment may have already passed, while I was busy professoring and school boarding in earnest this fall. …

On September 23rd I celebrated the 200th anniversary of John Keats’s miracle year with a tribute to his life and work and his “perfect ode,” To Autumn. Tonight I celebrate the 224th anniversary of his birth, as I do each year. This year I celebrate it somewhat mournfully, by continuing…