Our great friend and colleague Robert A. Frosch passed away 30 December 2020 at age 92. Jesse Ausubel met Bob in November 1977 at the first meeting of the NASEM Climate Research Board, and we cooperated for the next 40 years. Bob chaired the National Academy of Engineering study group that produced the 1989 book Technology and Environment with the opening essay, Technology and Environment: An Overview by Jesse H. Ausubel, Robert A. Frosch, and Robert Herman. A Remembrance will follow.
Area of Research: Technology & Human Environment
15-minute video interview with Jesse Ausubel
The new website Academic Influence, led by Wake Forest U. physicist Jed Macosko, conducted a video interview with Jesse Ausubel about his career.
Shellenberger Book Review
PHE Researcher Iddo Wernick published a review of the recently released book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All by Michael Shellenberger
Discoveries of the Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project
Biologists in the Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project have shared a trio of fascinating, innovative papers.
Manolito G. Torralba, Claire Kuelbs, Kelvin Jens Moncera, and Karen E. Nelson of the J Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, California, and Rhonda Roby of the Alameda California County Sheriff’s Office Crime Laboratory, used small, dry polyester swabs to gently collect microbes from centuries-old, Renaissance-style art in a private collector’s home in Florence, Italy. Their findings are published open access in the journal Microbial Ecology, “Characterizing microbial signatures on sculptures and paintings of similar provenance.”
Concurrently available are a pair of papers by David Thaler, of the University of Basel and a guest investigator in the Program for the Human Environment. David’s papers are
Thaler’s papers form part of a collection now in press as a book: Actes du Colloque International d’Amboise: Leonardo de Vinci, Anatomiste. Pionnier de l’Anatomie comparée, de la Biomécanique, de la Bionique et de la Physiognomonie, edited by Henry de Lumley, CNRS editions, Paris.
Two major newswires, Agence France Presse and Agencia EFE, each did separate stories:
Manny Torralba et al.
AFP Microbes Could ‘help Save Old Masters’ And Catch Forgers
Agencia EFE Identificar microbios en obras de arte abre la puerta a una mejor preservación
David Thaler
AFP Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘quick eye’ may be key to Mona Lisa’s magnetism
German version Forscher: «Schnelles Auge» half da Vinci beim Zeichnen und Malen
Agencia EFE La rapidez visual “súper desarrollada” de Da Vinci podría explicar la sonrisa de la Mona Lisa
LiveScience, United States Did Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘quick eye’ help him capture Mona Lisa’s fleeting smile?
By Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project (summary)
Genetic detectives ID microbes suspected of slowly ruining humanity’s treasures
COVID & The World Interview with Jesse Ausubel
The website Human Progress launches a new video series called The Covid Tonic. The series features conversations between renowned scholars and editor, Marian L. Tupy. The interviews focus on the global impact of COVID-19 and the continued importance of rational optimism. Episode 1 features the environmental scientist Jesse Ausubel, a Human Progress Board Member and Director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University in New York City.
Watch the full video here.
1986 paper on limits of prediction
We scanned and now post Jesse Ausubel’s pre-Internet paper
Some Thoughts on Geophysical Prediction
In Policy Aspects of Climate Forecasting, R Krasnow (ed), pp. 97-109, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, 1986
We also post the 2-page memo that Jesse wrote in 2016 about Limits to Knowledge for the Deep Carbon Observatory.
Popular versions of our work
During the past couple of years several authors have made good use of our work in their books. These include:
The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It – December 31, 2019 – by John Tierney and Roy F. Baumeister
Fewer, Richer, Greener: Prospects for Humanity in an Age of Abundance
by Laurence B. Siegel | Dec 5, 2019
More from Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources?and What Happens Next – October 8, 2019
by Andrew McAfee
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress – January 15, 2019 by Steven Pinker
It’s Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear – March 5, 2019 by Gregg Easterbrook
Mike Joyner’s comic novel
We laughed from beginning to end reading the novel of our Mayo Clinic colleague Michael Joyner MD, Michelle the Archangel, a story of the 2020, 2024, and 2028 US presidential elections with a strong dose of performance enhancement.
Social and institutional barriers to reducing CO2 emissions
Andrew W. Marshall Foundation begins work
The foundation promoting the strategic thinking of the late Andrew W. Marshall has begun its work to foster innovative thinking about national security. Cesare Marchetti and Jesse Ausubel prepared their study on the quantitative dynamics of human empires as the request of Mr. Marshall.
We also post Jesse’s remembrance of Andy, “Andrew Marshall and Classics,” which will appear in the forthcoming volume about Andy edited by Andrew May.