NotedandQuoted “We’re still a long way off from you being able to charge your smartphone with a beer mug, but this could be a game changer in terms of opening up all kinds of new ways to store energy. And that could be a boon to solar power as a source of energy within our homes.” —posted by Randy Rieland on “Innovations,” a blog at Smithsonian.com, July 5,2012, in reference to the news thatRice scientists have pioneered a spray-on battery paint. Read the blog at http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/2012/07/our-daily-juice.
“I’ve always found engineering for the developing world to be an intellectually engaging challenge: Dealing with electrical power limitations and working around limited clinical personnel poses more design constraints, and finding the ultimate elegant solution to a health problem is like solving a puzzle.” —posted by Jordan Schermerhorn ’12, July 6, 2012, in The New York Times blog “On the Ground.” Schermerhorn wrote five posts and narrated a video about the 10 days she spent traveling in southern Africa with op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof as the 2012 “Win-a-Trip” winner. Read her posts at http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com.
“O-Week is the best week of the year because there are no classes to screw things up.” —English Professor Dennis Huston, welcoming students to Hanszen College, as tweeted 8/13/12 by #Hanszen. See http://www.rice.edu/oweekstory.shtml.
“The first thing I want to think together about is how you can leverage that validation that you’re about to get to kind of increase the positivity in the world, the net happiness in the world, to help empower others, and I personally believe that it will come back to you.” —Salman Khan, Rice University commencement speech, May 12, 2012. Watch the speech at http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=oipQBY7F4YY.
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“This is the most dramatic legislation to influence health care in America since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. The court’s decision today means well over 30 million people who are uninsured today will get access to affordable health insurance and therefore health care.” —Vivian Ho, James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics, quoted in the Baker Institute blog, June 28, 2012.
“Compare Higgs bosons to groupies mobbing a celebrity. The other particles are the celebrities, desperately trying to move but slowed by autograph-seekers. Higgs bosons don’t have pens, but the attention they give to the other particles slows them, creating inertia.” —Paul Padley, professor of physics and astronomy, quoted in USA Today, July 6, 2012.
“One centrifuge in Iran doesn’t stop spinning if we solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” —Ambassador Ron Prosor, Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations, speaking at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, May 30, 2012.
“You’re the top! You’re the iPhone’s Siri. You’re the top! You’re The Big Bang Theory. You’re the mega-dough earned from J.K. Rowling’s words. You’re Blue Ivy’s mama, 2008 Obama, you’re “Angry Birds”! You’re elite; you’re Cy Twombly’s scribble. You’re the heat in Jer’my Lin’s dribble. I’m a budget bill stuck on Cap’tal Hill — I’ll flop! But if baby I’m the bottom, you’re the top!” —Nancy Taubenslag ’77 contributed these winning lines to a contest on “Ask Me Another,” a National Public Radio show featuring puzzles, word games and trivia played in front of a live audience. The updated lyrics to the Cole Porter classic “You’re the Top” were heard on the May 12 broadcast. Back story: “I’ve written song parodies since I was a teenager (even before attending Rice), so I loved this challenge,” Taubenslag said. “And it was a major kick to have Jonathan Coulton perform it, laugh at the humor and praise my internal rhyme scheme. Not to mention winning an NPR tote bag.”