Andrew R Gross

It has been a busy month, for good and bad.  Here are some updates. My friend Marge visited.  It was bittersweet.  It was great getting to see a dear friend, although I didn't get to see as much of her as I would've liked.  I had a two-day mandatory work retreat, then she had to spend the better part of a week in Santa Barbara for matters relating to her work.  When she got back, Julie's tooth manifested a massive infection.  Julie's had a wisdom tooth in need of removal for years that went untreated because a surgeon accidentally broke her jaw when she originally went to have her wisdom teeth removed 8 years ago.   I think that the infection might've been exacerbated by stress.  Julie has been depressed for a large part of 2015, and she gets pretty anxious about trying to make a good impression on people I like.  This can be pretty self defeating, which further contributed to an awkward visit.  I still had fun, though. The surgery went well, except that

This has been a mind-expanding week. This is the only way to describe it Perhaps because my PI is on vacation with his family, I've found more time than usual to catch up on reading.  In addtion to scientific articles relevant to our work, I've started reading a sci fi novel called " Nexus ", by Ramez Naam.  "Nexus" is about two neuroscience grad students at UC Santa Cruz in 2040 who make some huge advances in interfacing computers with the brain by using illegal technology.  The language is convincing enough to feel eerily believable, even if the content is beyond anything we can currently do.  The real life science I've been exposed to recently seems like it would have seemed equally fantastic 25 years ago, though, so I can't totally rule out the possibility of something like this coming to pass. If you really consider the implications, you quickly begin to recognize that a person sufficiently networked with computers and other other peopl