Benefits of an Academic Day Job

The central quad at Union; the big building in the center is the Nott Memorial, the obligatory building-on-the-letterhead that every college must have.

I’ve been quieter than usual here, partly because I’ve been crushingly busy, but primarily because most of the things I want to talk about, I can’t. Not yet, anyway. But I’m still alive, and this murderous term will be over soon, at which point blogging will pick up a bit.

I will throw in a quick teaser for something coming up in the future, though, by way of a thank-you to the folks at Schaffer Library who let me take some photos of the rare books collection:

An 1845 edition of "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," published anonymously but now known to be the work of Robert Chambers. From the rare books collection at Union College.
An 1845 edition of “Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,” published anonymously but now known to be the work od Robert Chambers. From the rare books collection at Union College.

This was going to be my semi-flippant addition to Sean’s advice on making a career in science communication: Try to have a day job associated with an academic institution. Not only does it give you stuff like health insurance and a steady income, but you get access to library resources like journal subscriptions and, well, cool old books.

And, as you can see up top in the “featured image,” you get to work in pretty surroundings… (This photo offers the added bonus of showing off my new wide-angle camera lens…)

So, why am I taking photos of this specific old book (an 1845 printing of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, in case you can’t read the photo or caption)? Well, you’ll need to wait a while to find that out. But I bet it won’t surprise you to learn that it’s related to the forthcoming publication of my new book…

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