Burning pianos

Dec 23, 2015–On a recent trip to Iowa I took part in our family’s cherished holiday tradition–we burned a piano. That’s right. On a cold Midwestern night, with snow on the ground and stars overhead, family and friends circled the instrument and took turns playing it...

Love of science

Feb 4, 2015–It’s a science nerd’s dream. Can you imagine playing in a 3-dimensional sandbox? Or standing inside a silo with LEDs that light up in response to ambient cell phone use? Or walking through an aquifer as you follow a drop of rain on its journey to become...

No Room

Jan 28, 2015–As I recently watched a family member travel the dim journey through dementia, I was intensely curious how the disease appeared from inside the mind of the victim. Fredericksburg Middle School theater teacher David Remschel had the same question, and...

Star Trek: The Voyage Home

Aug 13, 2014–When I played in a band at a bar in Riverside, Iowa, Earth, in the mid-20th century, I wish I’d known I was standing in the very room where Captain James T. Kirk would be conceived 250 years in the future. I would have drunk a toast of Talaxian champagne....