Silo
Silo, Graham Yost, creator, Apple TV+, 2023
The latest science-fiction series on Apple TV+, Silo is a detective show set in a human refuge known as the silo: a bunker with over 100 levels that protects the last 10 000 humans. If you ask to go outside, the leaders must let you go. But leaving the silo means that you die in front of the whole community. Or does it? A murder suggests there’s more to that story, and an engineer named Juliette Nichols is determined to find out what it is. Like For All Mankind, another one of Apple’s sci-fi shows, there’s a dose of science in Silo. It’s also a useful portrayal of the ways a society would have to adapt in a closed environment. —pkg
Living Histories
Living Histories, Srividya Iyer-Biswas, organizer, 2020–
Conceived by Purdue University professor Srividya Iyer-Biswas, this ongoing web series aims to inspire current students by presenting brief, 15–20-minute biographical talks by established biophysicists about their own scientific journeys. Monthly presentations are streamed live and then posted on YouTube. Recent talks feature Harvard University professor Eugene Shakhnovich, who discussed his scientific upbringing as a physicist in a biological institute in the Soviet Union, and Na Ji, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who described how her life was shaped by her parents’ experience during the Cultural Revolution in China. —rd
Getting In: The Essential Guide to Finding a STEMM Undergrad Research Experience
Getting In: The Essential Guide to Finding a STEMM Undergrad Research Experience, Paris H. Grey and David G. Oppenheimer, U. Chicago Press, 2023 (2nd ed.). $99.00
In the second edition of their user’s manual for undergraduate research experiences, lab manager Paris Grey and principal investigator David Oppenheimer present an exhaustive look at the “hidden curriculum” behind lab culture. The book is divided into two parts. The first provides an overview of why research experience is valuable, describes research culture, and advises students on proper expectations for lab experiences. The second walks students through the process of searching, applying, and interviewing for research positions. Getting In is encyclopedic, perhaps to a fault: Although it provides a wealth of knowledge on all aspects of the undergraduate research experience, one wonders if its length and high-level language might intimidate its intended readership. —rd
