Wed Reader: Science, Money, & Health

The New York Times reports that the only remaining laboratory of Nikola Tesla is for sale. The sellers have no plans to prevent demolition of the structure as condition of the sale. Arguably underappreciated in his time, Tesla has been staging a late comeback of sorts. The scientist was featured prominently in the Samantha Hunt’s wonderful novel The Invention of Everything Else. A Google-backed electric car company is called Tesla Motors. The quote that I took from Hunt’s book for my review sums up Tesla’s review of his life as an old man:

Some days I forget how completely I have been forgotten.

Plans are afoot to try to purchase the property and make it into a museum. I need this to happen so that I can visit.

In the New York Review of Books, Sue M. Halpern has an interesting essay about financial success that features gazillionaire Warren Buffet Malcolm Gladwell. A sample:

Buffett, it is safe to say, has a different relationship to money than you and me. For us it’s a means to an end. For him, it’s a vocation. He is called to it. If it’s for anything, it’s for getting more of. The man is a collector. He just happens to collect dollars.

In non-book news, The Pump Handle blog is a fantastic source for public health news is you’re into that sort of thing. For the last few weeks there has been frequent mention in the press that x number or people die of influenza (the flu) in any given year. The PH answers the question: How do we know how many people die of the flu in a year? Short answer: educated guess.

Books, News | Tim | May 6, 2009 8:25 am

2 Comments

By Shaft, May 6, 2009 @ 9:04 am

And don’t forget that approximately every fifth song played on XM’s HairNation channel is by Tesla.
By Frank, May 7, 2009 @ 10:00 am

And you didn’t mention Nikola’s recent cinematic renaissance. Jack White showed Meg his homemade Tesla coil in Coffee And Cigarettes, and Tesla himself is a character in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige.