Karen Daniels
@karenedaniels.bsky.social
she's a purple-loving soft-matter physicist at NC State who dabbles in geophysics and engineering and textiles and food
These are *not* the same logs we inoculated last May: these oyster mushrooms simply volunteered in some of the remaining logs. This harvest (the 2nd one this month) was 4.5 pounds, which will make for a very nice Thanksgiving feast!
November 25, 2025 at 7:18 PM
These are *not* the same logs we inoculated last May: these oyster mushrooms simply volunteered in some of the remaining logs. This harvest (the 2nd one this month) was 4.5 pounds, which will make for a very nice Thanksgiving feast!
Got my trusty Acme Thunderer at the ready.
November 18, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Got my trusty Acme Thunderer at the ready.
Happy Halloween!
November 1, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Happy Halloween!
On the subject of cello-ing ... if you've got kids who'd enjoying hearing Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, @chphilharmonia.bsky.social will be performing it tomorrow at 3pm in Hill Hall @ UNC. Your kids will also have a chance to conduct us playing Strauss's Radetzky March.
October 18, 2025 at 10:51 PM
On the subject of cello-ing ... if you've got kids who'd enjoying hearing Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, @chphilharmonia.bsky.social will be performing it tomorrow at 3pm in Hill Hall @ UNC. Your kids will also have a chance to conduct us playing Strauss's Radetzky March.
Some signs, the expected inflatable costumes, and a first for me: cello as protest instrument. I mean, we cellists *could* do violence with our endpins, so I can see why we're not so commonly present on stage.
October 18, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Some signs, the expected inflatable costumes, and a first for me: cello as protest instrument. I mean, we cellists *could* do violence with our endpins, so I can see why we're not so commonly present on stage.
Water was represented throughout by a twirling family of droplets, some on stilts. Quite a joyful sight, given that their flood recovery is ongoing: www.paperhandpuppet.org/flood-recovery
September 8, 2025 at 1:45 AM
Water was represented throughout by a twirling family of droplets, some on stilts. Quite a joyful sight, given that their flood recovery is ongoing: www.paperhandpuppet.org/flood-recovery
@paperhandpuppet.org's 25th anniversary follows NC (and them, specifically) getting hammered by water from Helene and Chantal over the past year. Yet ... water remains "The Gift" (this year's show) we all depend on, represented in puppetry at the Forest Theater.
September 8, 2025 at 1:45 AM
@paperhandpuppet.org's 25th anniversary follows NC (and them, specifically) getting hammered by water from Helene and Chantal over the past year. Yet ... water remains "The Gift" (this year's show) we all depend on, represented in puppetry at the Forest Theater.
So I can't tell you all about what I learned at the Soft Matter Physics GRC last week, due to the cone of silence, but .... wow! My notebook is overloaded with ideas to follow up on, plus we got to visit a bog with more pitcher plants than seems reasonable. And the bog invited us to do rheology.
August 21, 2025 at 1:50 AM
So I can't tell you all about what I learned at the Soft Matter Physics GRC last week, due to the cone of silence, but .... wow! My notebook is overloaded with ideas to follow up on, plus we got to visit a bog with more pitcher plants than seems reasonable. And the bog invited us to do rheology.
New preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05919
We aim to explain what hyperuniformity is, for non-specialists (hopefully even high schoolers?), since this is a key idea underlying our #NSF #DMREF grant (and the last photo). And what a great excuse to visit the NC State Insect Collection, to take photo A!
We aim to explain what hyperuniformity is, for non-specialists (hopefully even high schoolers?), since this is a key idea underlying our #NSF #DMREF grant (and the last photo). And what a great excuse to visit the NC State Insect Collection, to take photo A!
August 21, 2025 at 1:40 AM
New preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2508.05919
We aim to explain what hyperuniformity is, for non-specialists (hopefully even high schoolers?), since this is a key idea underlying our #NSF #DMREF grant (and the last photo). And what a great excuse to visit the NC State Insect Collection, to take photo A!
We aim to explain what hyperuniformity is, for non-specialists (hopefully even high schoolers?), since this is a key idea underlying our #NSF #DMREF grant (and the last photo). And what a great excuse to visit the NC State Insect Collection, to take photo A!
My group's tradition after oral exams is to celebrate the milestone using the Free Expression Tunnel and our large supply of spray paint! Today we're recognizing Sidharth Gat's MS defense, on acoustic modes in ordered and disordered 3D printed networks. A key exciting result: a bandgap :-)
August 7, 2025 at 6:51 PM
My group's tradition after oral exams is to celebrate the milestone using the Free Expression Tunnel and our large supply of spray paint! Today we're recognizing Sidharth Gat's MS defense, on acoustic modes in ordered and disordered 3D printed networks. A key exciting result: a bandgap :-)
The cooler weather let us enjoy #UproarFestNC today, walking all over Carrboro and Chapel Hill enjoying this public art show, with artists from all over North Carolina.
August 3, 2025 at 10:20 PM
The cooler weather let us enjoy #UproarFestNC today, walking all over Carrboro and Chapel Hill enjoying this public art show, with artists from all over North Carolina.
and I made it back just in time to say goodbye to former ugrad Caitlyn before she heads to Stanford to be a PhD student. But before she left, she printed mini-versions of her experiment for me to hang from my ears, and you know I'll be wearing them every time I talk about the work in public!
July 28, 2025 at 8:24 PM
and I made it back just in time to say goodbye to former ugrad Caitlyn before she heads to Stanford to be a PhD student. But before she left, she printed mini-versions of her experiment for me to hang from my ears, and you know I'll be wearing them every time I talk about the work in public!
Cool finding 2: The effect of the bonded dimers extends outward to their nearest neighbors, where we see that both coordination number and pressure are elevated compared to the average.
Civil engineering 🏛️ meets statistical physics ⚛️ is a great combination!
Civil engineering 🏛️ meets statistical physics ⚛️ is a great combination!
July 28, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Cool finding 2: The effect of the bonded dimers extends outward to their nearest neighbors, where we see that both coordination number and pressure are elevated compared to the average.
Civil engineering 🏛️ meets statistical physics ⚛️ is a great combination!
Civil engineering 🏛️ meets statistical physics ⚛️ is a great combination!
Cool finding 1: we can make histograms of all particles (or just the bonded ones), and study how increased rigidity arises as a function of the fraction of bonded pairs. There are stronger interparticle forces present for the dimers (50% tension, 50% compression) compared to the unbonded particles.
July 28, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Cool finding 1: we can make histograms of all particles (or just the bonded ones), and study how increased rigidity arises as a function of the fraction of bonded pairs. There are stronger interparticle forces present for the dimers (50% tension, 50% compression) compared to the unbonded particles.
Night owl on the town.
June 15, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Night owl on the town.
Many blocks from Chapel Hill into Carrboro were filled with clever signs and good chants, and folk popping their heads out of their businesses along the route to support the march.
June 14, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Many blocks from Chapel Hill into Carrboro were filled with clever signs and good chants, and folk popping their heads out of their businesses along the route to support the march.
Foraging success: this marks the first time I've collected more morels than the number of people planning to eat them! The ramps went into spätzle (bright green!), the morels cooked into a butter-sauce to top them, and the violets went onto a (non-foraged ...) salad. Yum!
May 9, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Foraging success: this marks the first time I've collected more morels than the number of people planning to eat them! The ramps went into spätzle (bright green!), the morels cooked into a butter-sauce to top them, and the violets went onto a (non-foraged ...) salad. Yum!
See these smiling students? They (including amazing NCSU students) traveled to the National Society of Black Physicists conference last November ... but the NSF has cut the funding that makes this trip happen every year. Please donate to help next year's students: nsbp.org/page/confere...
May 9, 2025 at 1:11 AM
See these smiling students? They (including amazing NCSU students) traveled to the National Society of Black Physicists conference last November ... but the NSF has cut the funding that makes this trip happen every year. Please donate to help next year's students: nsbp.org/page/confere...
This weekend was the #biscuitsandbanjos festival in Durham, with history, panel discussions, and *many citations* as to where music comes from. So much geeking out while enjoying some of the best music on the planet, connected across generations. Bonus: that cellos were well-represented!
April 28, 2025 at 2:33 PM
This weekend was the #biscuitsandbanjos festival in Durham, with history, panel discussions, and *many citations* as to where music comes from. So much geeking out while enjoying some of the best music on the planet, connected across generations. Bonus: that cellos were well-represented!
Not shown: the chocolate pudding that served to explain all of soft matter physics in 5 easy bites. I also tried to claim pandas as soft matter, which was a weak claim that I had to go collect data on in person, before leaving town.
April 25, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Not shown: the chocolate pudding that served to explain all of soft matter physics in 5 easy bites. I also tried to claim pandas as soft matter, which was a weak claim that I had to go collect data on in person, before leaving town.
Me and amazing biology colleagues I know from very different eras of my teaching career. Nearly 30 years ago for one, a year for the other, from Brooklyn to Bangalore. Awful news breaking all around DC, making it even more special to share food and stories hosted by my physics colleagues. Go Hoyas!
April 25, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Me and amazing biology colleagues I know from very different eras of my teaching career. Nearly 30 years ago for one, a year for the other, from Brooklyn to Bangalore. Awful news breaking all around DC, making it even more special to share food and stories hosted by my physics colleagues. Go Hoyas!
Me and amazing biology colleagues I know from very different eras of my teaching career. Nearly 30 years ago for one, a year for the other, from Brooklyn to Bangalore. Awful news breaking all around DC, making it even more special to share food and stories hosted by my physics colleagues. Go Hoyas!
April 25, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Me and amazing biology colleagues I know from very different eras of my teaching career. Nearly 30 years ago for one, a year for the other, from Brooklyn to Bangalore. Awful news breaking all around DC, making it even more special to share food and stories hosted by my physics colleagues. Go Hoyas!