Steve Wang
LightNews LightNews
banner
stevewang251.bsky.social
Steve Wang
@stevewang251.bsky.social
1.3K followers 410 following 500 posts
Professor of Statistics at Swarthmore College. I use statistics to study paleontology, evolution, and extinction. I also compose percussion music for fun.
Posts Replies Media Videos
stevewang251.bsky.social
The new Martin Hall at @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social is spectacular
facade of Martin Hall; one side is almost all a huge window lower lever of a lounge in Martin Hall, with 2-story windows overlooking a nicely landscaped area upper lever of a lounge in Martin Hall, with 2-story windows overlooking a nicely landscaped area lounge in Martin Hall with sofas, tables, chairs, and ottomans, overlooking the Crum Woods
August 28, 2025 at 12:37 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
This is so cool. I wonder if appendages in ancient shark relatives such as Falcatus and Stethacanthus could have had a similar function (although I believe these features are sexually dimorphic, so maybe not).
Fossil of Falcatus falcatus, an ancient relative of sharks, showing a forward-facing spiny appendage coming out of the back of its head. Photo by H. Zell via Wikipedia. Fossil of Stethacanthus, an ancient relative of sharks, showing its unusual anvil-shaped dorsal fin. Photo by JonasB 7 via Wikipedia.
July 27, 2025 at 9:30 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
So surreal being here when the stadium is empty
July 11, 2025 at 4:54 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Home plate at the old Yankee Stadium, now a public park. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle stood here.
July 11, 2025 at 4:41 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
July 11, 2025 at 2:27 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Back in the office today
July 11, 2025 at 2:12 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Richard Bambach, 1934-2025. A warm and generous man, and a titan of paleontology.
www.regerfuneralhome.com/obituaries/r...
Richard Bambach sitting in a office with stacks of papers piled on his desk. He's wearing a grayish jacket with a string tie.
June 25, 2025 at 10:04 AM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Brings to mind this passage from Roland Barthes's Mythologies:
The bourgeois status of toys can be recognized not only in their forms, which are all functional, but also in their substances. Current toys are made of a graceless material, the product of chemistry, not of nature. Many are now moulded from complicated mixtures; the plastic material of which they are made has an appearance at once gross and hygienic, it destroys all the pleasure, the sweetness, the humanity of touch. A sign which fills one with consternation is the gradual disappearance of wood, in spite of its being an ideal material because of its firmness and its softness, and the natural warmth of its touch. Wood removes, from all the forms which it supports, the wounding quality of angles which are too sharp, the chemical coldness of metal. When the child handles it and knocks it, it neither vibrates nor grates, it has a sound at once muffled and sharp. It is a familiar and poetic substance, which does not sever the child from close contact with the tree, the table, the floor. Wood does not wound or break down; it does not shatter, it wears out, it can last a long time, live with the child, alter little by little the relations between the object and the hand. If it dies, it is in dwindling, not in swelling out like those mechanical toys which disappear behind the hernia of a broken spring. Wood makes essential objects, objects for all time. Yet there hardly remain any of these wooden toys from the Vosges, these fretwork farms with their animals, which were only possible, it is true, in the days of the craftsman. Henceforth, toys are chemical in substance and colour; their very material introduces one to a coenaesthesis of use, not pleasure. These toys die in fact very quickly, and once dead, they have no posthumous life for the child.
June 20, 2025 at 4:31 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Aaron Judge batting at Yankee Stadium
June 17, 2025 at 12:37 AM
stevewang251.bsky.social
First day at my summer job
June 16, 2025 at 2:20 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Here are more boxes of fossils. (2/2)
A wooden box of plant fossils. Note card says, "This genus is still to be found in the west. Also, a Poplar leaf fossil - upper right. Probably Late Tertiary." A wooden box of plant fossils. Sticker mentions, "Fern pinnule" [I can't make out the rest of the text] A wooden box of plant fossils. Note card says, "Fossil ferns".
June 16, 2025 at 9:53 AM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Swarthmore College has a teaching collection of fossil plants that has probably not been used in decades, recently re-discovered when we moved into a new building. We are hoping to catalog/digitize them. Can anyone ID any of these specimens beyond the brief descriptions on the cards? (1/2)
A wooden box of plant fossils. Note card says, "Cannel coal, made up of flattened Lepidodendron spores" (referring to some of the specimens; not sure what the others are). A wooden box of plant fossils. Note card says, "Fern fronds from St. Clair PA. Carboniferous." A wooden box of plant fossils. Note card says, "Vaguely relevant but interesting..."
June 16, 2025 at 9:53 AM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Here's another example of the same issue.
2018-2025 GDPs for various countries, with different countries represented by different colors. The colors used are so close that most of the countries are indistinguishable.
May 1, 2025 at 2:44 AM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Had the opportunity to briefly play in a Ewe (Ghanian) drumming workshop today at @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social with Master Drummer Emmanuel Agbeli. What a cool experience.
As Steve Reich noted, it really does sound like the downbeat occurs in different places for different instruments.
people playing various Ghanian percussion instruments in a dance studio
April 15, 2025 at 5:50 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
The Amorphophallus titanum at @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social is in bloom! A.k.a, the "corpse flower", it is the world's largest unbranched inflorescence (multiple-flower structure).
We have 2 other individuals, which look like small trees in the 2nd photo, but are actually single giant leaves. 🧪
a large flower, roughly cylindrical in shape, about a meter tall and 1/3 meter in diameter a Amorphophallus titanum "tree" in a greenhouse, roughly 3 meters tall
April 2, 2025 at 8:23 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Martin Hall renovations coming along at @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social. Formerly the biology building, it will now house computer science and film & media studies. The new section of Martin Hall faces Lang Music Building.
Three-quarters view of a building under construction, showing a new brick section added onto the old part of the building. West elevation view of a building under construction, showing a new brick section.
March 20, 2025 at 5:01 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Pi Day at @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social. (3.14 fell during our spring break, hence the belated celebration today).
students standing around an outdoor table with a variety of pieces of pie on it
March 18, 2025 at 8:38 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Baylands Nature Preserve, Palo Alto, CA
three white pelicans and a small shore bird
March 14, 2025 at 5:45 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
From a NYT article today:

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/h...

There was a similar statement last week in a story in USAToday.
NY Times article stating, "The measles virus, which spreads when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes, is extremely contagious. Each infected person can spread the pathogen to as many as 18 others." This is an incorrect interpretation of the R0 value of measles.
March 7, 2025 at 1:03 AM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Philadelphia skyscrapers lit up in green in advance of the Super Bowl
Philadelphia skyscrapers with tops lit up in green lights to celebrate the Eagles football team
February 9, 2025 at 12:35 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Reminds me of this poll I saw...
Bra graph showing survey results. The question surveyed was, "Do you participate in polls?" 83% said yes, and 17% said no.
January 24, 2025 at 11:28 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
Hmmm...

(Platybelodon by Tomasz Jedrzejowski,
Opabinia by Junnn11 via wikipedia)
phylogeny showing a clade formed by Platybelodon (shovel-faced elephant) and Opabinia (a Cambrian stem arthropod). Both have a long snout or trunk with "teeth" at the tip, so clearly they must form a clade, right?
January 6, 2025 at 11:24 AM
stevewang251.bsky.social
I've been submitting recommendation letters, and I really dislike having to fill out the "Rate this applicant in these areas" checkboxes. In the example below, the categories don't have enough levels ('top 25%' to 'best in year' is a big jump). And what in the world is "Presence"?
#academicsky
A letter of recommendation form that tells the writer to rate the applicant on the following criteria: Leadership Potential Creativity Resourcefulness Intellectual Curiosity Energy and Initiative Ability to Work in a Team Oral Communication Skills in English Language Written Communication Skills in English Language Presence Analytical Thinking and Reasoning The scale is as follows: 1. Truly Exceptional (best in 5 year 2. Outstanding (best in year) 3. Above Average (top 25%) 4. Average (top 50%) 5. Below Average (bottom 50%) 6. Unobserved
January 2, 2025 at 1:22 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
I grew up near Niagara Falls. It's very touristy but still worth seeing. The summer can get very crowded. Winter is much less crowded, and the frozen spray leaves everything coated in ice, which can be beautiful. If you have time to explore, Toronto (1.5 hours away) is a great city.
Niagara Falls in the winter, with lots of icicles in the foreground and frozen plants in the background.
December 20, 2024 at 12:01 PM
stevewang251.bsky.social
On one day each year, the setting sun aligns with the hallways of the Science Center at @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social , bringing forth the rejoicing of the druids.
The setting sun is visible down a hallway in the Science Center at Swarthmore College.
December 12, 2024 at 9:33 PM