Oxygen has energy

I have a paper under review that talks about why biologists/nutrition labels locate energy in food and not oxygen (and why that makes physicists angsty). And I note that for biological systems, oxygen is widely available - food is the scarce resource. So in a framework where you are concerned with competition for scarce resources, it makes sense to locate energy in food.

Then last night I read the following story about a running shoe that shaves 4% off of running times:

"Embedded in the length of the midsole is a thin, stiff carbon-fiber plate that is scooped like a spoon... The plate is designed to reduce the amount of oxygen needed to run at a fast pace. It stores and releases energy with each stride and is meant to act as a kind of slingshot, or catapult, to propel runners forward."

For athletes, who can carbo-load, it's not food that is the limiting factor in performance, it's the VO2-max - how much oxygen they can take in and get to the cells that need it. And so - here, in an article on running - we see them talk about energy as linked to oxygen. It's not as explicit as "food has calories." - they don't directly say "the energy stored in the shoe means you don't need to bring in energy from oxygen...." but it's as close as I've seen.

😊

Also, I immediately wanted to energy theater that shoe, and compare it to an energy theater of a normal shoe.

Plans

This isn't so much a research post as an accountability post.

These were my writing goals for spring and summer. I was really excited. And ambitious:

March (2 weeks)	Inhaling Calories to Sci&E		PERC abstract
April	Chemical Bonds -JChemEd Potential Wells - TPT		white paper to ASSERT
May (open)	Truth/Success/Faith - Sci Ed begin EDISIn	postdoc grant begin	prospectus w/ Kim
June (2 weeks)	EDISIn - drafts to colleagues equity - begin	prep for advisory board	PERC submission
July	EDISIn - submit equity - draft to DH		** Leslie & Kim write **
August	hackable labs	postdoc grant submit	course prep, VIP prep

I pretty much accomplished March. I did accomplish many other (non-writing) goals - class prep, summer workshops, life goals, two conferences, prep for a third.  And I bought a couch which took more time than I care to admit.

This week Richard and Kate are in Minnesota, I have several big things to get moving and I'm paralyzed and going after low-hanging fruit (which also needs to be attended to) -- but I'm leaving partners waiting on me and I'm feeling pretty incapable. So I'm detailing plans here.

This week: For this week, my goals are to meet my deadlines with the RT paper (sorry, Amy, for not being a very good partner), and to submit the TPT paper on my students' work with the Gaussian Gun.

Next week: Annual report (MTW). Then off to NC!

While traveling: finalize course prep and perc poster

This fall: !everything else!