Writing about Writing

by | July 21, 2026 | Articles, Books | 0 Comments

Today is publication day for a very unusual book that I contributed to. The Best Science Stories and How They Work is a compilation of eleven articles about science, selected by longtime science editor Siri Carpenter. Siri is also the co-founder of The Open Notebook,...
Read More

Review from a Longtime Fan

by | June 2, 2025 | Books, Chess, Did You Come Here to Play Chess or to Have Fun? | 0 Comments

Today I'm happy to give a shout-out to one of the longtime fans of "dana blogs chess," Helmut Froeyman of Belgium... or as you might know him from the many comments he left on my blog, "brabo." Helmut, who is a FIDE Master, has written a blog of his own since 2012,...
Read More

New Podcast Posted

by | April 30, 2025 | Books, Chess, Events | 0 Comments

Hello again, world! This spring is an exciting time for me, because it's publication time for my new book, Did You Come Here to Play Chess or to Have Fun? If you live in Europe, the book was already published earlier this month. If you live in America, the official...
Read More

Newest Book Published

by | October 20, 2019 | Book of Why, Books, Events, Mathematics | 0 Comments

I'd like to announce the newest addition to the Mackenzie book collection! What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences (WHIMS) is an ongoing series published by the American Mathematical Society, about... well, just what the title says: current and recent events in...
Read More

One Year On

by | May 15, 2019 | Book of Why, Books | 0 Comments

Although I recently had a small reminder of the value of humility, today I’m going to soldier on in my immodest way and celebrate the first anniversary of one of the most exciting days of my life, the publication day of The Book of Why. Being a writer, especially of...
Read More

I Wanna Be a Paperback Writer …

by | April 11, 2019 | Book of Why, Books, Causation | 0 Comments

Last week I got a package in the mail from England: ten copies of the paperback edition of The Book of Why! The occasion brought to mind that goofy old Beatles song, Paperback Writer. In fact, I've been waiting quite a long time to be a "paperback writer." My first...
Read More

Better than a Review

by | January 9, 2019 | Articles, Book of Why, Books, Causation | 1 Comment

Yesterday Judea Pearl, my co-author, sent me a link to a fascinating article that I consider to be even better than a book review. It is something that every author dreams of -- positive evidence that our book is making a difference in the real world. In the article,...
Read More

A Great List to Be On

by | December 7, 2018 | Book of Why, Books, Causation | 0 Comments

This morning, my co-author Judea Pearl sent me an e-mail: "Did you know about this?" Well, no, I didn't. Here's what "this" means: http://s3.amazonaws.com/scifri-segments/scifri201812076.mp3 Science Friday, probably the nation's most-listened-to radio show for science...
Read More

The Book of Many Titles Returns

by | October 24, 2018 | Books, Mathematics | 0 Comments

Once upon a time, I wrote a book. Interestingly, the idea for the book was not mine. A book packager named Elwin Street Productions, in London, came to me with a proposal for a history of the greatest equations in mathematics. The book came out in 2012 as The...
Read More

Science Podcast Posted, plus Facing the Public

by | August 30, 2018 | Book of Why, Books, Causation, Events, Santa Cruz | 0 Comments

Today Jen Golbeck's interview with Judea and me for the Science (magazine) Podcast went up, and you can listen to it here. (Alternatively, for the next 7 days, you can also go to the main Science magazine website at www.sciencemag.org and scroll down to the podcast.)...
Read More

Welcome to my Redesigned Website!

by | Apr 27, 2012 | , , | 0 Comments

Just in time for the publication of The Universe in Zero Words, I have dramatically updated the look of my website, and made some changes behind the scenes that should enable me to keep the site up-to-date much more easily. You might notice a small number of posts...

(Old Post) History Channel

by | Jun 12, 2009 | , , | 0 Comments

A film crew for the History Channel program, "The Universe," came up to Santa Cruz to interview me for an episode that will appear next fall. It turned out to be quite an adventure, because it was extremely windy! The wind blew their reflector (a piece of white foam...

(Old Post) Moon and a Mocha III

by | Nov 15, 2008 | , | 0 Comments

Tonight I presented "Moon and a Mocha III" at the Capitola Book Cafe. Once again the Santa Cruz Astronomy Club provided telescopes. Some clueless customer at the drug store next door saw one of the telescope stands with a wire coming out of it, thought it was a bomb,...

(Old Post) Moon and a Mocha II

by | Feb 20, 2008 | , | 0 Comments

The Capitola Book Cafe hosted my second "Moon and a Mocha" event on the night of the lunar eclipse. (Last total lunar eclipse until 2010!) I told some of the lore and science of eclipses, while in the sky behind me the Earth's shadow blocked out the Moon. Even though...

(Old Post) Joint Mathematics Meetings

by | Jan 10, 2008 | , , | 0 Comments

This week I went to the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego. One highlight was an exceedingly cool animated film of "Flatland," produced by Seth Caplan, directed by Jeffrey Travis and Dano Johnson, and starring Martin Sheen as Arthur Square. I have written an...

(Old Post) Capitola Book Cafe

by | Nov 26, 2007 | , , | 0 Comments

The Capitola Book Cafe hosted "Moon and a Mocha," a community science event. I showed clips from the episode of "The Universe" that I appeared in, and talked about some of the science that didn't get in the show. As it turned out, the audience was much more interested...

My Blogs

Dana Blogs Chess

Who hung the moon?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email