American Scientist 2023

Bay Area singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Lindsay Olsen is the mind behind the warped and magical project Salami Rose Joe Louis. Drawing from her studies in planetary sciences, she creates a unique experience: exploring ideas of multiverses and climate change through the lens of a fictional post-apocalyptic keyboard-toting earthling with a flashlight, a can of cashews and a hopeful optimism. Melding influences from jazz, rock and hip-hop – Shuggie Otis, Captain Beefheart, Stereolab, and R. Stevie Moore – she creates a unique blend of experimental galaxy sounds with jazz influenced vocals and keys.

Hypnogogue, the band’s 26th(!) album, continues to bear the signature sound of founding member, singer and bass player Steve Kilbey. The album is mannered and dreamy, combining the Britishness of early Pink Floyd like 1968’s Saucerful of Secrets, with the measured intensity of later Pink Floyd albums like 1988’s The Delicate Sound of Thunder. While Australian, Kilbey’s accent and vibe position him with other dapper and aging British crooners of alt-rock, including The Jam’s Paul Weller and The Velvet Underground’s John Cale.

For nearly 50 years, chemical engineer and inventor Mária Telkes applied her prodigious intellect to harnessing the power of the sun. She designed and built the world’s first successfully solar-heated modern residence and identified a promising new chemical that, for the first time, could store solar heat like a battery. And yet, along the way, she was undercut and thwarted by her boss and colleagues — all men — at MIT.

Dr. Peter Hotez discusses how an antivaccine movement became a dangerous political campaign promoted by elected officials and amplified by news media, causing thousands of American deaths.