6 Degrees of Separation–Or Maybe less

I hardly watch TV except for American Idol.  There are many aspects of Idol that draw me to take the time to stop what I am doing: whether it be working on a presentation, trying to accomplish certain feats with the new version of Adobe Premiere CS, or just plain tired of looking at the LCD screen.  Nevertheless, as I was glancing back and forth between LCD and boob tube I happened to catch a glimpse of an IPhone commercial between Idol singing acts.  Lo and behold, the IPhone commercial happened to exhibit a university textbook which I was personally involved with.   Long story short, I was contacted by a university professor (Dr. Slonczewski) that wanted to use some of my microphotographs in her textbook.  It turns out, that the textbook featured in the IPhone commercial is the actual university book in which my photos are included!  Hopefully, this is not my 5 minutes of fame.  Anyway, in many respects, the pronunciation of wastewater and wastewater microbiology/ecology in a top tiered college textbook should serve as a reminder that finally, after all these years, wastewater science is being recognized by the general microbiology audience.  It should serve well to bring in new blood into this field.  So if you see this commercial, you will be, in a peculiar way separated from the author of the book by maybe two to three degrees of separation.  Watch the video and notice the textbook.  Nice!

Yes, I did get a copy of the textbook.  Dr. Slonczewski was gracious enough to provide me with a free copy.  It really is an excellent piece of literature.  Much better micro book than the ones I used to have back when I was going to college.  As I leafed through the textbook I noticed quite a contrast in the way information was presented.  To be frank, there is whole lot more new material in this book than what I remember.  Quite a lot has changed in 20 years!