Sept 23 -- Almost all environmental studies is pretty depressing, but there is one class I try and give as often as possible that cheers everyone up. The students all come alive, and one year a student came up to me and said: "I was in bliss the whole class." Nothing to do with the instructor. This is the class where we build a planet from scratch, which you could call Earth. The big, blissful moments come twice: first when the bits and pieces all come together and somehow cells get going -- LIFE!; and second, when another miracle occurs a billion years later, and some smart cell invents photosynthesis, and boom, we are off and running!AIR! What students love is that this whole enterprise is utterly magical, because it seems to have happened without anyone else's help (except God's, depending on your taste), because it was a bunch of the lowest form of life (even pre-life) doing it, and because no one has the slightest idea how they did miracle No. 1, and we are still not completely sure how they did, and keep doing miracle No. 2 every day. And yet everything depends on it: life, stock transactions, Kraft dinners. Students love the mixture of real science and the admission of humble stupidity in the face of a bunch of dumb one-celled plants -- algae for God's sake -- doing something not even the smartest human beings can figure up. Then we build the rest of the Earth, which is the easy part. Everyone gets happy, and you can see them bounce off, charged up to go out and proclaim this big event, 5 billion years and counting!

And, to tell the truth, it always blisses out the teacher. It always does, and did yesterday too. (p.t.)