Premises

“Illi me comitem et consanguinitate propinquum

pauper in arma pater primis huc misit ab annis.”

[My poor father sent me here to war from my youth,

as a companion to him and nearest in consanguinity.]

–Vergil’s Aeneid, II.86-7

1. Why we are doing this (a tongue-in-cheek modification of Matt’s statement of purpose for postdoc fellowship applications):

“Two major brothers have played an important role in the Covington Family: Matt, and James. While related by blood, currently these brothers occupy distant localities within the United States. To satisfy his passion for language, James is trying to finish his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Arkansas. Meanwhile Matt has undertaken a significant program of Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. However, upon nearing the completion of their degrees these brothers realized that they could be combined into a single pursuit – writing a blog, in which they could discuss, entertain, and share each other’s lives.”

–Matt, the elder brother, in “Statement of Purpose”, Jan. 16, 2008.

–Matt, preparing for an awesome rappel in a canyon in Death Valley.

2. Where we get our name:

“First we must come to an understanding of what the word consanguineous means. Whenever one wants to learn the essential meaning of a word, it is often beneficial to understand the roots from which that word derives. In this case, consanguineous comes from the Latin words (con + sanguis, sanguinis, m.), meaning “with” and “blood.” Considering that “sanguis” can also be used to denote a blood-relationship, we can easily arrive at a coherent definition of the word “consanguineous.” How about “with [common] blood-relationship.” (Nota bene: it is a corollary of this line of reasoning that the word “consanguinity,” then would be “the state or property of [common] blood-relationship.”)”

–James, the younger brother in “Definition of Terms”, Jan. 9, 2008.

–James uncovering the ancient site of Corinth.

About Us

Matt and James, the authors of this blog, are two brothers who grew up in Fayetteville, AR. Matt graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2002 with dual degrees in physics and philosophy. Shortly after graduating, he married his wife Elizabeth, who had also attended the U of A but had graduated a year earlier and begun work on a PhD in Cellular Physiology at Stanford. After graduating he joined Elizabeth in California and began working on a PhD in theoretical astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. For his thesis work he is studying simulations of galaxy collisions. However, another important fact about Matt is that he is completely obsessed with exploring and mapping caves. Over the past 10 years he has spent about 1 month out of each year on caving expeditions in far-flung places. Matt plans to finish his PhD in the near future and has decided to align his profession with his passion for caving. Next year he will be starting a one-year postdoc position in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota.  After that he has a two-year postdoc lined up in Slovenia!  The research projects for both postdoc positions will be using a combination of computer simulations and field work to study caves.

For the first part of his life, James tried hard to follow in Matt’s footsteps as best as he could, but life has chosen to take him down another path. James graduated from the U of A in May 2008 with a B. A. in Classical Studies and German. He married his wife Allison in July 2007, and she graduated with him from the U of A in Anthropology and Spanish. They plan to life live abroad translating the Bible into a language that does not yet have it. This stems from James’ passion for studying other languages as well as the Bible. Although he thought he was going to be a math professor when he matriculated into the University, James learned a few years sooner than Matt that it is best to pursue one’s passion, not a career. It sounds like Matt and James have really exciting futures ahead of them, as they will both be doing what they want to do.