Quake shoehorned time for writing into the crevices of an already crammed schedule. “I did it everywhere—at home, in the office, on the airplane, in a taxi, in hotel rooms,” he says. To his surprise, he found himself focusing mostly on policy and social issues.

In his hardest-hitting post, “The Crumbling Ivory Tower,” Quake argued that when academic researchers have a financial stake in commercializing their basic lab discoveries, peer review can protect against potential biases in results. Instead, he wrote, university bureaucracies try to manage conflicts of interest “often by meddling into faculty research in ways that create more heat than light.” He also criticized university licensing offices for impeding technology transfer.

That essay elicited some of the most heated reader responses. Although he wasn't expected to answer comments, sometimes, Quake says with a laugh, “I had to hold myself back.”

He admits to catching the blogging bug. With those four essays under his belt, Quake is keeping a list of future topics.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: To read Quake's blogs, go to: judson.blogs.nytimes.com/author/Stephen-Quake.

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