The Benzine - Fall 2023 Issue : simplebooklet.com

123Floating Sunflower 59111214Where’s Odie?Letter from the EditorsWhat is The Benzine?History of Chemistry in the Art Deco EraFlowchart: What Path Are You Really On?Hourly Comic DayTerrible TOC’sTABLE OF CONTENTSJairo Villalona (Buller Group)Jairo Villalona, Lizzy Sielaff and Danica GresselAmber Lim (Fredrickson Group)Jonas Widness (Weix Group)Lizzy Sielaff (Martell Group) and Phia Geirzal (Gellman Group)Brie Bradshaw (Stowe Group)

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151617192740445264A Farewell GiftMeet the Editors andTheir Favorite BooksPet Rocks RockSigns from the StarsSeries of Photographs of South KoreaHand TurkeySpace Out with Members of Chemistry A Year on the BoughAI ArtPeyton Higgins (Buller Group)Julia Fraser (Boydston Group)Danica Gressel (Fredrickson Group)Austin Carr, Brandon Flores, and Prof. Bob HamersPhia Geirzal (Gellman Group)Brie Bradshaw (Stowe Group) Robin Morgenstern (Pazcini Group)Tae Kim (Gellman Group)

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1Dear readers,Thank you so much for taking the time to read the Fall 2023issue of The Benzine! This fall semester, we share submissions from fourteendifferent scientists spanning nine different groups, withsubmissions ranging from photography to written word tocomics! It is always our honor to be the curators of theamazing work generated by this department and to be able to share our love of art with all of you. After a long year of hard work, we hope that the breadth oftalent found in the UW-Madison Chemistry departmentinspires you the same way it inspires us.-The Benzine Editorial BoardLetteR fROm the eDitORS

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2We are an art and chemistry zine! Peer written, edited,reviewed, and published, we’re an outlet for you to expressyourself and an avenue for you to learn something new or seethe world from a different angle. We’re here to celebrate thechemistry, art, poetry, hobbies, and interests our departmentenjoys. We’re a place where you share, publish, and promotewhat you care about in chemistry and beyond. We aim to approach our science with the same energy we bringto the rest of our lives. It’s easy to be overwhelmed in this field,and we don’t want to lose sight of the broader picture andforget why we love what we do. We recognize that each andevery one of us is full of stories and ideas that stretch beyondthe ordinary everyday of student life. Those stories deserve aplace to be heard and we want to be that for you.We want to try and move beyond the barriers – conscious orunconscious – that so often get between us. This department isbuilt on the people it’s made up of. We want to lower theactivation energy, so to speak, of forming the bonds that willknit our community together. We’re broad. Different. Alternative. We’re a mirror for yourself,we’re a window to the world. We’re what you make us. Take a chance. Get inspired.What IS The BenZine?

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aRt aND ChemiStRy in the aRt DeCO eRaa JOuRney ThROuGh time: 5By Jairo Villalona, Lizzy Sielaff, and Danica GresselThe art-deco age, initially known as ‘le style modern,’ is known for itsavant-garde, luxurious, and lighthearted artistic modes, according tothe New York Public Library (1). As the initial name suggests, thisartistic era started in France and attracted international attention viagovernment-sponsored expositions. A collection of famous artpieces from this era can be found here. Chemistry and art during this time period were closely intertwined.We will now travel through time and observe how chemistry and artcomplement each other.We begin our journey in the early 19th century, rightafter the discovery of a material with a thousand usesknown as Bakelite. This material, invented by LeoBaekeland in 1907, is a phenolic resin synthesized via acondensation reaction between phenol andformaldehyde (2). This thermosetting resin was usedwidely, from electrical insulators to jewelry and higher-end billiard balls (3). Over time, the popularity of the art style made it into thearchitectural works of the Chrysler Building, constructedfrom 1928-1930 (4), and the Empire State Building inNew York City.

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In the 1920s, artists began the transition from using lead-based whites in their color pallets to pigments made fromtitanium dioxide, such as Titanium white, due to its lowtoxicity and high opacity (5). An artistic example of theconnection between chemistry and art can be found inEdmund D. Lewandowski’s work Scientific Research(1952) depicting an assortment of different glassware.(see below) As of this date, this oil-on-canvas artwork isno longer on display at the Chazen Museum of Art at UW-Madison. We reached out to our scientific glassblowerTracy Drier for his favorite historical glassware from theprevious century.6Lewandowski, Edmund D. American, 1914-1998 Scientific Research50” x 22” 1952 Oil on canvas Chazen Museum of Art,University of Wisconsin-Madison Gift of Gimbel CollectionWisconsin Artists' View of1952, 55.6.8Provided by Tracey Drier

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Justus Liebig began the glassware revolution in chemistryby introducing his Kaliapparat in 1830 to solve a chemicalproblem of the day. The bottom three bulbs are filled withpotassium hydroxide, which absorbs carbon dioxide froma burned sample. The increased weight of the kaliapparatis then used to determine the amount of carbon in thesample. The American Chemical Society uses thekaliapparat prominently in its logo. In 1844, PetrusJacobus Kipp invented an apparatus for the preparation ofsmall molecules (6). The design and style of the glasswareare reminiscent of the principles behind the art-deco ageinvolving geometric shapes and intricate designs. This concludes our journey, we hope you appreciate therelationship between chemistry and art.Kallapparat Image provided by Tracey Drier ACS Logo7

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(1) Art Deco: A Research Guide | The New York Public Library https://www.nypl.org/node/171023(2)Website: https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/bakelite.html(3) Lokensgard, Erick (2010). Industrial plastics: theory and application (5th ed.). Clifton Park, NY:Delmar Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1428360709.(4) Chrysler Building - Architecture of the Chrysler Building in New York -https://artincontext.org/chrysler-building/(5) Laver, Marilyn (1997). "Titanium Dioxide Whites". In Fitzhugh, Elisabeth West (ed.). Artists'Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics. Vol. 3. Archetype. pp. 295–355.(6) Website: https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/classic-kit-kipps-apparatus/3004922.articleReferencesKipp apparatusImage from Wikimedia Commons8

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Ride your bike (orbus (or drive)Cross country ski in winteror kayak in summer? Digital Lab Notebook orPhysical Lab Notebook? TA a discussion sectionor a lab section?Get in early tsynthesis or sto finish AnalyticalNorth Tower orShain Tower?Teachchalk whiteWrite from home orin the office? PhysicalOrganicChemical Education9LabNorthW h a t P a t h StaRt HeRe!Bike/WalkTSkiingKayakDiscussionDigitalPhysicalShainWhite BoardHomeOfficeGet in eStay Late

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r walk) or take the) to campus?Watch TV or do acraft?o start yourstay up lateworkupPack lunch from home or eat snacksfrom the 5th floor vending machine?Midday refuel at JavaDen or Aldo's? h from aboard ore board? Meet your friends at the farmer'smarket on Saturday morning or at theLibrary on Friday night? Do you believe ingood chalk?Chemical BiologyInorganicMaterialsA R e Y O u R e a l l y O n ?Bus/DriveTVCraftsdChalk boardYes, of course!What?Java DenAldo'sThe Library The MarketHome5th Floorearly

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(Antibodies) can’t touch this(substrate because selectivederivatization inhibits molecularrecognition, elucidating structuraleffects underpinning endogenousbinding affinity)!Eric Kohn, Martell GroupChlemmlammency: Benefits andLimitations of Machine Learning inScientific CommunicationGenerated via Stable Diffusion deeplearning algorithm with the prompt“JACS chemistry graphical abstract.”Humans are not alone in generatingterrible ToC graphics!Madeleine Atwood, McMahon/WoodsGroupMulti-Channel Fluorescent Microscopy of a BadgerAshley Ogorek, Martell GroupTerrible ToC’s

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19The Benzine: "How did you get into astrophotography?"Bob Hamers: "My grandfather, a retired machinist, built a largereflector telescope and I remember as a young boy looking at themoon and just being amazed. In high school I started taking time-lapse images of star trails. I love being outside at night, especially inthe summer when it cools down and is quiet – it’s a great stressreliever!" SpaCe Out!with Austin Carr, Brandon Flores, and Prof. Bob Hamers “This time-lapse image shows how the sun’s surface is dynamic. The darkregion is a solar flare that, when viewed against the sun’s surface, appearsdark. This is a false-color image taken with a H-alpha etalon filter at 656.3 nm.”Captured by Bob HamersFeaturing out of this world photographs shared by membersof our department, short interviews about how they got intoastrophotography, and how you might be able to do it too!

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“Pictured is a small portion of the constellation of Cygnus from my balcony inMadison, using a 51 mm telescope and a dedicated astrophotography camera.” Captured by Austin CarrThe Benzine: "What are some of your favorite things to observe?"Austin Carr: "My favorite visual targets are galaxies. There is a veryclose galaxy, Andromeda, that is a lot of fun to observe. My favoriteimaging targets are galaxy clusters. Even though they don’t have asmuch of a wow factor, the diversity of sizes and shapes is very cool.And of course, I love taking images of the “classic” astrophotographytargets, like the Orion Nebula, Elephant’s Trunk Nebula, and SadrRegion!"

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“The Dumbbell Nebula (M27) inVulpecula taken with a CelestronC5+ 5” Schmidt-Cassegraintelescope and an LG V60” Captured by Brandon FloresThe Benzine: "What are some ofyour favorite things to observe?"Brandon Flores: "I don’t thinkI’ll ever get tired of seeingJupiter or Saturn through atelescope. That being said, I’m asucker for galaxies – M104 (theSombrero Galaxy) and M82 aresome of my favorites.”The Benzine: "What’s the mostchalenging object you’ve managedto observe?"Brandon Flores: "The Veil Nebula.It’s extremely difficult to seebecause it’s so large, but using anOIII filter helps significantly, asit’s a supernova remnant filled withionized oxygen. In fact, it took mea while panning around the rightregion of the sky before I realized Ihad been looking at it the wholetime!”“The Lagoon Nebula (M8) inSagittarius taken with a CelestronC5+ 5” Schmidt-Cassegraintelescope and an LG V60” Captured by Brandon Flores

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22“This is a series of images showing Jupiter’s moon Io passing in front ofJupiter. Io is most easily visible in the first frame. The shadow of io fallsonto the Jupiter’s clouds, forming a dark spot the moves across Jupiter’ssurface over a time span of a few hours. Looking carefully, you can seeboth Io and Io’s shadow.” Captured by Bob Hamers“This is a series of time-lapse images ofJupiter, long enough thatyou can see Jupiterrotating. The images arestitched together torotate forward andbackward, but in reality itrotates only left-to-right.” Captured by Bob Hamers

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23“This the comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) that recently got a lot of press as the“Green comet”. Notice that it has two tails: One pointing to the upper right, isthe “ion tail” pointing away from the sun. The one pointing toward the lowerright is the “dust tail” and points away from the direction the comet movedthrough space.” Captured by Bob HamersThe Benzine: "Where are some good sites for stargazing in Madison?”Brandon Flores: "The UW Marching Band practice field experiencesvery low glare. Madison isn’t as badly light polluted as some othermajor cities, so just traveling a few miles out of town can help a lot.”Bob Hamers: “Indian Lake County Park near Middleton is a placethat’s pretty close, as is Pope Farm Conservancy. There are somegood sites west of Madison, around Cross Plains and the KickapooValley Reserve. All of the images I show here I took from my backyardon the west side of Madison.

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M33 is one of the famous “Messier Objects”. It’s a famous galaxy, 2.73 millionlight-years away (that’s about 1.7x1019 miles). Captured by Bob Hamers The Benzine: “What suggestions do you have for people interested instarting this hobby?”Austin Carr: “Buy secondhand as much as possible. I started with a used andancient Celestron mount and a borrowed camera. This is a life-long hobby;you’re not going to immediately make Astronomy Picture of the Day qualityimages but it’s important to try!”Bob Hamers: “A pair of binoculars can be a great place to start. Cameras oncell phones can do absolutely amazing things. There are local astronomy clubsthat are a great place to check out what you can see with different equipment,and people are generally very happy to share their advice and expertise!”Brandon Flores: “Really, you don’t need equipment - just going out andlooking at the stars can be enough - but the experience is certainly betterwith a telescope.”

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The Benzine: “What is your astrology star sign?”Austin Carr: “Sagittarius? I had to google it!”Brandon Flores: “Cancer!” Bob Hamers: “I’m a Taurus... which I guess is maybe agood reflection of my stubborn streak!”“This image shows two famous galaxies: the “Cigar galaxy” at upper lef“Bode’s galaxy” near the center. We see the Cigar Galaxy almost edge-oBode’s galaxy mostly face-on.” Captured by Bob HamersSagittariusCancer Tau25

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A Year on the BoughBy Brie Bradshaw I spent the entire winter inside. The cold was immobilizing. I feltlike I was laying out on the dirt with the snow piled on top of me,slowly weighing down on me. And when the wind screeched in thenight and shook the world it felt even colder. The days were shortand the clouds were thick; it was so dark. I was a bear hibernating in acave somewhere deep in the ground. Waiting. For what, I didn’t know.The aching cold made it hard to think; the wind whisked my thoughtsaway before they could fully form, leaving only the empty rustlingbehind. I consumed little and did little, saving my energy. Some days,I thought it was feeling a little warmer, which gave me hope. Butwithout fail it would be cold again the next day, and the winterstretched on, unending. The days bled into one another, all of themdark and all of the cold. I spent all of them alone. Slowly, the days started to become longer. The cold stoppedbiting as much. The clouds stopped dropping fresh snow every night,and the snow that remained melted into the earth in muddy patches.I could feel movement in the ground. The wind wasn’t angry anymore;it lost all of its edge when the ice went away. Now when it rattledthrough it felt like someone knocking to wake me up, begging me togo out. The sun and the sky and the wind were calling to me,whispering my name in gentle tones, calling me out of my stupor. And so I awoke. There was something primitive pulling me out andpushing me up, and I went where I was called. After what felt likeyears of winter, I went out into the gentle sunshine. I had neverknown anything so kind. The springtime sunlight swirled around ingentle loops and decorated the earth with lazy patterns. It broughtwith it hope for the future and tickles of warmth and light.41

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In the spring the clouds didn’t bring snow anymore, they broughtrain. Torrential rain that flooded the streets and turned the dirt intomud and the grass into marsh. At first, I was afraid of the onslaught,but I learned to love the rain. It washed me off and made me new. Iwas never thirsty in the spring, the clouds made sure of it. Not too faraway from me I watched as a sparrow painstakingly built a small twigcastle to raise his children in. He flew all around collecting littlepieces of bark and fur and fluff and even twine to use. Every day hewould come back with a piece of something from somewhere. Hemade sure that his babies had seen the entire world before they evenleft the nest. Before I knew it the entire neighborhood was full of thesame little nests all filled with little eggs. After a few weeks their tinylittle beaks pushed their way into the world just like the daffodils hadthe month prior. The wind was kind enough to carry their scent up tome. It was funny watching the birds learn to fly. Their mothersencouraged them and their fathers goaded them until one of the littlefuzzballs was brave enough to throw himself over the edge and fallheadlong through the air. The entire neighborhood held its breath asthe little brown flash tumbled towards the ground. Suddenly, afterwhat felt like hours, he spread his wings and the air caught him. Heflapped hard and rose slowly, defying gravity. Soon, his siblingslearned to fly too, and they grew bigger and shed their fuzzy featherseverywhere. With their youth went the springtime, and summerrolled in on a gust of hot air. I spent the entirety of the summer in the sun, collecting theglorious warmth and letting it sustain me. In the summer, the windwas my friend. It danced around me and through me, telling me jokesas it swirled by in friendly circles. My neighbors, my friends, wereoutside too. We spent all summer in concert with one another,giggling. There was a constant hum of activity. We enjoyed the warmdays and relished the warm nights. Even when the sun was gone, itsmemory remained with us, keeping us warm; keeping us safe. The birds were never far away, chirping in my ear, telling me theirgossip from far off places. They bickered with each other and createdunnecessary drama, in a way that only birds can do. 42

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But, what upset the birds more than the other birds were thesquirrels. Where the birds were tense socialites engaged in a dance ofcivility, the squirrels were the kids on the corner throwing eggs attheir cars. The squirrels ran wild through the neighborhood, reekinghavoc on every corner and delighting in the general chaos thatensued. On more than one occasion I caught a group of squirrelssnickering to themselves before sending the youngest and quickest(and dumbest) of them to startle a group of hens all chittering aboutnothing to each other. This would send the hens into a tizzy ofactivity, fluttering around and exclaiming about how poorly behavedthis year’s batch of younglings was. My friends and I just watched andsmiled, and the wind laughed with us. Even the night was buzzing with life; the warm sleepy hum of hotsummer nights kept us awake. The lightning bugs flew in between itall, flickering like tiny flames and setting the world on fire. They weredifferent from the birds and the squirrels; more subdued. They didn’targue or twitter or snicker amongst themselves, instead acting almostlike righteous sages of the night, intent on fulfilling their noble dutyof lighting the way. The summer solstice was the best day of the year. We knew it hadbeen coming for weeks. I could feel it deep inside of me. As the daysgrew longer, I grew stronger and stronger. I was not the small, timidthing I was only five months prior. I was glowing with health and vigor.I could tell that I was beautiful, and when I looked at my friends, theywere beautiful too. When the solstice finally came, we celebrated allday. We talked and danced and ate late into the night, even after thesun went down. It was a celebration, but it was also a goodbye. Deepin the back of my mind I knew that though today was the glorioussummer, from tomorrow onwards, the days would only get shorterand colder. I could feel the season slipping through my fingers likesand, and I wished I could hold on to every ounce of sunshine andgreen and good times. The apprehension I felt on the solstice was not unwarranted, butit may have been a little too anticipatory. The month after thesolstice was still full of the life that I had come to love. The sun hadnot abandoned me so quickly; and I even began to learn to love thestars, with the help of their little lightning sages. 43

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At the end of August I felt tired for the first time in a long time.Somehow, instead of filling me with life, the sun was drying me outand making me weak. That day I felt lethargic sitting in the sun, andthe wind sounded a little snippy, and the birds’ chattering wasgrating, and the squirrels’ scheming was chafing. Only when the sunstarted to go down did the lightning bugs soothe me. On that day, Iknew it was the beginning of the end. As the days got shorter, the sun became even more oppressiveand the wind became even more sharp. I didn’t feel like dancinganymore. The birds and the squirrels began packing up to move out.They knew too that what lay ahead of us was what none of us wanted.Little by little, we saw them less and less. Some of the smarter birdsleft the neighborhood altogether, while the squirrels clashed overwho got which nook or cranny to stash their treasures in. I knew for certain summer was gone when the lightning bugs left,taking with them all the magic and mystery of the night. For the firsttime in a long time, I began to feel cold. When the cold finally breached our shores, it didn’t let up. Itfollowed us at a slow and steady pace, hunting us down, making usafraid. I was afraid at night without the lighting bugs to guide me. Noteven their celestial counterparts made themselves known, as theytoo were overcome by the clouds that had begun to shroud the sunin the day. My days became gray and my nights became gray and thevibrant color in me began to fade to blend into the scene. With every passing day I grew weaker and frailer. The wind nolonger called me to dance, instead it threatened to rip me limb fromlimb. I watched in horror as the weight of the wind overcame myneighbors. One by one they left me until I was the only one left as faras I could see. On the last day, I knew I couldn’t last any longer. My time hadcome. And so, when the wind came to my doorstep and called myname, I went. I fell off of the branch, and floated to the ground, and becameone with the earth.44

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AI Generated ArtUsing a generative program to produce visual art orwriting can be a very creative experience. While youmight not need to pick up a paintbrush, there aremany creative choices involved in the iterativeprocess of developing a good prompt to feed to theprogram, tweaking your prompt, generating manyimages, and choosing your favorite. Ultimately, this isan exercise in aesthetics, a fun and easy opportunityto experiment with color palettes, composition, anddesign, and a chance to learn about what we like. Thinking about what it is about a particular image orsentence that speaks to you can even be a source ofinspiration when it comes to making your own art!Personally, I love using Stable Diffusion forinspiration during the sketching and color palettechoosing phases of a new digital painting. We thought it would be fun to invite the chemistrycommunity to explore their own sense of aestheticbeauty through some of these generative programs.53

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Whiskers the AlchemistOnce there was a curious and adventurous cat namedWhiskers. Whiskers was not just any ordinary cat. He was analchemist, with a passion for mixing and experimenting withdifferent elements to create new substances. Whiskers spent most of his days in his laboratory, often usingfish scales and bones in his concoctions, fascinated by theunique properties they possessed. He was determined to makea significant contribution to the field of alchemy and fishresearch.Finally, after years of hard work, Whiskers made agroundbreaking discovery. He had discovered a new chemicalcompound that could help improve the health and growth offish! With this discovery, Whiskers unlocked the key toimproving the quality and quantity of fish production aroundthe world. Whiskers' research was so groundbreaking that he wasnominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The news wasshocking, as no animal had ever been nominated for such aprestigious award before. However, the Nobel committeerecognized the importance of Whiskers' research and awardedhim the prize.Whiskers became an instant celebrity, and he used hisnewfound fame to advocate for the importance of alchemy andanimal research. He encouraged other animals to pursue theirpassions and to never give up on their dreams. And so, Whiskers the alchemist went down in history. Prompt: Write a short story about a cat winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.ChatGPTDanica GresselFredrickson Group

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“I find AI art's flaws fascinating - it's a tremendously powerful tool,so seeing where it fails to create reasonable images highlights thedifferences between computational pattern replication and humanlearning. The color scheme and composition mimics anthropologytextbooks, but the disjointed anatomy makes it absolutelyincomprehensible to anyone familiar with the human form. AI artalso reflects biases in the training set - specifying 'anatomy diagramof a woman' rather than 'anatomy diagram of a human' or 'man'resulted in much less detailed, much less realistic images, likelybecause male anatomy diagrams are much more prevalent in the setof training images.” Prompt: anatomy diagram of a woman in the style of a textbook57

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Madeleine AtwoodMcMahon/Woods Group“Unlike the "anatomy diagram of a woman" image, this diagrampasses as human at first glance - it's got the right number of armsand legs. The style looks poorly rendered, like an early 3D videogame, but that's certainly not uncommon in textbooks either. But thehollow eyesockets and the grimace, the incorrect hand anatomy, thenonsensical tendons and muscles, and the random distribution ofcutaways reveal the flaws here, too. Once again, it's an instrumentknowing what it should be mimicking but not understanding why. If ahuman had made this, I'd find it haunting - but since a computermade it, I find it oddly endearing.”Prompt: anatomy diagram of a human in the style of a textbook

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Amidst the halls of the science fair,Where the molecules dance in the air,I stand as a graduate student here,At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, dear.In the lab, I toil with glee,A chemist in the making, that’s me,With flasks and beakers all around,My passion for chemistry knows no bound.Day in and day out, I strive,To unravel the secrets, that chemistry hides,From synthesis to analysis, all is fair,In my quest to discover what’s out there.The professors, with their wisdom profound,Teach us to think, to question, to astound,With lectures, discussions, and lab sessions too,They shape us to be the scientists we pursue. The campus with its beauty untold,Is home to the Badgers, young and bold,As we march towards our degree,We make memories that will forever be.Oh Wisconsin-Madison, my alma mater,A chemistry graduate, now and forever,You have taught me to think, to dream,And in the world of science, to gleam.Brie BradshawStowe GroupChatGPTPrompt: write a poem about being achemistry graduate student at theUniversity of Wisconsin – Madison

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Prompt: art deco style illustration of a crow wearinga suit and tie holding a glass of whisky, great gatsbyRobin MorgensternPazicni Group“Sometimes you get an image that isn’t quite what you weregoing for but is nonetheless inspiring. Between the texture andcolor of the background contrasting with the flat black, to theexpression on the person’s face, to the featureless ravenperched on their shoulder, I found this image captivating.”

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I read this book for the first time ihigh school and loved it. Uponrereading almost a decade later, thbook holds up. I’ll Give You the Sun a heartbreaking story about familylove, loss, and art. It’s the perfectsummer binge read if you want tofeel all the things. - BrieWhat I really appreciate about thisbook is that it goes into the culturalaspects of the four nations before theAvatar the Last Airbender TV series,particularly the air nomads. The Dawnof Yangchen has a lot of awesomeworldbuilding. -JairoThis Side of ParadiseNothing to See HereLove, TheoreticallyOlga RavnHeart of a DogOne Last StopI Know What You DidLiu CixinI'll Give You The SunAvatar the Last Airbender: The Dawn of YangchenTheEmployeesJandy NelsonMartinAitkenKevin WilsonF. C.YeeMikhailBulgakovnCasey McQuistonF. ScottFitzgeraldCayce OsborneAliHazelwoodThe Three-Body ProblemKenLiuAn anonymously written bestsellerfictionalizes the death of the protagonist’schildhood friend, and accuses her of themurder. I Know What You Did by ourdepartment’s own Cayce Osborne is athrilling book-within-a-book set inMadison WI. The narrator’s snarkycommentary and the novel’s relentlesslydriving plot kept me turning the page. -Ray 65What OuR eDitORS

The Benzine - Fall 2023 Issue

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