About strena.org

My past

I am Robert Strena, a retired Optician and Educator at UC Berkeley's School of Optometry, where I spent the best and last years of my optical career working with students and with patients.  I forged amazing relationships there and became a "forever" part of the Cal community.

I developed my love of the sciences long ago, as a student of Anthropology at the University of Santa Clara.  It was there, that I became a member of the archaeology team under Professor B. Mark Lynch that undertook excavation of the old Santa Clara de Asis Mission site which had been destroyed in a fire in 1926. In the process of the dig, uncovering and re-discovering the past of the old mission, so deepened my love of history and artifacts...

Over time, my college passion for anthropology and archaeology marked a return to a love of all the sciences, and knowledge in general...  A passion for which I had been primed as a young child, when I would spend hours looking things up in Encyclopedia Britannica and the TIME LIFE Science Library.  A passion that had languished unnurtured in middle and high school.

Interests

My interests remain diverse.  While I never lost my love for anthropology, archaeology, and history, my interest in science as it relates to health, cures for disease, and aging now play a more prominent role in my quest for answers and knowledge. 

At 68, I am still totally committed to personal fitness and a devoted daily gym-goer.  I take supplements, and I'm excited about the research being done in longevity. 

I still love to read, and not just books, and periodicals.  I am also a frequent user of the web, online journals and tools like Wikipedia. There's rarely a day that passes without multiple web searches related to my personal "hot topics". 

I've recently discovered the game of chess, and I'm a fan.  It's ancient, strategic, cerebral, and also humbling. 

I also enjoy my share of literary and video "fluff".  The brain needs play and we benefit from being pushed outside the realm of things we know as facts and into expanded levels of curiosity about the things we don't know. The History Channel fits this bill admirably with series like "The Unexplained", "Oak Island", "Ancient Aliens", "Skinwalker Ranch" and more.  

And then, there is motorcycles...

 Some of the most exciting advances in science are those that touch us personally and health touches all of us.  Physical and mental health, aging, and new treatments for disease.