Professor Jacobson recently featured the classroom antics of Columbia University science professor Emlyn Hughes, who  stripped to his boxers, showed clips of the 9/11 attacks, had ninjas slice through a stuffed animal, and other strange acts.

Columbia student Natalie Felsen has an update in the Columbia Spectator on the professor’s return to the class.  It seems he is still strange, but just a little less showy.

Physics professor Emlyn Hughes, who attracted national media attention for stripping at a Frontiers of Science lecture last week, toned down his antics for Monday’s lecture on the development of nuclear bombs and their proliferation, but still left some students puzzled by his actions.

Hughes began this lecture, like the previous one, with rap music—“Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio—set to a video of nuclear devastation, and also featured a ninja, who did not return after the introductory sequence.

Clad once again in a black hoodie and sunglasses, Hughes acknowledged the national hubbub over his performance, saying that he had turned Horace Mann Auditorium at Teachers College into “the most famous classroom in America.”

But in spite of his odd attire, he quickly got down to business with a lecture that examined both the physics and politics of nuclear weapons in detail.

Only one other stunt occurred in the course of the hour-and-a-half long lecture. As Hughes discussed the repellent properties of like particles, twin girls walked onstage from opposite sides of the auditorium, sat down at desks, and began to type on laptops in sync.

…In a question and answer session, when a student asked him about the situation, Hughes told students that they had “more to talk about” at the next lecture, and that they would have a “good, long talk.”

Security was tight at the lecture—students were required to present CUIDs to enter the building, and teaching assistants with iPads checked to make sure students were enrolled in the course. Before Hughes came on stage, Frontiers of Science coordinator Ivana Nikolic Hughes—Emlyn’s wife—told students that no photo, video, or audio recording was allowed.

Some students said after the lecture that they had expected an explanation for Hughes’ behavior.

“I can’t say I’m able to put together exactly what the overall vision is,” Russell Moors, GS, said. “I could use some traction.”

Moors said that the shift in mood was to be expected.

“I was disappointed, but what we had last time was a surprise,” he said. “Coming into lecture, there was no way of telling what happened next. I don’t think anything that he could have done this week would have been nearly as engaging or surprising.”