Today, Jodi took me to the Kavli Institute picnic at Stanford. The Kavli Institute is a place where astrophysicists and particle physicists come together from Stanford, and all over the world, to tackle the most significant problems challenging science right now. The problem of dark matter, the nature of dark […]
Life
490 posts
There’s been a lot of buzz concerning a Spanish version of the U.S. national anthem. Like an electric field, things like this tend to strongly polarize the nation. The media seizes on this kind of thing, throws the switch, and suddenly the nation is feeling one way or the other. […]
For twenty years, the United States has invested less and less in basic research in the physical sciences as a fraction of GDP. The U.S. spends about $8-$8.5 billion per year on basic research in the physical sciences (that represents the combined DOE science, NSF, and NIST budgets). Today, “it […]
I Google myself. There… that’s much better. Always better to just admit things and get them over with. OK, with the air clear… I found this interesting little tidbit using Google tonight. Somebody (Aspasia S.) wrote a review of the SLAC public lecture series [YelpFoodForIntellect]. They also happened to have […]
This has been a pretty fun week, and it’s only Tuesday, After a bout of insomnia on Sunday night, Monday was a real drag. That is, until the end of the day when, as I was leaving work, I got into a conversation about knowledge, philosophy, science, and religion with […]
I’ve avoided the blog for the last few weeks, pretty much on purpose. The March 7-9 trip to Washington D.C. was one of the most singular and draining experiences of my life. It was terribly stressful and exhilarating, all at the same time. All in all, 29 of us spent […]
Sometimes I get so close to an objective in my research, I become utterly obsessed with it. I spent most of my life in graduate school in that state, chasing the results that eventually became the work of my thesis. This past week, I’ve been pushing hard to try to […]
These entries are going to be more sporadic than they used to, not because my life is super-boring right now, but because my life is super-hectic right now. When I’m not working on my primary or secondary research projects, or my muon veto system simulation, I am working with the […]
The winter conferences are nearly upon the BaBar collaboration, and many deadlines are fast approaching. While my own work is far from ready for presentation at a conference, a lot of the physicists who work in my physics working group are getting fired up for them. As a result, I’m […]
The President’s State of the Union address [StateOfTheUnionEarly] was pretty boilerplate, at least for this President. He emphasized all the things we expect him to these days: war on terrror, exporting democracy, domestic security, etc. There were a few notable things that jumped out at me as a scientist, and […]
Minneapolis has a truly inspiring light rail system. It’s very plainly new, as all aspects of the light rail cars are still somewhat shiny and fresh. There is also only one route, spanning all the way from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America. It was on this light rail […]
Returning to SLAC after the winter break is *always* a stress-affirming experience. After several weeks of total research avoidance practices (TRAPs), I had the unenviable job of remembering what I’d been doing before the break. Thank goodness for logbooks! After a one-day “getting up to speed” period, I managed to […]