Oh, the sexy life of a physicist. All that thinking, all that writing-some-of-it-down-sometimes, all that travel and big machinery, big ideas and big discoveries. For a human being, doing all that sexiness is also a pain in the ass. This month is a good example; it’s the kind of month […]
Politics
277 posts
In the past month, Energy Secretary Chu and now President Obama have addressed DOE labs. In both cases, the address was announced the morning it happened, essentially at the last minute and out of the e-mail time window of nearly every user I know physically located at SLAC. As a […]
This week was a stunning week, not only to my science colleagues but to people who’s job it is to communicate the needs of academia to the Federal government. What made this week unique, as one person put it, was that government actually did what it said it would do. […]
It speaks for itself. Enjoy! The Colbert ReportMon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Obama’s New Science Policy – Chris Mooney Colbert Report Full EpisodesPaul McCartney Appearance Funny Political VideosMore Funny Videos
You can find the President’s first weekly address online [1]. I wanted to highlight some language from the summary of the address: The Administration is still working with Congress to refine the plan, but in the address, President Obama lays out the key priorities. He goes into detail, noting that […]
A friend and colleague of mine brought to my attention some fast-breaking news about the House plan to inject money into science agencies in the stimulus package. According to ASTRA, the Alliance for Science & Technology Research in America, reports [1] that the House plans to invest $1.9B in the […]
The nomination of Steve Chu for Secretary of Energy was a good first step toward demonstrating that President-elect Obama will take science as a serious component of shaping policy. However, there isn’t too much that is concrete which can tell us what the Obama policies toward science will be. Science […]
One year ago yesterday, the U.S. Congress passed the FY08 omnibus spending bill. This marked a moment of significant destruction to the particle physics programs in the U.S. Investment in future accelerator projects was cut or zeroed out. The B-factory program at SLAC was put on the chopping block, a […]
It became official today (at least, all the news agencies seem to be treating it this way): Dr. Stephen Chu, director or Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), is President-elect Obama’s pick for the Secretary of Energy [1]. Chu shared the 1997 Nobel prize in physics for experiments in cooling and […]
As President Obama chooses those with whom he will surround himself in the executive branch, one choice jumped out at me these past few weeks. That person is Larry Summers, who is famous for two reasons: his service to the Clinton administration as a high-ranking official, and his moment of […]
It was clear by 8:05 pm: Barack Obama was to be President. Our cottage erupted in joy, for a the first time it seemed that something went right in national politics in eight years. This is an opportunity not to be wasted. Fellow scientists, this is our chance to showcase […]
We’re going to be spending election night hosting friends at our place as we watch the returns come in. I’m making fondue, in honor or the French role in insuring the success of our revolution (and in honor of the awesomeness of cheese), Jodi made desserts, and we’ll see what […]