This is a critical day for U.S. fundamental, curiosity-driven research. Having failed to pass the bi-partisan proposed increases for FY07 last autumn, the 109th Congress literally passed the buck to the 110th. They threatened to respond to this mess by “skipping” FY07, funding it at the same levels as FY06, […]
Dear Bill, I am so excited. I popped popcorn, and broke out the noisemakers. I even found an old stash of bright yellow Spongebob Squarepants party hats. You cannot know the joy you bring to my life. Microsoft Windows Vista (WOW . . . like . . . WOW) is […]
As you probably heard, “the primary scientific instrument onboard the Hubble Space Telescope failed today”:http://story.news.ask.com//article/20070130/D8MVBN680.html after its backup power supply failed. While NASA suggests that 1/3 of the camera’s capabilities could be restored in a month or so, it’s clear that this marks the end of a brilliant era in […]
This past Friday, on “Talk of the Nation: Science Friday”, a half-hour of the two-hour program was devoted to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Higgs particle [SciFriLHC]. The guests were luminaries of the hadron and future collider world – the spokesman of the CDF collaboration at Fermilab (Konigsberg), […]
Here are my notes on the President’s SotU speech, with timestamps (slightly delayed by Stevo)! 6:13: Bush starts off acknowledging the historic occasion of the first woman to be Speaker of the House. Jodi comments that he “would have been a real ass” not to do it. 6:18: “Unemployment is […]
I recently purchased an M-audio Fast Track USB box, which converts XLR input to USB. This lets me plug an SM57 microphone, good for average sound applications and generic instrumental recording, into my desktop linux box and record drums. This has given me the freedom to finally pursue my drumming […]
Last month, Jodi’s name was the first two words of an article on dark matter and the CDMS experiment. Forgive me for being a proud husband. The article has been featured on the SLAC website, and last night I noted it was on the “Fermilab website”:http://www.fnal.gov. Symmetry is a joint […]
The Higgs – no, we haven’t found it yet. Physicists have long talked about it. We’ve been building and running machines for decades, trying to zero in on it. Back in the eighties, most physicists seemed to think it was a low-mass particle and looked for evidence of it at […]
Astute readers noted they couldn’t comment on blog entries because of a bug in CoreBlog. I have fixed this. Go ahead and shred me!
Physics is a good story. The muon collider is one amazing chapter in that story, one which has yet to be written but which has been colorfully outlined. Jodi’s experiences at the WIN07 conference in India reminded me tonight of this incredible instrument, and I want to here share my […]
I had a chance to talk to Jodi tonight. As I’ve mentioned, she is in Calcutta (Kolkata), India, for the “WIN07 Conference”:http://www.saha.ac.in/anp/win07.sinp/win07/index.html. For the last few days, we’ve mostly talked about how she should have pursued more vaccinations before going, and about her water-handling practices. Today, however, the timbre of […]
Jodi’s ability to connect to the internet from Calcutta has been intermittent, but I’ve managed to get a few things out of her in the last 24 hours. After the initial culture shock (don’t drink the water . . . in fact, don’t even let it touch your teeth), she […]