“Symmetry Magazine”:http://www.symmetrymagazine.org, a publication spearheaded by Fermilab and SLAC, appears monthly and has articles that touch on particle physics at a level appropriate for all people. “Slashdot is carrying a link to this month’s article on an art exhibit by Jan-Henrik Anderson”:http://science.slashdot.org/science/05/10/12/1913203.shtml?tid=126&tid=14. It’s nice to see Symmetry Magazine getting some […]
WOW! I’m speechless. NOVA has outdone itself. My father e-mailed me excitedly earlier tonight to heap praise on “Einstein’s Big Idea”. It was really a remarkable combination of drama, history, and science. I’ve always liked “Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens” for that reason, but this takes the damn cake. What […]
In 1905, 100 years ago, Einstein experienced what we now call his “miracle year”, during which he published three seminal works in physics that opened the door to quantum mechanics and relativity. NOVA, the excellent PBS science program, celebrates this achievement with their program “Einstein’s Big Idea”:http://www.pbs.org/hplink/redir/wgbh/nova/einstein/, airing tonight on […]
The “National Center for Science Education”:http://www.ncseweb.org has excellent “ongoing coverage, including transcripts and podcasts, of the trial in PA brought by parents against the Dover School District”:http://www2.ncseweb.org/wp/, which is trying to force non-science into the science classroom. I’m spending my evening working while listening to their podcasts.
Whew. This was a long pair of weeks. Between the marathon travel (and the actualy marathon for Jodi), the return to CA, two days of non-stop meetings (and work?), then travel to and from DC for my friend’s wedding, Jodi and I are EXHAUSTED. In addition to exhausted, we are […]
We’re in Washington D.C., primarily for the wedding of a friend of mine from college. Secondarily, Jodi and I are using this opportunity to hit the Hill and talk to some of our elected representatives. We decided to try for appointments with three offices: Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, Congressman David Obey, […]
This weekend was the date of Jodi’s marathon run in Milwaukee. We left early on Friday morning, bleary eyed and eager to get to our destination. After a wonderful party with friends and family on Saturday night, we awoke at 6:15 on Sunday morning to get ready. Jodi left the […]
The annual SLAC User’s Organization (SLUO) meeting is today. One of the talks was about the synchrotron light source science going on here at the laboratory. Included in that was rresearxh done to better understand the complex process of blood clotting. This is a topic embraced by Creationists and Intelligent […]
Last week was a real killer. After I spent a tough but rewarding Monday at UCSF, it seemed I didn’t get a single minute to myself. Now that the professors in my group are back at MIT, I’m trying to make sure that the students are making progress and that […]
Today I had the *immense* pleasure of a day away from SLAC. Wait a second. That sounded all wrong. You see, the pleasure was not in the separation from my laboratory; the pleasure was the company I kept while away, and the work I got to do. I got into […]
If Katrina was any indication, then we can make some predictions about tropical storm Rita. This storm, headed to the Florida Keys, is aimed straight at the heart of the warm Guld of Mexico. Katrina, a storm which ravaged Florida before entering the Gulf, soaked energy from the waters west […]
Every year, scientists from all over the United States make personal visits to their elected representatives in Washington D.C. This ability to have an individual interaction to achieve collective action is a wonderous feature of our democratic society. When I first experienced this in 2003, I shared the optimisim of […]