At a time when scientists and politicians are trying to raise the federal investment in research, selling it not just for its intended work but its benefits to society, we see the emergence of criticism of some of the culture in the federal research agencies. Specifically, an astronaut has apparently […]
This coming week is a BaBar Collaboration meeting, the first one since last fall when we celebrated the life of the B-factory with a one-day symposium. This is a chance to think ahead in the short-term about the winter conferences – just around the corner! – and to look to […]
Today, members of the three teams from the Fermilab, SLAC, and U.S. LHC users’ communities met at Fermilab to set the stage for a late April trip to Washington DC. We discussed many things; much of the morning was occupied by information intake, while the afternoon was devoted to method, […]
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 […]
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 […]
As I fly over the vast stretch of mountains that rim the California central valley, it becomes apparent to me that all this talk of drought cannot be far from reality. It becomes clear that the needs of the past will weigh heavily on the demands of the future, that […]
I’ve been neglecting the science and journal aspects of this blog for some time. The reasons are good – I have been focusing on the things that have been demanding my time since the Christmas break. Mainly, faculty job search-related activities, ramping up for this year’s lobbying trip to Washington […]
Last month, just a few days after Microsoft made the beta of Windows 7 available [1], I downloaded and installed it on a virtual machine in my Ubuntu installation. I don’t need all those stupid fancy graphics (Aero) or to play video games, so this was to me an acceptable […]
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 […]