This was among the most exhausting weeks of my entire life, and though it was painful in the planning and tiring in the execution, it was worth it. In the coming weeks, a number of us will be compiling a more complete version of what we learned. Here, I put […]
Today was a long, long day. Jodi and I got out of bed around 5:00, got ready and ate breakfast, just in time to gulp my coffee and pack the car for the trip to the airport. I spent the night in a fitful sleep, waking up about once an […]
This week is the annual SLUO trip to Washington. Again, we join forces with Fermilab and the U.S. LHC User Group to carry a common message about particle physics and the physical sciences to the Congress. I’ll try to keep a daily journal here about what I learn, without getting […]
I’m trying not to be paranoid, but I think the universe is trying to tell me something. It started over a year ago, when I had my last real vacation. It was Christmas break, and Jodi and I did our usual family-to-family cross-continental hop. That’s tiring, with driving and flying, […]
Bill Foster, a physicist formerly at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab and a businessman in the Aurora, IL area, won the House seat formerly held by Dennis Hastert. Since Hastert left last fall, that seat has been left empty and Fermilab politically unprotected. Let’s all cross our fingers and hope […]
Recently, a new show has appeared on “The Discovery Channel” called “Smash Lab”. The premise of the show is simple: four smart people – an engineer, an “ideas guy”, a scientist, and a designer – get together and try to approach real-world problems with innovative technology. For instance, using carbon-fiber […]
Well, we went from the summer of nuts, to the winter of insane, to the fast-paced late-winter of WTF. I’ve been cutting non-essential things out of my life as a result, including this blog. Oh well – last to the table, first out the door. Today, however, I’ve been forcing […]
In the wake of the omnibus bill, a lot of us have been working our asses off to squeeze the science out of the remaining time on our experiments. Many of us are getting ready to go to Washington D.C., to hold the Congress to the commitment it made to […]
Tonight, NPR’s “All Things Considered” interviewed Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate. During the interview, Romney spent about a minute on the topic of increasing the federal basic research funding profile. He was specifically talking about energy and energy independence, but at least that topic nominally includes ITER. […]
With the first state’s primary over with, and Obama and Huckabee out in front in the press, it’s perhaps interesting to revisit the issue of the candidates and science. Given the recent call for a debate by the candidates about science issues, one might now begin to wonder about the […]
Bob Park is normally funny to read every Friday, either because you agree with him rabidly or because you don’t agree with him but you find his grouchiness lovable . This week, he’s just plain on target. Here are his opening paragraphs, verbatim: 1. HIGH-ENERGY PHYSICS: SANK IN “THE GATHERING […]
I thought that this past summer was nuts, but now I realize it was just the packet of sunflower seeds to this winter’s vacuum-packed can of fancy cashews. With the omnibus bill a living threat to the U.S. science program, the consequences have started to land on the table. Remember […]