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Smash Lab and the Scientific Method

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 […]

Smash Lab and the Scientific Method

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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 […]

Pant, Pant

(Applause) – with regrets

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 […]

(Applause) – with regrets

Finally! A Candidate Talks about Basic Research!

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. […]

Finally! A Candidate Talks about Basic Research!

From Iowa to New Hampshire – Candidate Spectroscopy

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 […]

From Iowa to New Hampshire – Candidate Spectroscopy

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Park on the Mark

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 […]

Park on the Mark

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 […]

Summer of Nuts, but a Winter of Insane

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Roll Call!

This morning I had a short chat with a student at SLAC. During the chat, it was mentioned that certain Presidential candidates didn’t event vote on the omnibus bill. This got me thinking about who did and who did not vote for it, and about who voted for and agaist. […]

Roll Call!

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Absence of Light

One day ago, the unthinkable happened: Congress abandoned all signs of reason and passed an omnibus spending bill that gutted science in this nation. Much is clear, and much is not. What’s clear are the facts. The Office of Science was appropriated $4.05 billion, and then asked to apply a […]

Absence of Light

Science Budget Disasters

Since the Congress was unable to complete, or get the President to sign, appropriations bills by October 1, the U.S. has been living under what is called a “continuing resolution”. That means that every now and then, the Congress votes to fund the government at last year’s levels while they […]

Science Budget Disasters

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Romney and the Confusion of Morality

This Sunday, “Meet the Press” spent the whole hour with Mitt Romney. The opening question was about his statement during his speech on religion and government. He was asked about his assertion that “Freedom requires Religion, and Religion requires Freedom.” I certainly agree with the latter sentiment. As is clearly […]

Romney and the Confusion of Morality

All Hail Run 7

This is an exciting time for the BaBar experiment. We have just completed our last shutdown between run periods, where we performed a series of maintenance tasks and small upgrades and the accelerator performed a series of engineering upgrades. This three month down-time was the last chance to make major […]

All Hail Run 7

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  • (no title)
    October 18, 2025
    Good morning and happy autumn, #Sudbury!#SilentSaturday #nature #rainbow
  • (no title)
    October 18, 2025
    Want to learn more about why we do science deep underground? Check out my keynote lecture from the 2025 Stellafane Convention, “Astronomy Without Light”:https://youtu.be/wBdbYmXwjFs?si=JoWBV_PT1fNkhDPi#astronomy […]

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