When voters went to the polls last year, they cast a vote for change. On many issues, said voters have been disappointed. Unable to seek common ground, our elected representatives have time and time again fallen far short of the will of the People. When I cast my vote, I […]
I missed “Talk of the Nation: Science Friday” last week [1]. This turns out to have been unfortunate. Two excellent stories aired that day. The first confirmed a personal belief of mine, and the second opened my eyes wider to the world of science and women. The first story was […]
It’s collaboration meeting time again. When BaBarians last met in June, it was at SLAC. I split my time between plenary presentations, parallel sessions, chairing sessions, and (of course) hurrying to get the numbers needed to my own research presentations. It’s busy, but fun. This time around, BaBar is largely […]
He founded the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, was a tireless driving force behind the great discoveries of this laboratory, and worked into his last days as an advocate against the testing and use of nuclear weapons. Today, the scientific world has lost another luminary: Pief Panofsky. We all got the […]
There’s been a lot of discussion of late about whether a certain President of a certain nation should be welcomed to speak at Columbia University, in New York City. Many people seemed to think that giving a platform to voices like his is dangerous, even in an academic setting. Many […]
Tonight, viewers in the U.S. were treated to the premiere of the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory”. Portraying the lives of reclusive young scientists coming to grips with their likeable female neighbor, the show roots itself in the usual stereotype of the scientist (and in particular, the physicist). While […]
Today an interesting ruling came from the European Union regarding Microsoft, Vista, and the distribution of services (like a media player, or a search engine) as integrated operating system technology. The EU courts ruled against Microsoft in its appeal of a previous ruling that its Vista technology creates an unfair […]
Jodi and I signed up for a weekend NY Times subscription. For years, I’ve heard the lament that my generation doesn’t take the printed word seriously enough. I get this from academics, the media, and my reporter friends. Fine. Now I have a newspaper subscription. Leave me and my generation […]
There is a coming change in the American landscape of particle physics. It’s an interesting violation of some basic tenets of physics. As the center of gravity shifts from the U.S. to Europe, more and more of the weight of the field is being born by fewer people here at […]
As adults, we have the pleasure of a high vantage point from which to look back on our misspent youth. The locker betrayals, the backstabbing clique politics, the Hamlet soliloquies of the heart writ in the boiling ink of our hormones. In the last couple of months, I had the […]
I have never hinted at the meaning of this blog’s title – “The Adventures of My Pet Hamster”. Well, I have a treat for you regular readers. Recently, while going through a bookshelf with old lab notebooks, I finally found the original adventures of my pet hamster. These will give […]
For the last seven years, and certainly in many decades prior, we have faced issues regarding convenience and privacy. A specific subset of that pair is security vs. privacy, popular instances of which have arisen in airport screening and warrantless wiretapping. However, these particular examples can seem ethereal and distant, […]