The mad rush to the summer conferences is almost over, and while I am still trying to wrap up the research projects I’ve been working on for many months, I am thinking ahead to other projects that I’d like to start in the autumn. The BaBar experiment offers many opportunities […]
I finally had a chance this week to listen to the Senate testimony of Dr. James Holsinger, the President’s choice for Surgeon General. It’s taken me a few days to digest and form some impressions. I’ll try to communicate them here. My most global observation is that Holsinger stands for […]
As Jodi and I discussed on our podcast this Sunday [1], deadlines and time pressures make people nuts. In physics, this is the kooky season, as the big conferences – EPS (European Physical Society), SUSY07, and Lepton-Photon ’07 approach. Over the next 1.5 months, thousands of physicists from across the […]
It wasn’t on C-SPAN, but I found it from capitolhearings.com on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee website: http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2007_07_12/2007_07_12.html More to follow, I assume…
If anyone can find Dr. Holsinger’s testimony in front of the Senate, I’d appreciate you dropping me a note (post a comment). I can’t find it on C-SPAN, but maybe it’s just not uploaded yet…?
With Surgeon General Carmona’s departure from the Bush administration, it’s time for the President to do what he does best: appoint qualified people for high-ranking positions in our Executive Branch. I’d say that the President has done a heckuva job so far. The current position that is open is the […]
This is going to make me sound like the total nerd that I am, but here we go: I grew up with a deep-seated admiration for Dr. C. Everett Koop. Who is that? He was the only member of the U.S. government that I knew, besides the president, when I […]
In all fields of research which operate at both the frontier of understanding and the interface with politics, there are vocal skeptics. Human-induced global climate change is surely the most current of these. While U.S. public opinion about the ability of humans on climate has shifted in support of the […]
Tomorrow night, NOVA will air the next in its series of science news magazines, “ScienceNOW”. The topics will be: the importance of sleep, and the Large Hadron Collider. I’d encourage everybody to watch this, especially those in physics and most especially those working on or near the LHC. Why? Well, […]
Tonight on “Tech Nation”, Dr. Moira Gunn spoke with the Chairman and CEO of Invitrogen, Greg Lucier [1]. Mr. Lucier spent his time speaking out about the importance of public funding of science. Despite his position in a private company, he advocated that more public money needs to be spent […]
A month ago, I mentioned that our car was broken into and a number of canvas shopping bags were stolen [1]. The reason we have them is the same reason people buy canvas shopping bags: we’re more and more tired of only having the choice of paper or plastic. Neither […]
It’s been a while since I’ve jotted any thoughts on my research. Although I promised myself no physics after 5 pm on Friday’s, I figured **writing** about physics is maybe somewhat exempt from that pledge. Besides, I get thoughtful when it gets late. The Value of the RareI’ve spent the […]