Ben Franklin had a thing for turkeys, and thought they — not the bald eagle — ought to be the national symbol: “For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly,…
Tuesday, 3:30 p.m., PST N: Keith and I are at our hotel in Irvine, the Marriott-something-or-other-resort-and-spa. It’s next door to Bloomingdale’s. Orange County. We’re chilling here for a few days while we attend the Keck Futures conference on Imaging Science. The heart of the conference is something called ‘Interdisciplinary Research Teams’ — groups of scientists…
I’d been warned. But I did not heed the warning: do not look at comments posted about your news stories. I’ve heard various incarnations of this statement, and yet…and yet, I do view online feedback. With trepidation. Sometimes it’s helpful. Sometimes, it’s encouraging. And sometimes it makes me want to throw down my pen computer…
“…and everything is going to the beat – it’s the beat generation, it be-at, it’s the beat to keep, it’s the beat of the heart…” Jack Kerouac At least twice in this past week, someone asked, “What is your beat?” And I answered: “It’s new each day.” I write what I write and I like it that way. I write…
Never turn your back on the ocean. [images captured during SciCom trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Tuesday, 10.26.10, to observe and learn about otter-observers learning about otters.]
Intergalactic Fish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Lousy fish image by Nads. NGC 4038/NGC4039 colliding galaxies, BC Whitmore Space Telescope Science Institute, NASA.
A few comments: 1. NMNH in the captions = National Museum of Natural History, aka the Smithsonian’s absurdly fun enormous collection of dinosaur bones, a giant squid, the Hope diamond, meteorites, BUGS, elephants, a crochet coral reef that lives up to its hyperbolic name… 2. The National Art Gallery has a great temporary exhibit featuring…
Return to K-tron and Slugnads do D.C.
N: I had a conversation at the awards ceremony with John Mather about kids and science. John’s argument was that kids are natural scientists — and that the problem we’re facing is not how to interest kids in science; rather, the challenge is in *keeping* them interested. The Science Expo today demonstrated the truth in…
This will be a “LIVE, recorded during an earlier broadcast” blog post. We will update as much as possible. *NOTE: We have updated to the point of arrival back in California. We’ve added some flavorful text message exchanges and additional photos throughout. Enjoy!* And….begin: [in flight, time unknown because Keith is superstitious and refuses to…
