kilburn's blog

Check it out: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20081211/AAAA/81211004

So, Pulse of te Planet is going to air three snippets of things I recorded over a year's time. This is the one I like. It will air on August 20th.  

A friend pointed this out to me, but it's pretty funny.  

After making websites for two physics departments, I finally made a homepage for myself.  It's mostly professional, but still very much 'me'.  In other news, my science diaries will be on NPR in August, so stay tuned.

This week I gave two presentations to middle school kids about the lab. They didn't have permission slips for the tour as well, but they were still inquisitive about what we did and asked a lot of good questions. It's nice to see kids excited about science, even if they thought the highlight of the presentation was when I broke a penny.

At the last APS meeting, there was a lunch discussion about popularizing science, specifically physics. I have many theories for why physics isn't popular with the masses, and a few ideas for how this could be helped, but the media is definitely an outlet to consider. The last two years, I've watched a TV show called Big Bang Theory, and I wonder whether this show is helping or hurting the view of physics. First, I wonder how many non-physicists or rather non-geek types actually watch the show. If people not interested in science aren't watching the show, it's a moot point.

Science can be beautiful in many ways.  I'm a big fan of patterns and symmetry, even if not completely symmetric.  

Below is a plot, says captain obvious. The first person to tell me what's on each axis wins... something.

My April Fool's post was inspired by a Women in Chemistry workshop I went to at the end of March. I almost didn't attend because I would like to see a professional development workshop for all graduate students, not just women. But as I sat there, I realized the need for such workshops specifically for women.

The ghost of Marie Curie has been spotted in the pit of the S3 vault, floating through the magnets and checking things out. Normally ghosts haunt the places where they lived, but Marie must have hitched a ride with one of our French colleagues.  She hasn't been to the states in almost 80 years and probably wondered how things have been progressing.  No doubt she's shocked to see our radioactive sources locked up and handled with protective equipment instead of stored in a desk drawer.