Powers of Two

  Friday afternoon, my students are taking a test and I check my school email.  The Tech department sent out a URL for us to consider blocking in our classroom because the students are playing some kind of addictive game.
  You know what I'm thinking at this point, right?  I promptly surf over to the site and start playing the game.  Gotta check out what the student are up to these days, right?

Do you think the exams were graded super-fast? Well, I had an important weekend project...

Saturday Conversation at the Rideouts

Isabelle (2nd grade):  "Daddy, tell me again about the multiverses and how there could be other universes?"
Me: "Well, everything we can currently or will ever be able to see is the Universe, but there are (or could be) other universes out there but we'll never have any evidence for it."
Isabelle: "Then it's not really science, is it?  It's just an idea."
Me: "True, but the idea of multiverses is consistent with the science we do know."
Isabelle: "But why would you say we'll never be able to see something far away? If we wait long enough, won't the light eventually get here?"
Me: "Good point, but the universe is expanding so the distant objects are actually getting more distant all the time"
Isabelle: "But the light it emits now, before it moves away, will still get to us eventually, right?"
Me (starting to sweat): "Yes it seems that way, but it's actually the space between us that is expanding and so that makes it hard for the light to get to us."
Isabelle: "Expanding faster than the speed of light?  I don't understand that"
Me: "Um, yes, well, if the object is really far away then there is a lot of space and every piece of it is expanding, then the object could actually be moving away from us faster than the speed of light."
Isabelle: "But the light should still get to us!"
Me: "But the light is traveling through space that is expanding too, so it's like the light is running towards us while the floor itself is getting bigger and it's as if the light is running in place."
Isabelle: "I don't get it"
Me: "Me neither."(thinking: maybe I shouldn't show her any more episodes of Cosmos)

Those Who Can't Do...

... Teach.

I once said this to a math teacher when I was a high school student.  I hope he knows that I am now a teacher and savoring the irony.  I didn't mean it maliciously, but I did say it.  I've been thinking about that moment a lot recently.

Just the other day I said to a colleague only partly in jest, "I used to have such a high aspirations for myself - now look at me!"  He looked at me a bit incredulously and said "What could be more important than the work you do now?"  I guess part of me agrees but another part of me can't help but compare where I am now to where I thought I would be so long ago (perhaps a writer, a scientist, or, better yet, both!).

Validation comes in many forms but one of the best is the years-later thank you.  I've been teaching for 12 years now which means that my former students are doing all kinds of things.  Some are research scientists, some are switching careers or going back to school, some have even become (*gulp*) physics teachers.  One of the many perks of this great job is when you get an email, letter, or shout out of some kind from a former student who is now an adult and feels that I had some positive influence way back when.  (I'd like to give a special shout-out to DK who recently wrote a really great story/letter to me that got me thinking about this stuff.)  Clearly these people are delusional, but I take it all at face value and, puffing out my chest, turn back into the (classroom) fray to push back the tides of darkness.

Funny how life is full of twists and turns.  I never even considered teaching as a career until I was in my 30's.  Turns out to be the job I've enjoyed the most and, just maybe, the most important one I could have aspired to...

Someday when I grow up, maybe I'll send a shout out back to my former teachers, I bet they'd like that!

Hugs, Kisses, and the Melting Pot

Valentine's Day and we started arguing about the "XOXO" signature.  Which one is for the hug and which one is for the kiss?  Sebastien and I voted for the "X" meaning hug while Irene and Isabelle were pretty confident the "O" was for hugs...

Turns out we're all right!  The X's come from a combination of illiterate people signing by "making their mark" and, if you were an early Christian, kissing the "X" as a symbol for Christ as a sign of sincerity.  However, the "O" came about as a substitute for the "X" when Jewish people arriving in America needed to make their mark and the cross just didn't seem to be appropriate...

So, feel extra proud to be an American next time you decode or write an "XOXO" at the end of a note or text!  It takes a melting pot to bring together such a strange thing...

Statues and Dinosaurs

While at the Museum of Fine Art co-chaperoning the trip with my buddy E.D., I found myself thinking about dinosaurs.  You see, our docent was making a big deal about the recent discovery that all these plain, classic white statues from antiquity were actually painted back in the day.  The statues were colorful and had a different look and feel than the austere, pristine feeling we associate with the statues as they have weathered through time. 

Growing up, not only did we think all statues were an unadulterated white, but we also thought dinosaurs had thick, scaly, leather-like skin.  However, just as modern science has discovered the microscopic remnants of paint on the surface of statues, so has DNA analysis shown that dinosaurs are more related to birds than lizards.  So, their surfaces and look must be re-imagined as well in the 21st century.


Way to go, Science - always making me rethink my understanding of the universe!

A crescent moon by any other name...

My father-in-law recently taught me the Chinese phrases for first quarter and third quarter moons, they are :

下弦  Down   Bow string  = third quarter

上弦 Up    Bow string  = first quarter

Now, why would westerners think of quarter moons being left to right or right to left while the Chinese think of them up to down or down to up?  Both kinds of moons occur during difference times of year, based on the relative orientation of where you are standing on Earth, where the moon is in the sky, and where the Sun is.

Describing the moon as a "bow" in this phase is better than "quarter" for sure though, right?  We call it quarter because of where it is in the 29 day cycle.

In either case, everyone in the southern hemisphere sees their right hand side lit when we see the left hand side.  'Cause they are upside down in the southern hemisphere! Crazy business this is, living on the surface of sphere!

Slacker or Loser?

The year: 1995

The place: Shadyside, Pittsburgh

The event:  My buddy Borris' birthday

 Twenty-five and life was good.  I had passed my qualifying exams thus ensuring a smooth passage from being a Master's student to being an actual PhD student.  I was sharing a house with 3 other physics grad students and we had all just finished our slog through some 18 years of schooling and pretty major exams to finally arrive at the goal: ground breaking, original research.   After a few years of finding my feet in Pittsburgh and getting a new group of friends, I felt I had finally come to a comfortable, happy place in life.  I was in great shape, having lots of fun – crewing early in the morning, swimming in the afternoons, dancing in the evenings.  On top of the world as they say!

Borris was a little older – turning the big 3-0 today.  I was excited – this was a big birthday and I was looking forward to having a great evening of hopping a few bars, getting something to eat and hanging with friends.   Borris and I shared an interest in the intersection of computing, neuroscience, and physics. Walking my way to the bar where we were to meet, I thought about just how free I had become now that exams and coursework were over.  It was intimidating and yet liberating at the same time to pursue my own research and to be free of pre-set curricula.  What was I going to do with the rest of my life?  So many possibilities and so many directions to go in while still sheltered from the "real" world.

I entered the bar and my mood momentarily brightened even further – Borris has picked a sweet spot.  Some cool music playing at just the right volume; you could have a private conversation without yelling. Beautiful people scattered about.  I saw my buddy at the bar and headed over, motioning to the barkeep to hook me up with one of whatever Bo was having.

Instead of finding my friend upbeat and excited, I found him a bit sluggish and morose.  He'd been at the bar a bit longer than I had anticipated and greeted me with a mere nod.  I said "Happy Birthday, buddy!" and he just grunted "What's happy about it?". 

"What's wrong?"

"Ken, a slacker at 29 is a loser at 30."

Suddenly my lightness was replaced with heaviness and my mood went into a tailspin. I felt like a window in time opened up, showing me myself 5 years later sitting right where he was sitting, thinking just what he was thinking.  What was I doing?  Why was I still in school?  What was I going to do with that hard-earned PhD? 8 months later I had quit grad school and entered the "real" world.

To this day, I remember that little spin my world did at that moment.  Freedom turning into confinement.  Empowerment morphing into disillusionment.  Today, I think of that moment as an inflection point in my life.

Today, Borris is a successful practicing neuroscientist living in Paris and I, well, I have re-invented myself five times since that day (Winemaking in France, Architecture in New York, Engineering in Houston, Importing in Atlanta, Teaching in Massachusetts) and have no regrets.