Ah! The joy of new colleagues! I have somehow forgotten to tell you one piece of the great news that we had here at USC Physics and Astronomy recently. We got three new faculty, and one of them is here in action (I’ll tell you about the others later), telling us about the physics behind the 2006 Physics Nobel Prize. This is Cosmologist/Astrophysicist Elena Pierpaoli:
She’s one of those people who works closely on (among other things) the data from those satellites, balloons, telescopes and other instruments that you hear about that gather detailed information that tells us about the cosmological parameters of our universe. After telling us about COBE in this week’s colloquium (Entitled “Nobel Prizes 2006: Who, What and Why!” – it also had a chemist/mo-biologist and developmental biologist telling us about the Chemistry and Medicine/Physiology prizes – I shall blog about it a little, later on) …
… she went on to tell us about what came after, in terms of the other pre-WMAP experiments (top left), what happened if you combined all those data -you can get a good feel for the shape of the first peak in the power spectrum and establish significant cosmological information (top right), and then what came with the remarkable results from WMAP (bottom right), and what is to come with Planck (she works with the Planck team at JPL) – really exciting!
It’s great to have Elena on the faculty here. She’s already broadened the scope of what we think and talk about regularly in fundamental physics in the department, and I’ll admit that it’s great to have someone younger than me in the department too!
-cvj
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LOL… it’s the MAGNETIC MEDIA ERASER STICK OF DOOOOM!
Thanks!
Glad you liked it. I think we should make that one an annual event….
Will blog the Fields medal one in a short while…. too many fun things to blog about…. got to catch up….
-cvj
Aside from the whole laser vs. pointy stick debate, I just have to mention that this colloquium was really great, as was the previous week’s talk related to the Fields Medal. Great, well-implemented ideas. Thanks Clifford! And thanks also to the USC faculty members who gave the talks.
Rob: One more use of laser pointers: to autofocus your DSLR in low light conditions.
Oh, I do that with a pointy stick.
-Rob
Sorry, I forgot the most important use of laser pointers. To paint with light in big letters something nice like “I love you” on a nightscape (talking about the landscape) scene like San Francisco’s shoreline and giving the photo to your SO. Takes a rather long exposure and it’s horribly kitsch but satisfaction is definitely guaranteed…
Clifford: My point was that from the photos that bamboo pointer looks rather enormous. I may be wrong, though.
Rob: One more use of laser pointers: to autofocus your DSLR in low light conditions. You might even use it as a composition aid, too.
Scott: Have you ever shone a laser pointer on a lizard or frog at night? The translucent ones, I mean. They glow in the dark like beacons. They also look rather perplexed…
Retractable pointing sticks can come with cool little magnets on the end that can be most efficiently used to pick up pens and/or pen caps from across tables or down on the floor. They have great versatility, better than laser pointers, they dont need batteries, and if you really need a cat toy: tie a string on the end of the pointer that has a piece of cloth or some shiny mylar like material.
Congrats on USC hiring new faculty, and not going down the adjunct path.
Laser pointers make excellent cat toys.
True that! The best part of babysitting our former landlord’s kittens was driving them bonkers with the red dot. Our own cats are now far too “mature” to play like that.
Why Laser Pointers are Better Than Pointy Sticks :
* They’re cool, man.
* Less likely to be confiscated at the airport
* They’re way cool.
* They’re newer.
* Fit in your pocket better.
* You can reach farther with a laser pointer.
* You may be able to burn your retina if you stare into it long enough, but you sure won’t poke out anybody’s eye with a laser pointer.
* Pointy sticks are just so 20th century.
* Lasers are cool.
But most importantly:
* Laser pointers make excellent cat toys.
QuantumRevolution… Hi. Not seeing your point here. Was the bamboo stick pointer failing in some way where a laser point would succeed? Please tell me how. 🙂 In fact, it is more often the other way around…. a lot of people find your typical laser pointer harder to see than a good old-fashioned stick. Technology for the sake of it is often a mistake.
Cheers,
-cvj
Laser pointers are fine for large venues, but for something relatively small like this, nothing beats a big pointy stick. First, it’s nice to have something to swing around and gesture with while talking; second, it’s a fine tool for keeping the audience in line. (Kidding. Sort of.)
Er… ever heard of laser pointers? 🙂