jrgreen's blog

August 20, 2008

black holiness

Looking into Stephen Hawking's work of course led me to black holes. It reminded me of a frightening plane flight I caught before moving to Cambridge, UK.

A conversation with the woman seated next to me eventually turned to science. She knew of Hawking and had even tried to read one of his books. I was impressed; then she said: ``I don't believe in black holes. I think you scientists made them up!''

The logical progression of all small talk with me seems to be: name -> work -> science. Discussing science with a lay person can lead to useful ideas and new perspective. The alternative is a collapse of the conversation on itself generating a conversational black hole. My conversation with this woman was an example of the latter.

My attempt to explain the empirical basis of science did not go well. As we descended she was working hard to assure me she doesn't believe the earth is globally flat. I still have my doubts.

Posted by jrgreen in on August 20, 2008

August 16, 2008

a brief history of our time with stephen hawking

Mica and I saw Stephen Hawking this afternoon. We were riding our bikes home after running some errands in town and passed him on the sidewalk. Before moving to Cambridge I said one of my goals is to meet Hawking. Today didn't seem like the appropriate time.

Hawking is a British theoretical physicist at the University of Cambridge. He is known for his work in cosmology, quantum gravity and black holes and/or his books popularizing these areas of physics (e.g., A Brief History of Time). Being about one month into a postdoc in the theoretical sector of the Chemistry Department, I'm sure I'll have a better opportunity to introduce myself.

Most recently Hawking was in the news for his prerecorded address at a U.S. Congressional hearing, marking the 50th anniversary of NASA. The wav file of Hawking's message is here. Hawking was also on Charlie Rose (link).

Our ``sighting'' has motivated me to delve into some of Hawking's work. I want to be prepared for the next time we cross paths. I know little about his area of physics, but I'm excited to learn. More to come.

Posted by jrgreen in on August 16, 2008

August 15, 2008

bash blogging

For awhile I've thought about writing a bash script to manage and automate my blog and webpage. Luckily, before coding, I searched for similar software that might be available. I found bash blogger. This is a trial run. I've added some older pre-bash blogger posts and I am still tinkering. So far so good.

Update: Don't include html in post titles. It causes problems.

Posted by jrgreen in on August 15, 2008