i am a nerd
i am a nerd--sure this is nothing new, but i have a new winner for the most blatant example of this--for reference, my old record holder was two years ago, when i complained about a show on the discovery channel not having enough scientific content.
i got a call this afternoon from my brother inviting me to go to the secret science club with him. the secret science club is exactly what it sounds like--a series of free lectures every month given in the basement of a bar in Brooklyn. i don't know who organizes it, but they get some pretty heavy hitters to come and give talks--tonights talk was about cosmology and was given by the chair of the astrophysics department at Princeton. on wikipedias page on physical cosmology, the little graphic that appears in the top right corner of the page (as seen here) is actually from this guy's research.
apparently it's not so secret either--after going all the way out to Brooklyn, we were waiting on line (which stretched all the way outside) when they said that they were closed. the crowd started dispersing but through much persistence and slightly violating fire codes, i was able to get in.
the talk itself was interesting, but as i was in standing room and standing behind a couple of very tall people, i couldn't see any of the graphics he was putting up. also, while i find cosmology interesting, it isn't something i am completely fascinated by and it isn't something i feel like i will ever fully understand. therefore the talk was a little lacking for me in that regard. next month's talk is from a geneticist from Cold Spring Harbor labs--that one will probably be more interesting than this one was, but ill be back at school already at that point. oh well.
this was the nerdiest thing ive ever done, and even if i never go again (likely, as i probably just wont remember to), im glad i did it once. plus, the fact that it's called the secret science club is pretty awesome
i got a call this afternoon from my brother inviting me to go to the secret science club with him. the secret science club is exactly what it sounds like--a series of free lectures every month given in the basement of a bar in Brooklyn. i don't know who organizes it, but they get some pretty heavy hitters to come and give talks--tonights talk was about cosmology and was given by the chair of the astrophysics department at Princeton. on wikipedias page on physical cosmology, the little graphic that appears in the top right corner of the page (as seen here) is actually from this guy's research.
apparently it's not so secret either--after going all the way out to Brooklyn, we were waiting on line (which stretched all the way outside) when they said that they were closed. the crowd started dispersing but through much persistence and slightly violating fire codes, i was able to get in.
the talk itself was interesting, but as i was in standing room and standing behind a couple of very tall people, i couldn't see any of the graphics he was putting up. also, while i find cosmology interesting, it isn't something i am completely fascinated by and it isn't something i feel like i will ever fully understand. therefore the talk was a little lacking for me in that regard. next month's talk is from a geneticist from Cold Spring Harbor labs--that one will probably be more interesting than this one was, but ill be back at school already at that point. oh well.
this was the nerdiest thing ive ever done, and even if i never go again (likely, as i probably just wont remember to), im glad i did it once. plus, the fact that it's called the secret science club is pretty awesome