Time and Space
Subject is a trend, here we go...
Since classes have ended last week and everyone is out of town for a major conference I have had a lot of space and time to myself recently. I went in to the lab to work regularly, as expected, but multiple flooding events and contractors turning the hoods off inappropriately (after multiple confirmations of the dates on which that would happen) has allowed me some breathing time and ample excuse to avoid it for a while. I've had a few meetings but otherwise no obligations and after my final on Thursday and some light lab work, I'm free to go. I don't know whether to stay here for the holidays or go to Chicago as everyone seems to think that I should. Pip can't travel because of his head so I feel bad leaving him although he insists that he wants to be left. Still, nothing strikes me as very urgent right now. I feel continuously a bit disheveled and disorganized.
I wandered around in our Dept library today for some time trying to find my books of interest. It turns out that this library has a lot of problems when it comes to my requests but I don't mind taking some extra time to peruse the stacks. The master library is so gargantuan there's a fear of getting lost in there but our smaller one is more friendly. Being that it is a discipline-specific library, I came upon a number of things that I wanted to read while I was processing my call numbers (a strange system, they have) and I'm sure that comes as no surprise to anybody. What did surprise me was that all of the texts I'm now interested in really relate to having a comprehensive picture of the universe. Textbooks on cosmochemistry and mantle dynamics, histories of the universe and the planet, thermodynamics...these are my weaknesses and I know them more now than ever. I feel like in all rights I should take a year, a solid year, to just review the basis of my understandings. I need to understand physics better and read the original works of these people I know only by name even though many of them walked these same halls, did their work in these labs I walk by every day, checked out some of these books themselves. I need a broader context of my work and until such time as I accomplish that (many years from now) I'll feel like a bit of a con-artist.
I have to buy gifts for babies and young children. Babies of people my age and young children I know as neighbors or cousins. I went to the museum store (there's a neat natural history museum connected to my building that I can enter and leave any time for free by the back halls) and I looked at all of the normal plushes and games and figurines for kids. Stuffed animals that are safe for infants are really hard to find. I was sort of at a loss as to what I should buy for my cousins though. I wanted to inspire them the way I was inspired as a kid but I know my level of weirdness when it came to SCIENCE! was uncommon. I want them to realize that the world isn't just a confusing perceptually-driven place, that there are real answers out there and that they're dazzling. When I was their age I was itching for first-hand sources of information. I wanted those old, dry textbooks or whatever was as information-dense as possible. But I thought better for them. I was looking at the books and DVDs actually oriented towards children and I got hung up - ancient mysteries of archeology? An exploration of space and the universe? Dinosaurs? Plants? Deep sea exploration? Extreme environments? I mean, I wanted to buy them Planet Earth and I totally would have found a way if I'd known that they'd sit in awe of it as I did, even at 23, and not just toss it in a closet somewhere. I think I finally went with space but I have my reservations.
So I'd really like to know (if you read these long rambling posts I write) knowing little about these kids, what would you have chosen? "Can't go wrong with ___."? What topic of scientific investigation will hold the attention of the 4 - 11 age group the best?
Since classes have ended last week and everyone is out of town for a major conference I have had a lot of space and time to myself recently. I went in to the lab to work regularly, as expected, but multiple flooding events and contractors turning the hoods off inappropriately (after multiple confirmations of the dates on which that would happen) has allowed me some breathing time and ample excuse to avoid it for a while. I've had a few meetings but otherwise no obligations and after my final on Thursday and some light lab work, I'm free to go. I don't know whether to stay here for the holidays or go to Chicago as everyone seems to think that I should. Pip can't travel because of his head so I feel bad leaving him although he insists that he wants to be left. Still, nothing strikes me as very urgent right now. I feel continuously a bit disheveled and disorganized.
I wandered around in our Dept library today for some time trying to find my books of interest. It turns out that this library has a lot of problems when it comes to my requests but I don't mind taking some extra time to peruse the stacks. The master library is so gargantuan there's a fear of getting lost in there but our smaller one is more friendly. Being that it is a discipline-specific library, I came upon a number of things that I wanted to read while I was processing my call numbers (a strange system, they have) and I'm sure that comes as no surprise to anybody. What did surprise me was that all of the texts I'm now interested in really relate to having a comprehensive picture of the universe. Textbooks on cosmochemistry and mantle dynamics, histories of the universe and the planet, thermodynamics...these are my weaknesses and I know them more now than ever. I feel like in all rights I should take a year, a solid year, to just review the basis of my understandings. I need to understand physics better and read the original works of these people I know only by name even though many of them walked these same halls, did their work in these labs I walk by every day, checked out some of these books themselves. I need a broader context of my work and until such time as I accomplish that (many years from now) I'll feel like a bit of a con-artist.
I have to buy gifts for babies and young children. Babies of people my age and young children I know as neighbors or cousins. I went to the museum store (there's a neat natural history museum connected to my building that I can enter and leave any time for free by the back halls) and I looked at all of the normal plushes and games and figurines for kids. Stuffed animals that are safe for infants are really hard to find. I was sort of at a loss as to what I should buy for my cousins though. I wanted to inspire them the way I was inspired as a kid but I know my level of weirdness when it came to SCIENCE! was uncommon. I want them to realize that the world isn't just a confusing perceptually-driven place, that there are real answers out there and that they're dazzling. When I was their age I was itching for first-hand sources of information. I wanted those old, dry textbooks or whatever was as information-dense as possible. But I thought better for them. I was looking at the books and DVDs actually oriented towards children and I got hung up - ancient mysteries of archeology? An exploration of space and the universe? Dinosaurs? Plants? Deep sea exploration? Extreme environments? I mean, I wanted to buy them Planet Earth and I totally would have found a way if I'd known that they'd sit in awe of it as I did, even at 23, and not just toss it in a closet somewhere. I think I finally went with space but I have my reservations.
So I'd really like to know (if you read these long rambling posts I write) knowing little about these kids, what would you have chosen? "Can't go wrong with ___."? What topic of scientific investigation will hold the attention of the 4 - 11 age group the best?