Last call for submissions
The deadline for submissions to the Openlab 2009 is midnight EST, 1 December.  This is aimed at being a collection of the best blogging from 1 December 2008 through 30 November 2009.  Use this submission form to submit your favorites (from here and elsewhere). The current summary of submitted articles is at Blog Around the Clock. Two of mine, Science Jabberwocky, and Results on Deciding Tr

Science Anniversaries
150 and 400 years ago, two major events in the history of science occurred.400 years ago, the telescope was invented and started to be used for astronomy.  For $100-$150 you can now get a telescope far superior to what Galileo used to carry out a major revolution in our understanding of the universe.  More in a moment.150 years ago yesterday (November 27th), Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published. Different major revolution in our understanding of the universe.  You can read this for yourself.  I don't actually recommend reading it unless you are really interested in history of science, and li

PhD Thesis Defended
I've been the (name of employer)-side mentor for a student working on her PhD.  Yesterday, she successfully defended her PhD thesis.  Not sure she wants to be named, so I won't for now.  But it's a lot of work to get to where she is, and I'll congratulate her.  She knows who she is :-)  Good job!

Where is the surface?
I just commented on my facebook status that I'm at a meeting about sea surface temperature.  That part was safe.  Rest of the comment was to observe that I'm now back to wondering whether the sea has a surface, where it is if it does, and if it does, whether it has a temperature.  That prompted a friend to comment 'Great ... this is going to bug me now.'  So for him, here's a longer version.This sort of question is very common to science.  Of course my musing for facebook is overstated.  But there is usually a real question about what exactly it is you've observed when you take an observation.  When you have very different observing methods, th

Veteran's Day
Veteran's Day or, in some other parts of the world, Remembrance Day today. My thanks to those who have served.  My daughter and son-in-law are among you.