NPR interviews Dijanna Figueroa, one of few African-American marine biologists, as she uncovers the secrets of the deep in a new IMAX documentary. A new NSF study shows that only 1% of earth scientists are black. This is a rather disturbing statistic based on the positive experience I have had with young black students and the interest and intuition they show in earth science.
“As you go deeper … bioluminescence. The ocean’s still alive!”
Padma Gopalan, assistant professor of Materials Science and Engineering at my graduate alma mater, University of Wisconsin has received a coveted NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award.
The awards are granted on the basis of creative career-development plans that effectively integrate research and education. Gopalan will receive a $445,000, five-year grant for research, education and outreach on nanostructured polymer composites with electroactive molecular subunits. [Her] work investigates the structure-property relationship in electro-optic materials, which can control the speed of light through electric-field-induced changes in their index of refraction … As part of the project, Gopalan will create an educational and outreach program that will incorporate her work into the undergraduate instructional laboratories.
Congratulations, Professor Gopalan! This made me think of poor, misinformed Larry Summers. Wait for it, Summers, this is just the tip of the glacier. There’s a lot more coal raking coming your way.
Why do I look for solace on my computer when beauty is there for the taking if I simply turn my head to the right and look out the window?
New Orleans at 5:25PM looks simply gorgeous in all of its rain-washed splendor. The middle of my window coincides with the far-off horizon nicely demarcating the contrast between street and sky. Dark city buildings rise into a blue and yellow evening, all while white streaks of clouds make their way across the river to the treacherous Gulf. A mighty wind, indeed.
Neck strain turns my face back to the monitor.
*cough* What’s wrong with staring at a blank wall, between shots of DayQuil for a lingering cough, wondering which one of my prints will look good up there? What’s wrong with staring at a blank wall, I ask you? *sniff*
On Saturday, while not single-handedly driving up the stock value of Procter & Gamble, I attended a crawfish boil in honor of my friend’s daughter, who was in NOLA from the far reaches of New Brunswick (that’s an eastern-Canadian province for you geographically-disinclined). If you want to know what I did for a good portion of the time, please check out Instructions On Eating Crawfish And Passing A Good Time. Notice that we don’t have a good time down here, we pass one.
BTW, this study is complete bollocks. *achoo*
