Category Archives: News

They have this thing called “autumn” here…

It’s been a little more than a month since we arrived in Somerville, and it still hasn’t quite sunk in.  After living in Pasadena for eight years, it still feels like we might be heading back any day now, as if the last few weeks have just been an extended vacation, and it’s ending now.  But we’re […]

Posted in News, Reflections

Big news: We’re moving!

  After 8(!) sunny years in Pasadena, CA, we’ve decided to move back to the east coast! We’ll be making the cross-country trip to Cambridge, MA, in late August.  Yes, it will be cold and rainy sometimes, and yes, we’ll deeply miss all of our friends and colleagues in southern California, but we’re also looking […]

Posted in News

Exploring “Genius Day” with Annie Jump Cannon

This past Saturday, I co-ran a”Genius Day” workshop for a dozen or so middle school-age kids for a local non-profit organization, the Institute for Educational Advancement.  Previous “Genius Days” have focused on Darwin, Shakespeare, and William Strata Smith, and I helped out a friend last summer with some Galileo-themed activities.  At first, I was little skeptical of […]

Posted in Extra Credit, News, Reflections

Physics Central Podcast: Gravitational Waves

Exciting news! I just completed my first episode for the PhysicsCentral podcast (part of an overall outreach effort by the American Physical Society), and it looks like I’ll be able to contribute regularly! The podcast is aimed at anyone (roughly high school level and up) with an interest in physics, and this episode focuses on […]

Posted in Extra Credit, News, Physics Central

#NerdsOnWheels: Road Trip to Meteor Crater!

A little more than 48 hours ago, I piled into an RV with a few friends and fellow members of the Nerd Brigade, and we headed out to find an extraterrestrial…or at least, the remnant of one.  Meteor Crater, the result of a 50,000-year-old impact, lies in the northern Arizona desert about 500 miles from […]

Posted in Extra Credit, News, Reflections

A slice of Caltech history

For the past several months, I’ve been working with the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) to gather historical materials for the Tolman/Bacher House, one of the oldest buildings on campus, and with the Keck Center dedication yesterday, all of our hard work has paid off! In addition to the physical exhibits, which are tucked away in the […]

Posted in News, Reflections

Exciting times!

Last Friday, I successfully defended my planetary science thesis in front of my thesis committee, friends, and family – I am a doctor at last! I say “at last” because it’s been quite a long time coming, really.  I arrived in Pasadena in August of 2007, having just graduated the previous June.  If I were […]

Posted in News, Reflections

Ocean180 & the Amazon River Plume

Here is the story of two microscopic creatures, caught between life and death, who together bring life to an entire ocean. That’s the opening of the video abstract that I recently put together with Dr. Laurence Yeung and Nic Perez for the Ocean180 Video Challenge – an outstanding new contest for ocean scientists to bring their […]

Posted in News, TA Episodes

End-of-Summer Update

It’s been a while since I posted my last True Anomalies episode, or really posted much of anything at all, and that’s because a great many things have been happening in my real life as a graduate student nearing (*gulp*) graduation.  I think it’s time for a brief update. First of all, I’m delighted to […]

Posted in News

Teaming up with TrowelBlazers

I recently came across this new effort to showcase female researchers in throughout history in archaeology, palaeontology, and geology: TrowelBlazers! Today, they were good enough to post an entry I wrote about Marie Tharp, a geologist and drafter who, with Bruce Hazeen, compiled ocean sounding data into the first maps of the ocean floor.  Writing […]

Posted in Extra Credit, News