Space, Space, Space!

Space has been front and center in my life a bit lately, but it provides a welcome distraction from the current happenings in Wisconsin. Venus passed in front of the sun, the ISS had some new visitors, and a great science fiction writer passed into the cosmos.  Sometimes I tend to avoid conversations about astronomy and space flight. Maybe it's because it's not my field and I don't feel totally confident about engaging with more experienced scientists, or maybe it's because I'm just generally more interested in topics Earthly-bound. With all the recent activity, however, I'm excited. Last night I lay down on a boardwalk in the dark in the middle of a marsh with my friends and we all stared at the sky in silence as a shiny beacon of human achievement traveled across the sky of stars. I remember crawling out of bed to watch the ISS fly over our house as a kid, my parents just as excited as I was. I felt that same shiver of amazement last night as we braved spiders and other nighttime creepy crawlies to see it. I hope you feel just as excited this week when we speak with John Mackin, Attitude Determination and Control Officer (ADCO) for ISS about the recent ISS happenings later in the week. For now I hope you step outside tonight to take a peek at the fly over.  Go here to find out the best time to see it in your area. In the Madison area you can check it out around 9:20 PM and again a little lower in the sky around 11:00 PM tonight. 

And for now, in case you missed it:

In keeping with the theme of Richard Feynman, the FBI did not find Feynman's antics so amusing.  


Over at Scientific American Blogs, Marc Kuchner interviews Congressman Robert Walker on how scientists should talk to Congress. 


Caleb A. Scharf delves into not just the transit of Venus but the transit of other celestial bodies. 


And the world lost a man who made science fiction mainstream and created a 70 year legacy of writing. Ray Bradbury will be dearly missed.

Science book review: Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!

Funny, frustrating, exhausting, amazing, and extremely intriguing. I felt all of these when reading physicist Richard Feynman's collection of stories. He casually flips through his life like he's surfing channels in his mind. One second his is talking about presenting his work in front of Albert Einstein and the next he is going on about ants in his apartment. No story seems to take more weight, no player is more important. Picking locks and the Nobel Prize are the same as he bounces along.

This classic bit of science literature came out before I was even a part of this world, but the stories still came to life when I read them. There was no lack of amusement throughout the chapters. Feynman would have made a pretty shaky choice for a boyfriend, but he loved women as much as his work, and they receive equal attention here. From strippers, to bar girls, to nude models, and even his wives, his life full of love comes through, at times in hilarious ways. He liked to jump right in, and seemed willing to try anything once. Not just a physicist, he was a painter, a drummer, a safe cracker, and a Casanova.

However amusing, this book was equally frustrating to read. The chapters are edited versions of taped conversations Feynman had with friend Ralph Leighton. At times this conversational writing gets difficult to slog though. Sometimes the stories have a climax, sometimes they just meander along into nothing. A few chapters in, I found myself wondering if I was going to make it through. As fascinating as the stories were, when they were hard to follow, it was hard for me to stay focused. This left me exhausted and more aware of annoyances. If there is anyone who has a right to brag about his life, it's Richard Feynman. Even so, he saw himself as a gift to everything he touched. Biology, courting, teaching; each of these he makes out to seem as if he waltzed in and made everything better with his brilliance. His immodesty comes off as abrasive at times in a culture where that attitude isn't encouraged. Perhaps he isn't wrong about the changes he envisions, but it's a viewpoint that's difficult to swallow when you don't have a personal context with the author. 

Amazing are the accomplishments of one man. They are too many to list here, but just reading about how he saw the Nobel Prize as a burden more than a boon shows how much he worked for the love of it. He wanted to open every box and see how it worked. He faced the experts in his field with grace and trained new scientists with integrity.

He ends with lessons we could all take to heart. "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you've not fooled yourself, it's easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that." As scientists, with limited funding and a lot at stake, we want to believe every bit of our work, but it takes a lot more courage to see when you are wrong. Not much is worse than when ideology trumps evidence.

Although I would never aspire to write with a Feynman's voice, the experience is akin to sitting down with him over some tea for a chat. There's something really profound to a style so intimate. It's the way I hope to be able to share my life with my grandkids. He simply shares his experiences, the lesson in each he leaves to someone else to figure out.

Picture of the Week: "Jewel Caterpillar"

Photo taken by Gerardo Aizpuru

This was too interesting for me to not share it with everyone. I learned a lot from reading about this wicked looking larvae. Number one: there is this awesome website for posting nature finds called Project Noah where you can post pictures of wildlife and add the exact location where it was spotted. It acts as a social network for citizen scientists who can help each other identify the awesome creatures in their area. Number two: gelatinous caterpillars exist and they are very very pretty!  Found amongst some Mangroves in Mexico by Gerardo Aizpuru, this unusual animal was identified by one Project Noah user as Acraga coa, a buttercup colored moth. Number three: there are many moths with larvae of this type belonging to the Dalceridae family. Ferris Jabr, a blogger from Scientific American has the scoop on these glass-like organisms. The pictures in the article are awesome and just wait until you read about their sticky, gooey, spine armor.