Jan 6 th 2020 will be remembered as a day of farce and tragedy in close proximity.  Right now, passions are high, tensions are high.  Right now, is the time when scientist and academics must hew to our basic principles and the principles embodied in the constitution.  Even as leaders, especially but not exclusively Trump, not exclusively Republican fail to do so.  We are voices of reason who the general public greatly respect even when they disagree.  The very rancor of the anti-science people left and right comes from the fact the value what we say.  Their anger comes from the fact that people whose training they understand the value of

Space Force has chosen the term guardians for what to call them.  As in Army soldiers, Navy sailors, Marines…marines.  What gets tricky now a days is calling Airmen, airmen. Some have said that guardians are too sci fi.  The truth is it really is not, and a space focused military force would look like science fiction until it was commonplace.  The name is thoughtful anyone can be a guardian if they have the right stuff.

It is not sexist to avoid calling Jill Biden Doctor Biden in situations where her doctorate is not relevant.

Gravitational waves and particle physics experiments being mixed is  something  I  have theorized  about for  a couple of years (1).     Now a new paper by  Suvrat  Rao,  Marcus  Brüggen, and  Jochen  Liske has  taken  this to  another  level (2).   They have worked out and demonstrated in detail how a circular particle accelerator such as the LHC could be used to observe gravitational waves in the mHz range.  This differs from experiments such as LIGO and LISA in the physical mechanism by which the gravitational waves would be detected.  

Arecibo while no longer unique in design since China built a similar and larger telescope was special. What should replace it is something that will exceed what it is able to do. There is already a well formed plan for such a radio telescope using a properly chosen lunar crater. Taking an existing landform and using it for the dish reduces the work that needs to be done. Locating this hypothetical observatory on the Moon’s far side would shield it from most all man made radio noise. Combining data from a Moon based radio telescope with that from Earth based radio telescopes could result in data of a detail that we may not match for another century. This is doable with current technology.

There is only one valid, not breathtakingly hypocritical opinion anyone who has claimed to believe in science can have on this vaccine.  Give it to me fast and strong.. give me that vaccine ASAP.