Now that I have lived for over a year near the Silicon Valley, I have a better view of the local culture which is a strange mix of lefty utopian libertarian, lefty vegan liberals and all things that might seem contradictory in general, but not here.
Atlas Shrugged, in the liberal California
I want to address here what I’ve learned in these months, so that European newcomers can sharpen their learning curve !
Continue readingCela fait longtemps que
1) je n’ai pas écrit en français
2) je n’ai pas ajouté de matériel nouveau sur l’Art et la Science.
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I’ve been working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab for a year now, and I wanted to get drawings from the two Nobel prizes that are still active in the lab : George Smoot (N2006) and Saul Perlmutter (N2011).
They both proved very difficult to find, since they are often travelling. But today, the day before Thanksgiving, I was particularly in luck : I spotted these two guys at the cafeteria !The time I came back to my office to grab my notebook, Saul Perlmutter was gone, but George Smoot was still here !
Smoot’s drawing
However, Saul Perlmutter had left. But… I knew where his office was. I went there; we talked a little bit.
A little earlier on, my friend Josquin told me that I would rather ask him a picture of a Supernova, probably easier to draw that the idea of universe expansion. Saul told me that this picture wouldn’t be personal, since his mind has been infused by the commonly accepted picture, and proposed to draw me a chart of the accelerating universe :
Perlmutter’s drawing
There we go ! (You can check my collection of noble drawings here)
Last month, I had the occasion to attend Uncharted, advertised as the local SXSW, thanks to a scholarship. Continue readingIn the beginning of this year, I brought an espresso machine to my lab, since they only had drip coffee.
Drip coffee is good, and probably enough to keep you alert, but I missed the conviviality of sharing coffee with other people, especially people form other department- I owe to R. Hamming the habit of pollinating one’s mind with ideas from other. Plus, I soon discovered that American researchers don’t “waste” time having lunch with each other, which is pretty sad and, to me, opposed to the idea of research; I remember, back in Paris, how many times new ideas came up by talking about mundane matters to other researchers.
Peet’s Coffee tasting
Enjoy your coffee !
(edit Dec 20th 2013) : Here’s a nice article by Matt Goudling on Japanese tradition blended with the art of making coffee : Daibo dreamed of coffee.…said Dev Patnaik at Uncharted, and I believe he is probably right.
Big institutions (elite schools) have no idea how to deal with PR, so MOOCs is a good way to increase their influence : it matters for the teachers only.Yesterday, I had the occasion to test the US justice !
the crime scene
I had to go to the court for a ticket I received about six month ago, on 3.14, for rolling a stop inside Lawrence Berkeley National Labs while I was riding my bicycle.
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When I read “Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (that I mentionned in this post), he mentioned the existence of Edge.org, maintained by John Brockman, and the fact the he (DK) was asked by the latter to give his favorite equation.
It turns out that John Brockman has many wonderful connections and asked that same question to a whole bunch of great scientists.
Brockman’s self formula
Together with the Serpentine gallery, they curated the collection “What is your formula ».
This is astonishingly similar to what I try to do with the drawings I get when I encounter a Nobel prize, except that I actually get drawings, instead of formulas (and I’m almost sure my list is bigger than his !).
Sometimes, I wonder “WWFD?”
Here’s a collection of ideas and resources for scientific programming.
Steps in programming…
Sometimes, when trying something new in optics, it is very hard to know where to begin, and find knowledgeable source. I want to share a small collection of resources that I had found immensely useful.
“Basic Lab Skills” by Steve Cundiff (pdf) is a short must-read for every experimental optician.
“Rule of thumb in Opto-Mechanics” by Katie Schwterz (pdf) is also very good to have a sense of what can be done with an experiment.
refractiveindex.info is a great ressource to know the refractive index of many materials.
The Encyclopedia for Photonics and Laser Technology, maintained by Rudiger Paschotta is an excellent ressource, and very knowledgeable about ultra-fast optics
Strawberry fields forever
Today, I was lucky enough to go to the screening of “How I Came to Hate Maths” in Berkeley, where I had the occasion to ask Jean-Pierre Bourguigon and Cedric Villani for a drawing.
Here’s what came out of it.First, I asked Cedric for a drawing of a spider in a truck, for he his well known for his work on optimal transport, and because he has the habit of wearing a spider broach. He added his signature, a marsupilami– not bad for a Fields medal recipient !Then, I asked Jean-Pierre to draw me a spectrum, since it is, to me, what relates physics and mathematics the mostA spectrum, by Jean-Pierre Bourguigon and a spider in a truck by Cedric Villani
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