Science covers LHC grad students

Today Science published an article on the problems LHC grad students are facing due to the multi-year delays of said grand machine. Our problem is the same as the rest of the physics community's: the conspicuous lack of data. As the article points out, this problem has different ramifications for different students. Students at European institutions who have only three or four years to finish their PhD end up doing their theses on simulations of what the LHC might see once it turns on. Students at US institutions must do their theses on data and the article discusses those who switched to other experiments. It did not mention, however, the majority of US students, such as myself, who did not or could not switch and are waiting. and waiting. and waiting. For most of us, our groups have not maintained a presence on existing experiments and so switching is essentially not an option unless we want to go it alone or be adopted by a group still active in the running experiments. So we are waiting, performing needed work for the experiments, gaining valuable experience, but not achieving the final step in grad school, the dissertation.


Why do US institutions insist that data is necessary? It is a fact, which the article points out, that simulation analyses are overly simplistic and unable to capture the full complications of working with real data. In American academic culture, the ability to identify and circumnavigate those difficulties are considered important enough that a student has not completed the PhD apprenticeship until he or she has demonstrated these skills. Do Europeans value this attribute less? Probably not, but the pragmatism necessitated by only four years of funding for their students trumps everything else. Most US institutions, on the other hand, do not bat an eye at a student taking 8 years or more to complete a PhD. In fact, the image of the grad student slaving away for years on end is somewhat glorified.


Currently there are about three years of US grad students treading water due to the LHC delays while the flow of PhDs coming out of running experiments has slowed to a trickle. So the US institutions, who hold data analyses in such high regard, are starting to consider and hire post docs who have done theses on simulation. As one of the students stuck in limbo I can say that it's a little painful to watch, but I acknowledge that they have no other options. I can also acknowledge that I'm indoctrinated enough in US academic culture that I do not want a simulation thesis, even though I know that the European students are no less capable of being 'good physicists' than I. I just keep telling myself that what I'm doing right now is interesting and data will come someday. Besides, the longer the LHC is delayed, the longer I get to stay in Berkeley :).

PS: The plight of current post docs is much worse than grad students. Without data they can't get faculty positions and they can only remain postdocs for a certain number of years.

Bobby McFarin on the Pentatonic Scale

Straight repost from Cosmic Variance. This is so cool!

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Probably More Than I Wanted to Know about Steve Chu

You are looking at a screen shot of the official Facebook page of Steven Chu, our Nation's Energy Secretary. What is remarkable about it is that it is indistinguishable from any normal user's facebook page. His Info tab informs us that he likes biking, cooking and doing crossword puzzles, and his favorite movie is Casablanca. His Photos tab shows him as a baby and as a nerdy graduate student. His Wall is full of links about energy efficiency, his daily show appearance and other you tube videos of him. Also, the amount of first person noun usage is high through out the page. For example, he says: " In case you missed it, here's my interview with Jon Stewart from last night's Daily Show. Let me know what you think." I don't believe that our energy secretary is updating his facebook page while he is supposed to be going over some policy document at the DOE, so someone must be charged with keeping this up but obviously Chu has to be somewhat involved given the level of detail.

Contrast his page with that of Robert Gates, secretary of defense:

Note the distinguished picture with the American flag in the background, the sparse Info, and the Wall which only shows news articles that he has been in. My other favorite cabinet member, Hillary Clinton, has an even more minimalist page.

Why is Steve Chu's page so familiar? Is it a strategy to bring energy policy into the consciousness of young people? Is he trying to make government more friendly and accessible? Does he just want people to like him? If any of those reasons is the case, he seems to be doing a pretty good job of it. Check him out on the Daily Show last week:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Steven Chu
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

Stuffed Poblanos with Black Beans, Spinach and Several Cheeses

Four forest green, firm and satiny Poblanos arrived in our CSA box on Friday. They were so beautiful they demanded special treatment. I scoured the internet and my cookbooks for recipes and while I found many tempting dishes, nothing called out to be made. Most recipes were for stuffed peppers and I also found a recipe for spinach, goat cheese and poblano lasagna which I vaguely remembered being told was not very good. With these examples rattling around in my head I went for a bike ride and inspiration struck (although not at Inspiration Point). I had a vision combining the best of the lasagna and stuffed peppers, and the nascent recipe satisfied my requirement of using, for the most part, what I already had at the house: tons of tomatoes from my farmer's market spree, cilantro and jack cheese from last weeks' quesedillas, ricotta from last week's lasagna, oregano I had picked up for the gratin a la myriam I was making for a Sunday party as well as onions and garlic from the box. Because I started with dried black beans, the total time spent was long, but there wasn't too much much active time. Perfectly fine for a lazy Saturday afternoon/evening.

Black Bean and Spinach Stuffed Poblanos with Tomato Sauce

for the beans:
1/2 cup of dried or 1 can of black beans
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground corriander
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp chipotle or other spicy powdered chile
6 cups of water if you are using dried, 1/2 cup if canned
1 bay leaf

for the cheese/spinach filling
1/2 cup ricotta
1 cup (packed) spinach
1.5 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (1 tsp dried)
juice of 1 meyer lemon or 1/2 regular lemon

for the tomato sauce:
4 medium to large tomatoes, diced
3 minced cloves of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
scant 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Additionally:
4 poblano chiles
2 tortillas
few oz jack cheese
ricotta salata (optional)

If you are using dried beans bring beans and water to a hard boil for 1 minute, take off the stove, let sit for 1 hr. Drain off the water, add another 6 cups and the bay leaf and simmer for 1.5 hrs. For both dried and canned: Saute the onions over medium heat until soft and translucent, then add the garlic, cumin, corriander and oregano. Cook for another couple of minutes. If using dried beans, add to the beans and simmer until the beans are soft and the liquid has thickened, about another 1.5 hrs. If using canned beans, add the beans and 1/2 cup of water and cook until the beans are soft and the flavors have melded, this probably only takes a few minutes. Once the beans are to a texture you like, add the vinegar and pepper and add salt to taste. Beans are done.

While the beans are cooking you can make the tomato sauce. Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat and add the garlic. Cook for a minute then add the tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have broken down and the sauce has thickened. This can take up to 20 min. When the sauce is near the consistency you like, add the cilantro. I think that oregano would also be a great choice of herb. Tomato sauce is done.

Now, onto the ricotta filling. Blanch the spinach in a pot of boiling salted water for one minute then dump into a collander and let the liquid drain out. Transfer to a cutting board and chop roughly. In a bowl mix the ricotta with lemon juice and the oregano. Add the spinach and stir, salting to your taste. I'm not a big ricotta fan, so that's why I've put a lot of extra flavors in this. If I didn't need to use up the ricotta I might've used goat cheese thinned with a little cream, which is what the lasagna recipe used. I think it would've give the dish a slightly more assertive flavor.

At some point you need to roast the poblanos. Turn on the broiler and broil them till the skin is blacked on all sides, about 8 min, turning them once. You can also do this over a gas flame if you have it. Immediately transfer the charred peppers to a bowl and cover with a plate. Let them sit for 20 minutes then slide the skin off them.

While you are letting the peppers sit you can make the tortillas by brushing both sides with olive oil then sprinkling one side with some of the grated jack cheese. You then put them under the broiler. I recommend putting them on a wire rack and then on a pan or putting the wire rack driectly on top of the oven rack and putting a pan on a lower oven rack to catch any melted cheese. This way the bottom side does not get soft. Take them out after 3-4 minutes and put cool them on a wire rack before cutting into four pieces.

Now you need to assemble the poblanos. Preheat the oven to 400F. Take each pepper and cut off the top 1/3rd lengthwise, being careful not to tear the delicate skin. Remove the seeds gently and put them onto a lighly oiled baking dish. Fill halfway with the ricotta mixture and the other half with the beans. My poblanos were small so I could only fit two layers, but if I had larger ones I would've filled them with 1/3rd ricotta, 1/3 beans, 1/3 tomato sauce. Put the top back on the chiles then sprinkle with some jack. Put in the oven for 10 min till the cheese is melted and the peppers are heated through.

Arrange two plates on the counter and split the tomato sauces between them. Ladle any remaining beans into the center then lay the poblanos on top. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and grated ricotta salata, if you have it. Serve with the tortillas and enjoy the product of your hard work!

Whew I'm exhausted just from writing that!

Quick Link: I couldn't pass this one up

One of my favorite blogs is a compilation of unusual maps, appropriately named Strange Maps. The nerd in me could not pass up posting this one. Check out it's archives, the maps range from amusing to discomfiting.

Sound as a Scalpel

File this one under Totally Awesome.


Medical researchers have developed a way to use ultrasound to do non invasive brain surgery. Yep, brain surgery with no skull cracking or icky blood. The science behind the technique is actually quite simple. Ultrasound is a term for sound waves which are above the range of human hearing. You might not think about it often, but sound is comprised of waves of pressure traveling through a medium, usually air, with a frequency our ear is tuned to receive (12 Hz to 20kHz). Ultrasound is most commonly know for its use in imaging fetuses in utero, which it does by emitting high frequency pressure waves and then measuring the reflection when the sound reflects off the fetus. The reflections occur because different parts of the body, including the fetus, have different densities. The same principle is used by whales to navigate and by you when calling out in the mountains to hear your echo reflected off the peaks.

Now we need to go from the gentle imaging of a fetus to the destructive procedure of brain surgery and to do this we have to understand the physics of sound. As I mentioned above, sound is a pressure wave traveling through a medium, and a pressure wave is a series of compressions and rarefactions of that medium. As it travels the wave looses energy by transferring kinetic energy to the material it passes through. The kinetic energy then results in heating. A single beam of ultrasound will not result in much heating, so we don't have to worry about frying junior. However, the high intensity focused ultrasound used in the non invasive brain surgery focuses up to 100 beams of ultrasound onto the diseased spot of the brain, delivering enough energy to destroy the tissue. And there is no need for anesthesia in this outpatient procedure. Pretty awesome, huh? Sign me up!..uh...well...sign me up if I ever need it.

This technique is also being developed for treating various forms of cancer, such as breast cancer, as well as Parkinson's disease, and has great potential. It's a lovely example of how a little physics know-how can provide powerful insight and opportunity.

Variations on a Theme

I've been busy lately. I gave a couple of talks last week, one at a workshop at SLAC, the national linear accelerator lab at Stanford, and one to a high school cosmology workshop at LBL. You'll hear more about the later in the future, it was recorded and will go on YouTube at some point. The picture above is of me speaking at Stanford, although you mostly just see my slides. That talk took a lot of preparation because it was the type that postdocs or senior people usually give. I spent hours preparing for it in the hopes that I wouldn't screw up, and I can happily report that it seems I succeeded in my goal. At the very least most people didn't realize I was a grad student, which is a good sign.

I managed to do a little cooking in between all the talk writing and I thought I'd share some of my creations with you. These are not so much recipes as variations on a theme, roasted vegetables, which find their way from bruschetta to quesadillas.

Thema: Andante

The first incarnation of this dish is elegant, bold and perhaps one might say stately, if you can give that attribute to summer squash and tomatoes. It is also quite simple and easy to make.

(all quantities are very approximate)
1.5 lbs summer squash of any sort, sliced into bite sized pieces
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved. If using larger tomatoes cut them into bite sized pieces
1 cup sliced mushrooms
2-3 cloves of minced garlic

4oz crumbled feta cheese (or as much as you like)

Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar

Several tablespoons of fresh herbs: oregano, basil, parsley or marjoram, or a few teaspoons of dried herbs such as herbes de provence.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Sliced assertive bread, best if a day old.

Preheat oven to 350F. Put vegetables and garlic in a roasting pan or baking disk and drizzle with olive oil to coat. Splash with balsamic, probably a couple of tablespoons. If you are using dried herbs, add now. Add salt and pepper to taste and put into oven for 15 min, stir and then return to the oven until the vegetables start to brown, about 15 min more.

Put roasted veggies into a bowl, stir in fresh herbs, if using, and crumbled feta. You can adjust the olive oil and balsamic now if you like. Let it sit for a little while so the flavors have a chance to meld. Toast the bread and arrange on plates. Cover with vegetable mixture and serve with knife, fork and napkin!

Variation 1: Vivace

If the first version was bold and stately, the second was bright and crisp but not too drastic a departure from the original idea. It is another bruschetta, but lighter with some unexpected ingredients (mostly because I was trying to use up our vegetables before the next box came!)

As you can see from the photo above, I used green beans, carrots, squash and green peppers, all of which were cut into bite sized pieces. Additionally I used:

a handful of chopped green olives
juice of one lemon
a couple pinches of red pepper flakes

and as in the previous

olive oil
salt
pepper
fresh herbs
2-3 cloves of fresh garlic

Preheat the oven to 350F. Toss the cut vegetables and olives with the olive oil, red pepper, and garlic. Bake for 20-25 min, stirring once, until vegetables are cooked and just starting to brown. Move to a bowl, mix with the herbs, lemon juice and feta. Serve over toast!


Variation 2: Con Moto
For this variation I added some sauteed red onion and black beans to the leftover variation 2 and made soft tacos (of a kind). You simply saute a small red onion with some olive oil and toss in some canned black beans at the end. I also made an impromptu "salsa" with what I had in the fridge to go with it.

2 medium sized, flavorful tomatoes, diced
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 medium sized garlic clove, finely chopped
juice of half a lemon
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Then heat up some tortillas and spoon in the black bean-vegetable mix and some salsa and enjoy! I should put the disclaimer out that part of the reason I had so much of variation 2 around to work with was because my other half was out of town and left all the eating to me. He's lucky he was gone because that salsa has a real bite to it and discourages any kisses for several hours after its consumed. But it was delicious, so it was worth the bad breath :).

Variation 3: Andante

We end with an Andante because this last variation is the heaviest of them all and by this time you are moving quite slowly under the influence of variations 1 and 2! Its a simple quesadilla, using the leftover roasted veggie/onion/black bean mix and a generous extra helping of feta. You simply take your tortilla (whole wheat if you want to incorporate some whole grains) and spoon the leftovers, beans and all, into one half along with a generous helping of extra crumbled feta. Fold it over and brush with olive oil. Place the olive oil side down on a skillet over medium high heat. Brush the top side with olive oil and cook until the bottom is lightly browned before turning over to cook the top side. Serve right away! If you are making multiple tortillas you can usually fit two of them in the skillet at once for speed.

Then pat yourself on the back for finding a way to eat all of those veggies!

Thank You, Microsoft

I never thought I'd write that without irony. Truly, I want to thank Bill Gates, and Microsoft, for putting the following on the web:

It's a series of lectures from 1964 at Cornell University given by Richard Feynman, one of the great theoretical physicists of the 20th century. Now, Feynman was known as a womanizer, and from first hand accounts I've heard that he was lacking in humility and graciousness. So I have little cause to admire him aside from his physics capabilities. But such is the case for most great minds and, in any case, few are required to possess those gentler qualities. I've watched the first part of the first lecture and it is quite good. Feynman was funny, charming, and a natural entertainer, so the talks are fun to watch. He was also an excellent teacher, so you might actually learn something in the process.

Quick Link: Our Energy Secretary is Still Publishing Papers

And they are interesting and potentially important. This paper was put on the archives about 6 months ago but no officially published until today. Physics, an awesome website with commentary about interesting articles posted in all areas of physics, has a discussion of it. It's written for physicists so it might be a bit dense for public consumption. If I find the time I'll write up a little summary of it that might be easier to digest.

From Physics.aps.org: Atom interferometers can measure daily changes in the local gravitational acceleration (purple arrows) on Earth arising from violations of the laws of relativity. Positions of the Sun indicate the passage of the day, while the orientations of the purple arrow indicate the corresponding direction of the acceleration. The precise way in which the acceleration varies in direction and magnitude over time can be used to determine a set of coefficients whose nonzero values would indicate Lorentz violation. Inset: The local gravitational acceleration is obtained by measuring the difference in phase between the matter waves of cesium atoms moving in the gravitational field.

Gratin de Tomate, Courgette et Chèvre à la Myriam

I can trace the genesis of my love of food and cooking to my year in France. During that time I learned that contrary to my childhood prejudices, tomatoes and cheese were wonderful things, that there are few better ways to spend a saturday morning than at an outdoor market and that an evening is best spent in a kitchen with good friends and a bottle of wine. As a child I was an extremely picky eater and stubborn, a bad combination for any parent trying to feed a family. My mother, however, never forced me to eat things I didn't want to and kept telling herself (and me) that someday I would move to a foreign country and come back eating all sorts of new and different things. How's that for foresight?

I arrived in France an abhorrer of cheese, tomato and salad dressing and left with an appreciation for all things culinary. Except meat, of course, which the French never managed to convince me was worth eating. Part of this transformation came at the feet, or rather in the kitchen, of a good family friend, Myriam Rey. Myriam and the rest of the Reys met my family when Jean-Michel, the father/husband, brought them to live at FermiLab for a year while he worked with my dad. When I spent a year in France they became my family away from home. Myriam cooks with the quintessential grace of the french home cook. Every thing is simple, fresh, delicious and prepared seemingly without effort. She made something like dish I'm sharing with you in this post when I visited them last summer while working at CERN. It's perfect for the summer when tomatoes and squash are abundant. We got some beautiful Romas and zucchini in our box this week so I couldn't resist making it.

Gratin de Tomate, Courgette et Chèvre à la Myriam

4 long or 5 to 6 normal sized roma or other firm tomatoes
2 medium or 3 small zucchini (courgette)
4 oz log of goat cheese

1 cup of brown rice
1.5-2.5 cups of water or vegetable broth

1 lg or 2 small white or yellow onions, cut in half and thinly sliced
1-1.5 cups of thinly sliced mushrooms (brown is better)
3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
2 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup of white wine

herbs, fresh or dried, for garnish
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 F and lightly oil the inside of a 9x13in baking dish.

Start the rice cooking in the broth either on the stove or in a rice cooker.

Heat the oil in a skillet to medium heat and add the pressed garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently, then add the onions. After about 8 minutes, add the wine, two minutes later add the mushrooms and a pinch or two of salt. Cook until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms are beginning to brown, about 15 more minutes.

In the meantime slice the tomatoes and the zucchini into thin rounds of approximately the same size. Keep the cheese in the fridge until you are assembling the dish.

Once the rice is cooked add it to the onions and stir until combined. Then scoop the mixture in to the baking dish, smoothing till it forms a flat layer. Get the log out of the fridge and remove the wrapping. You'll be slicing off a round the size of the vegetables one at a time

Start laying the vegetables and cheese slices on top of the rice, alternating tomato and zucchini twice then cheese: zucchini-tomato-zucchini-tomato-cheese-zucchini-tomato-zucchini-tomato-cheese, etc. Do a full row and the start the next with tomato. The picture should be worth a thousand explanations in this case.


If you are using dried herbs, sprinkle some on now, along with salt and pepper. I sprinkled a bit of herbs de provence and then used some fresh ones after it was cooked.

Put the dish in the oven and cook for at least 3o minutes. You can check on it at 30 and if the zucchini don't look cooked enough, let it go longer, possibly up to an hour. The time to cook depends on the thickness of the slices, I think mine took 45 min to bake.

Sprinkle with fresh herbs (I had basil and parsley lying around but any herb should work). Serve carefully, it has a tendency to fall apart. And enjoy!
Here is a photo from the original Myriam made last summer. She added some sort of sausage in the meat eater version and used the wonderful french chèvre which has a rind. I can only find it in the US for exhorbitant prices, so I usually use the rind-less Trader Joe's version. She also exhibited greater patience or better planning than I and most likely cooked hers for an hour.