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Spring Semester 2008

“Most people are much more certain of what they believe than of what they know.”

Helen Quinn in Physics Today, January 2007

Ernest Rutherford, a nuclear chemist/physicist, was the first to propose (correctly) that the atom consisted of a small but heavy positive nucleus at the center with much smaller negative electrons "orbiting" around it.

"In science, there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting."

Hearing this, John Spangler, then-colleague of mine and avid philatelist himself, complained that Rutherford's remark was an insult to philatelists!

Physics discovers the fundamental laws of nature which are then applied to interpret observed phenomena and predict new phenomena at the most basic level. Indeed, science is, for the most part, like stamp collecting: gathering and organizing data, interpreting ("appreciating") them, and seeking underlying unity among them.

The ancient Moon, recently formed out of orbiting debris as a result of a colossal glancing collison of proto-Earth with a planet-sized body, looms large in the sky due to its proximity to Earth. Tidal interaction between Earth and Moon has since slowed the Earth’s rotation and pushed the Moon to its current distance, where the Moon appears the same size as the Sun, creating the spectacular solar eclipse phenomenon.
Most scientists agree that the global warming phenomenon (or more accurately, "global climate change") is real, and that the alarming speed with which it is happening is due to human activities that are adding man-made CO2 to the atmosphere. The National Geogrphic Magazine's September 2004 issue has a special on this topic with images from around the globe.

The Kyoto Protocol, imperfect as it may be, is an important first step for the international community trying to curve global CO2 emissions.
"First, we would not accept a treaty that would not have been ratified, nor a treaty that I thought made sense for the country"
—President Bush, on the Kyoto Accord in an interview with the Washington Post; April 24, 2001


Some somber facts about our way of life— quote and data taken from the National Geographic Magazine, March, 2004.