Pascal Wagers

Photographic Evidence

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:54:00 +0000

Yes, I have pictures. Lots of them. And they're forthcoming. Thanks for your patience.

Edit (2008/09/15). Here are Hurricane Ike pictures.

A Green, Powerless World

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:13:00 +0000

The rest of the day was a strange mix of manual labor (cleaning up), exploration (biking south to my apartment and Rice), and communicating with our extended circle of friends and family (lots of phone calls).

Not in any particular order, we managed to pile all the branches in one place on the lawn, we cleared several storm drains of leaves, and we raked lots and lots of those pesty leaves. Communicating with everyone by phone was a strangely cathartic experience. It's hard to convey the mixed sense of awe and relief that one has coming out of a storm like Ike. It will have to suffice to say that we appreciate the kind thoughts of all our friends and families.

The exploration part of the day deserves a bit more explication. We avoided clogging the roads with our car, opting instead to bike to check on my apartment just north of Rice. What we saw on the way was not unlike what we saw near Loren's house: many branches were down and some entire trees had fallen, but not too many vehicles or houses were directly damaged. This isn't to say there weren't such tragedies. For instance, the BMW crushed by the fallen oak that did manage to miss the corner of the house on the way down. Or the dead end street cul-de-sac blocked by five fallen trees. Or the corner of another house clipped by yet another tree. And wet, green leaves, though not tragic, seemed to coat everything, everywhere and provide some iconic definition of this storm to remember it by.

The number of people out and about was astounding. For once, many people (though there were numerous obnoxious exceptions) went without the use of their cars. There were far more pedestrians and bicyclists than we're accustomed to seeing. Some people were simply gawking. Others were already hard at work clearing their yards and streets of Ike's detritus. Many people seemed inclined to chat about their experiences. If there's any redeeming social effect from Ike, it will be people having met their neighbors from outside the confines of an air conditioned vehicle. Hallelujah!

I also found the variety of reactions to clean up interesting. Some people just went to work. Others gawked and figured someone else would come take care of it. Others, like us, did a little bit of both. In our case, we hope that the city of Houston or the power company, will be able to take care of the still hanging, but broken branch near the power line. We did clear some storm drains and concentrate the mess into piles, but we still have a lot of work to do. The branches will need to be cut, and that fig tree will need to be sliced and diced for removal.

Finally, I'll tell you the story of two worlds. I intend no judgment of either because both groups of people worked hard today. The driveway of an apartment complex two doors down on our block was entirely blocked in by a fallen, 100 foot tree. The trunk was solid and there were numerous branches. A group of men went at the trunk with machetes flashing and handsaws jamming. Opposite our backyard, one block away, a smaller, but not insubstantial, tree had fallen over the neighbor's car. One man calmly brandished a chainsaw as he cleared his driveway.

The Aftermath

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:12:00 +0000

It was too quiet. That's what finally woke me up around 8:30. It was still raining, and the wind was still blowing, but at a dramatically reduced intensity.

Loren and I surveyed the house, and its environs, with some trepidation. First the back yard, with the fig tree. And the driveway with the cars. At first glance, all was well, though the fig tree definitely lacked about half its foliage. It was only later that we realized that the fig tree had actually broken off at its base, and keeled over in a way that made it look, from our vantage point on the porch, like it had only lost its top. There were several branches in the driveway, but nothing too crazy.

In the front, the house survived the pecan tree dropping about half of its midsize or smaller branches. Somehow, none of these branches landed on the roof, though they were strewn all over the front lawn and driveway. One branch hung limply over the street itself, broken, but not fallen. It was an impressively depressing sight, yet we possessed a certain sense of glee that the house (and we) had survived. We could only hope that Galveston, and other southeast Houston communities had fared okay as well.

Finally, the leaves. Did I mention the leaves that were everywhere? There was a veritable layer of green covering the deck, the driveway, the roof, the street... The trees weren't quite stripped bare, but I'm betting that there'll be about half the amount of shade there once was when the sun returns to Houston.

After a quick phone call to our loved ones on the west coast to announce that we wouldn't, after all, be moving on to the next life at this time, we fell into a much deeper sleep until late morning.

Ike's Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:11:00 +0000

I lost my bet with Loren. The power went out at 1:10 am, only 20 minutes before the time when Loren supposed it would go. I guessed 11:30, so I was way off. :) We didn't, as I suggested, immediately break out the left over chocolate ice cream from the freezer. Pity.

By this time, the wind had picked up a lot, and it was raining hard. Staring out the window was almost irresistible at this point, even if all we could see were the shadows of trees whipping in the wind. Some places in Houston must still have had electricity, for the sky had an eerie gray-yellow back glow to it. Sleep was elusive. Too much nervous energy, really, coupled with a lack of information now that the power had gone out. We slipped in and out of consciousness and woke often, each time to the warm, stale air that filled a house that was all shut up with no air circulation.

We had set the alarm for about 5:30 am, some time in the middle of the period we knew the forecast had specified as having maximum winds. I woke up to the alarm, groggy as could be, having slept as well as if I were in the middle of the woods with no mosquito netting. The howling of the wind outside the house stirred me to action, though. I peered cautiously out the back window: some horizontal rain, lots of trees bending to and fro, and the omnipresent howl of the wind. That was the "safe" side of the house, though.

All the action lay at the front of the house, where the pecan tree loomed over us. Again, I peered out the window between the mini blinds. It seemed to me that more sky was visible between the branches of the tree...perhaps we were missing some branches. The street was completely flooded, and the rain was pretty much all horizontal. That was all the impression I allowed myself in the 15 seconds I looked out the window. The pecan tree's remaining branches waved about all too ominously.

Satisfied that the house was intact and that we were safe for the time being, we went back to sleep, or at least what passed for sleep the night of Ike.

Safe and sound

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:56:00 +0000

We don't actually have power or internet access at either Loren or Pascal's house, but we are safe and sound. Tree branches fell, the streets flooded temporarily, and the power is still out. We're at Rice, where there is power and net access, to check up on the news and get in touch with everyone.

There are lots of pictures on my camera; some pretty dramatic. Those will have to wait until I once again have those "necessities" of modern life like power and net access. Cheers to everyone!

Waiting

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:17:00 +0000

Waiting and trying to act like it's a normal Friday night was challenging. Loren and I challenged ourselves and kept finding distracting activities like reading to one another and watching an episode of Planet Earth.

It's after midnight now and there's rain on top of the wind, but we're among the lucky Houston-ites who still have electricity. The latest reports seem to be saying that nearly 600,000 people have none. The lights are flickering quite a lot, however, so it may only be a matter of time before ours goes as well. Hopefully not.

Galveston may be turning into a hell of a tragedy from what it sounds like right now. I feel so, so badly for what may transpire there, and am afraid of what I'll read in the morning or the next few days. My most positive thoughts go out to those affected.

Alright, see you all in the morning!

Well, Sunset Was Pretty Anyway!

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:37:00 +0000

Afternoon Naps Rock!

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:27:00 +0000

I just woke up from a two hour afternoon nap. I hardly ever get to do that! It felt great! So far I like this hurricane day... ;)

Things are calm. It's been alternately overcast or party sunny all day so far, with a bit of a breeze. There has been rain and no gusting wind at all yet. This morning, Loren and I cleaned up the yard and deck, moving a bunch of stuff into the garage. I also climbed a ladder onto the roof in order to clear the gutter which, incidentally, looked like it hadn't been cleared in at least a couple of years. I took some pictures of the house and tree as well:

In the lower picture, it's easy to see that the tree towers over the house, but as it seems very healthy and robust (see the trunk in the upper picture), I think it'll be branches that shear off of it, instead of the entire thing, if anything bad happens at all.

Right now, it looks like here, just west of downtown Houston, we'll see a maximum of 70 mph sustained winds, which is just short of hurricane status (73 mph for Cat 1). In fact, we occasionally see winds this high during thunderstorms in Houston. But, of course, these only last between 5 and 30 minutes, not for 12 hours or so!

After we cleaned up this morning, Loren and I went on a bike ride with Lance:

It was a nice opportunity to expend energy and to tire Lance out before he gets cooped up for a while. Some houses boarded up their windows, many did not. There were a surprising number of people out, both as pedestrians and bicyclists, and less surprising, lots of people out by car. In passing by the shopping center, it was fascinating to see that some places boarded up, while others did not.

Some businesses were open (mostly restaurants, I think), while many others were already closed. I'm glad that I don't have to work, and hope that the workers at open businesses have the afternoon off to take care of their families. You can also see Houston's downtown in the background of this picture, with the overcast skies above:

So that's the boring state of affairs right now. But remember: "boring" is good in this scenario!

Hurricane Day

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:15:00 +0000

A hurricane day is like a snow day, in that you have the day off, except you don't get to go outside and play in the white stuff afterwards. Instead, you cower inside a dark house hoping the winds don't get strong enough for anything particularly bad to happen. At least, that's the plan so far with respect to this guy, with the innocuous-sounding name.

Loren and I made most of our preparations tonight. I packed some stuff, put the most valuable stuff that wasn't with me in the most sheltered places at my house, and then left my garage apartment to its own devices. We trekked up to Loren's house (a whopping 2 miles north of mine) where we eyed the large pecan tree outside rather suspiciously. "Are you going to pick an inopportune time to die?" is basically the thought that has passed through our heads. We'll shelter ourselves, plus the beloved dog, Lance, here unless things (like the forecast) appear to get worse. We also shopped for some food, but we were pretty well stocked already. To see the supermarket picked clean of so many essentials (like water, canned food, and beer) was impressive. We wished we had a camera with us at the time to document the damages. After picking up some chocolate soy milk (how come nobody wants a tasty drink that doesn't have to be extensively refrigerated?), we pondered a stop at Blockbuster, but opted out in favor of more homy past times (see below).

Ike _is_ a big hurricane, though. Maybe not in strength (a cat 2, with winds less than 110 mph, for now), but certainly in size. I mean, look at it:

It nearly covers the entire Gulf of Mexico! Damn!

So, should we worry? From what I've gleaned from reading various sources, but especially this very calm and rational blogger, we face the greatest danger from wind. Flooding isn't going to be a big deal because Houston often gets more water than this in a day's time. Storm surge isn't a problem with us being 50 miles inland. But, the wind will be fairly strong. Estimates are that we'll face 12+ hours of tropical storm-force winds (between 40 and 70 mph) and a few hours of hurricane-force winds (70 to 110 mph, if it stays a Cat 1 or Cat 2 storm) in the middle of the 12 hours (if we get hurricane-force winds at all). The National Hurricane Center has description of the hurricane strength scale, which describes Category 2 level damage: "Some roofing material, door, and window damage of buildings. Considerable damage to shrubbery and trees with some trees blown down." My opinion is that we'll be in good shape unless a certain tree decides to complicate things. We're prepared for anything short of that in terms of food, shelter, light, and such.

In the mean time, we've stocked up on pre-electronic age entertainment in the form of books and conversation with one another. Gasp! We might throw a ball to the dog, too. It's always a laugh and a half when he goes skidding across the parquet floor scrambling madly to reverse his momentum. I'll probably take some pictures too, and maybe post them here if there's still power and an internet connection. So, wish us luck and hope that the pecan tree decides to live a long, long life. Cheers!

More awesome results pending...

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:50:00 +0000

Here I am giving my conference talk earlier today. It's over, and it went okay. I covered what I needed to, but it was a little choppier than I would have liked, plus I finished short of the time allotted. The latter isn't the end of the world, but it's better to use your 10 minutes efficiently, so that you can communicate all the cool things that you do to people who (nominally) care about the research that you are doing. You might argue that no one cares, and I might agree. However, while that may largely be true, it's hard to deny that an atomic physics conference represents the best chance of finding anyone who cares about the stuff I work on.

Oh, the title of this post refers to the fact that our best results are always "just around the corner". ;)

"Leave everything behind!"

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:48:00 +0000

My first (and hopefully) last emergency evacuation of an airplane occurred yesterday. The above picture is of the plane after we had exited in haste. Because I already had my bag in my hands, I didn't listen to the flight attendant's instructions to, "leave everything behind". As a result, I had my camera and decided to commemorate the moment.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, the engine merely overheated (no fire!), and we were on our way on a different plane within 3 hours. I got to the conference I'm currently at in plenty of time to worry about my presentation.

An article about FREE economies

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:52:00 +0000

I read a good article about how decreasing marginal costs can mean many things become free:
Free: Why $0.00 is the future of business

My favorite bit is this:

Free shifts the economy from a focus on only that which can be quantified in dollars and cents to a more realistic accounting of all the things we truly value today.

This is an amazing thought: I've always been kind of stumped about how one might quantify value that isn't easily defined (and/or is defined by each of us individually).

Softening the edges of materialism

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:17:00 +0000

No, I'm not talking about the sort of materialism where you shop 'til you drop. Rather, it's the sort of materialism which is non-dualist: the kind that says that consciousness is "merely" a by-product of physical things, and that there's no ethereal spirit or essence that magically imbues physical stuff with consciousness. By this definition, I am materialist.

One of the accusations that is tossed my way, when I have (admittedly infrequent) conversations on the topic is that this is a cold, unfeeling (even robotic) view to take. Basically, the argument posits that it is somehow inhuman to believe such a thing; and moreover, that it betrays our basic identity as humans to think that we are "merely" the result of physical events. I have no trouble accepting this view, though I certainly don't believe that being materialist detracts from the beauty and wonder of the world. In fact, I think it enhances it, but that's another issue entirely. Right now, I want to talk about the perception that materialism has hard edges and how the author of a book I just completed has reminded me that it isn't necessary for materialism to have such a bad rap.

The author? Douglas Hofstadter. The book? I am a Strange Loop. The majority of the book deals with the notion that we (our sense of self) is a result of our ability to think about ourselves....or if you prefer, to think about the process of thinking. Furthermore, this level of thinking results from the ability to think abstractly and to be able to manipulate these abstractions. It certainly doesn't seem like the physical media (our brains) has much to do with the ability to think, but the abstract layer is built on top of the physical interactions that occur on the next level down.

Now, I really like thinking about thinking, but not all of this is entirely new to me. The part of the book that I really appreciate, though (and which inspired this post), was where the author argues that it is this "loopiness" (thinking about thinking) that constitutes our core, and that our ability to empathize with others comes from our ability to keep other such loops in our brain. That is, the loops other than our "self" loop contain the essence of other people; the better we know another person, the more strongly they resonate within ourselves.

Hofstadter makes the point at the end that the most selfless people are probably actually the most full of life:

...the more magnanimous one is, the greater one's self or soul is, not the smaller! So I would say that those who strike us as self-less are in fact very soul-full -- that is, they house many other souls inside their own skulls/brains/minds/souls -- and I don't think this sharing of mind-space diminishes their central core but enlarges and enriches it.

Hofstadter continues in the same vein:

...a sense of "I" ... is in reality brought into being if and only if along with that self there is a sense of other selves with whom one has bonds of affection. In short, only when generosity is born is an ego born.

And finally, the most important bit is that as a consequence of having a complicated enough brain, we get to love, to experience the world around us, and most importantly, to be aware of these wonderful things. This is hardly a cold, hard-edged materialism if you ask me.

Design feedback desired

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:23:00 +0000

So I've been toying with a new design for the pictures' section of my website. You can compare the two designs:

Nominally, the content of the two versions is exactly the same, but the layout is different. One big concern I have about the new version is that users with smaller screens may have to scroll horizontally (which is a big pain). Do you have any comments along these lines? How about any suggestions on what I might do to mitigate this problem?

I strove for a cleaner look with equal or better access to the information that was already there. Have I succeeded? What else can use tweaking?

..and a Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:10:00 +0000

I didn't get to talk to everyone I wanted to in person, so here's a generic "happy new year" to each and every one of you. :)

As far as resolutions, I resolve to be positive and live well this year. But, heck, that's what I try to do every year; all the better!

One of my first acts of the new year was unusual. How about you? Did you do anything stranger than boiling cabbage?

My new uniform

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:44:00 +0000

Serendipity is sometimes very amusing.

Take tonight for example: some friends invited me to grill food and hang out in the Heights at a mutual friend's house. No problem, right? Dress casual, buy a bit of food to bring, we're set. Well, we carpooled together, 3 young men, and with absolutely no planning at all, and without noticing anything until we were firmly ensconced at the destination of choice, managed to wear the exact same thing.

It appears that green shorts and blue shirts are in. Take note: the new dress code should be the height of fashion about this time next year. And what can I say? At least it's affordable.

Some thoughts, mostly unconnected to each other

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:26:00 +0000

It's not unusual for me to not see the sun for most of any given work day. It is unusual for me to come home without feeling bitter about not having seen it for most of the day. I like the sunshine, believe it or not, and it'd be nice to be out in it more often.

Today (well, yesterday, by now), the only leisure time I spent outdoors (I don't count biking to/from school, mind you) was when I stepped out for a quick breather and managed to take the above photograph. I spent the rest of the evening at work, and if it were a normal night, I'd be feeling unhappy about having spent it all at the lab.

You see, work at the lab is often/usually/all the time a frustrating affair because sh*t breaks. A lot. In fact, I've come to expect it and am not used to having things actually work. Should it be this way? No, probably not. Is it the reality? Well, enough for me to form negative expectations anyway... :)

That said, some stuff worked tonight. It wasn't earth-shattering, ground-breaking, or even all that interesting to anyone at all (mostly because it has been done before), but the thing 1) didn't break, 2) seemed to be consistent with the physics as I understand it, and 3) matched very well with some calculations I had done 4 years ago (!) that I'd never really had the opportunity to "test" experimentally. That seems to have put me in a good mood, so now's probably not a good time to think about how I have to wake up in 6 hours to turn the experiment back on for the folks coming in at 11 am. Grrrr...

-----

On a completely unrelated note, I've been reading Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It's an interesting book, and you should consider reading it, blah, blah, blah. That said, one of the characters says something about himself that resonated with me: "...he was in lazy doubt about everything; doubt was much more energy efficient than conviction." Without judging it to be good or bad, I will make the observation that this sentiment applies to me pretty well.

Post-sectionals ==> Regionals

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:36:00 +0000

Focusing on the future and staying positive seemed to do the trick for my club team (see my previous post). We recovered nicely and placed about where we ought to have placed at sectionals last weekend, thus qualifying for the south regional tournament. Everyone seems a bit more relaxed now. Good stuff.

For my part, just as I was ramping up my running schedule and feeling good about my fitness, my body conspired with some nasty bug to get me sick. I was sick prior to sectionals, and I'm again now post-sectionals. I've been trying to get adequate rest, but I keep going back to work too early, struggling through a half day or more of work, and then going home feeling terrible again. This weekend, I've vowed to get healthy, so I'm staying home, sleeping whenever my body will let me, and drinking lots of fluids. I'm not out of the woods yet, but I hope that I will be soon. I just hate being sick: it's the antithesis of living an active and energetic life. It makes me want to curl up in a ball of pessimism and curse the world, which is really unlike me. If you've spotted my energy, please direct it my way. My contact info can be found via the "my home page" link on the right side of this blog. ;)

Right, so in other news, there really isn't other news. :) Maybe more from me later, but don't hold your breath.

Team-building

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:58:00 +0000

I am one of the captains of an ultimate team. 95% of the time, this is a fun thing to do. The 5% that isn't usually involves organizational garbage that I don't mind all that much. But, some of the time, there are actually unpleasant bits associated with being a team leader.

If your team is doing well, it's not hard to be a leader. Even when it isn't doing all that well, team members are usually willing to make adjustments in order to succeed. That's a long-winded way of saying that people usually stay interested in the team's welfare. Of course, not everyone is motivated the same way or for the same reasons. That's one of the unique challenges of being a leader: finding a way to fire up each individual on your team. Sometimes anger works; sometimes being a cheerleader works; sometimes being analytical works. It really depends on the situation. For my part, I'm not usually lacking for ideas of how to change things. Yay for me! Or something...

Recently, for the first time since I've been a captain (dating back to punk intramural teams during my undergrad), I ran out of leader-mojo (can I trademark that term?). We had a particularly bad showing at a tournament where it seemed like no matter what we tried, we still stunk. I went through my entire "toolbox" of ultimate tricks, team strategies, and motivational speeches trying to make a difference. In the end, I had to throw my arms in the air and say, "screw it!".

I'd be content to let it roll off of my back and move on except for the fact that this poor tournament showing seems to have affected the team's morale to a point where people are on the verge of quitting or simply losing interest. There's a generally negative attitude about the team, even as we begin to put things back together at practices and subsequent tournaments. Obviously, I'm not serving my teammates well if I cannot motivate them to play as well as possible. Also, on a personal level, I'm not a big fan of leading a bunch of cynical, disillusioned players; I play to have fun, after all, and that's not my idea of a good time.

So where to go from here? I've started with my own attitude. There's no time like the present to remind myself to stay upbeat and enjoy the playing itself. In short, focus on process over results. Or, even more simply, "have fun."

That's a good start, but I'm still kind of lost on how to regain my team's interest. Short of winning more games (which attracts everyone), it's not clear to me how to rebuild a team's confidence in itself. Any ideas? Only three weeks 'til sectionals...

Phew!

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:49:00 +0000

It's always a relief on that one weeknight per week when I get home and don't have to go back to the lab. Though I often come home for dinner and go back, the times when I simply come home and stay feel that much different: almost like I have a regular schedule or something. Right...sure, whatever you say, Pascal. Now back to reality.

Work has been at its best this week, I think. Maybe not in its excitement or in obtaining results, but in the variety of things I've done. Work passes more quickly, and I learn more, when there are many different things to be done in order to make progress. It's easier to motivate myself when I'm not repeating the same thing over and over. Stuff did break this week (what week doesn't have that?), but fixing it was a good experience. Maybe I'll even be faster at it the next time.

With all this fixing, I think we might be close to doing actual science tomorrow. Wow, imagine that!

Jumping sideways

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:22:00 +0000

As jarring as traveling to another country can be, the return to one's home thereafter is even more severe. The rude familiarity and the sudden view from without can make homecoming a difficult task indeed. Because vacations are inherently not permanent changes, I view them as jumping away from my routine, but not forward: only sideways. The forward jumps occur by making permanent changes.

That said, sideways can be good; very good. For example:

I've come back refreshed and a little less jaded with my work. The only question is whether it will carry me through to my next lateral movement.

EPFL, Bose-Einstein condensates of polaritons, and the future

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 10:58:00 +0000

This morning, I visited some labs at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). Last week, I arranged the visit with one of the professors who runs the Laboratory of Quantum Optoelectronics at EPFL. I spoke with him for about 45 minutes before he passed me off to one of his graduate students for tours of a couple different labs.

My goals coming in were ill-defined: mostly, I was information-gathering, seeing what I might be able to do once I finish graduate school. The idea of working in Europe has previously crossed my mind, but it was never all that concrete. It still hasn't crystallized, but the really good part of my visit this morning is that it gives me more confidence that the skills I am developing in graduate school are transferrable, even to a field where I don't have a strong background.

Polaritons are quasi-particles which are a combination of an electron-hole pair and a photon. (If you have the physics background, the polariton is composed of the eigenstates of the combined system.) The important part of here is that polaritons occur in semiconductor materials (solids). The lab group here has been able to make a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of polaritons; so, a BEC in a solid material. All the work that I do is with atoms that are a gas; the goal of work in my lab is to make a BEC out of the gas. In the end, the common thing in both fields is the BEC, but the physical system in which one achieves the BEC is different. Technically-speaking, however, many things are similar, and this is where the expertise I'm developing is transferrable despite not having a background in condensed matter physics. Cool!

So am I moving to Europe when I finish my PhD? Let's not be so hasty. :) I'm just happy that I saw an example of a situation where I could do very interesting work in a good environment. In addition, the experiments they are doing generally seem less complicated, technically, than the experiment I currently work on while the underlying physics is no less interesting. It's an appealing situation.

Unexpected fun

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 06:47:00 +0000

I played frisbee golf for four hours tonight. And the group of us went to eat food post-disc-golfing. And I had an unexpectedly good time. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised...something to do with a frisbee, good people, hanging out on a Friday night after a long week at work, but still, it wasn't quite expected. Maybe I should get out more. :)

A picture is worth a thousand words...

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:52:00 +0000

so how many words are multiple pictures worth?

A long week!

noreply@blogger.com (Pascal Mickelson) — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 05:17:00 +0000

It has been a long week, but at least the conference is nearly over. I'm kind of saturated with physics-stuff right now. In combination with being sick, I'm ready to sleep for quite a while.

Tomorrow, I will go to a place where it's hard to take bad pictures: Banff National Park, by all accounts, is a stunning place. Point and shoot, here I come. Hopefully there'll be some hiking as well.