But those examples of fish are somehow less fishy than tunafish. They look different, like they should be big fish, to the extent that when I once saw a very small shark, it surprised me enough that I wrote another blog post about how small sharks can get. Tuna, on the other hand, are shaped like they should be tiny fish. Apparently there exist fish that look sort of like small fish, except they're large enough that I probably wouldn't win a wrestling match with one, even without them being slimy.
Apparently they can swim 50 mph, and can be 15 feet long and over 1000 pounds.
They start as weirdly pointy specks of fish, but can grow to 15 feet long and over 5000 pounds. They are the largest bony fish. (Well, historically, the Leedsichthys of the Jurassic period were bigger, growing up to 33 feet long.)
Anyway, remember what I have learned today. Fish come in many sizes!
Short post this week. I mostly wanted to show you some inspirational photos and stories about rock climbing. In particular, there is this crazy sport called free soloing, which is rock climbing to dangerous heights without a rope. This goes on the list of things I'd never do myself, but please direct your attention to this article I found in the National Geographic:
The above photo is of ropeless rock climbing at Phi Phi in Thailand, where my mom is vacationing right now, actually. But it's not free soloing, because the guy is low enough that he could fall without getting severely hurt or dying.
Free soloing... okay, fine, here's the awesome photo from the National Geographic. I'm not sure if they allow others to use their images. If they give me trouble, I'll take it down. Until then:
Now take a look at the article that goes along with that photo. Free soloing is stupid, scary, and awe-inspiring.
The article goes on from free soloing to talk about other rock climbing styles that are less stupid. Feeling inspired, I went on to find this video of Lynn Hill and Katie Brown climbing together. Lynn Hill is one of the best climbers in the world, and is mentioned in the National Geographic article. May she inspire you as she inspires me:
I have too many things I could write about this week. I could write about calligraphy, Brookhaven National Laboratory, rock climbing in Yosemite, flying dudes with jetpacks, Mars, Lapland... What to choose?
Jetman
Let's start with jetpacks, because what I have to say is short and sweet. All I really have to say is that this video is the closest I have seen people become to the goal of actually being birds:
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Okay, that's over with. Now I'll just talk about Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), because that's where I am right now. I'm here as part of my grad school research. For those who care, I'm at the National Synchotron Light Source (NSLS), at "Beamline X21." I do this thing called grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS). Yes, science is full of acronyms (SIFOA).
The NSLS facility has two electron storage rings. One of them makes x-rays and one makes UV photons. There is technically also a third ring called the "booster ring" that injects electrons into the other rings, and I think the booster ring gives off infrared light. Anyway. Rough floorplan of my world of rings:
I work on the x-ray ring. Electrons fly around in circles in the ring, creating x-rays in the direction of electron propagation. When the electron beam is deflected a bit to continue moving around the ring, some x-rays fly out, basically (see the lines in the above floorplan). Each of these locations has a number; mine is X21. We use the x-rays to look at the surfaces of materials.
A sample section of beamline.
For some of you, that was too much science, and for some of you, it wasn't enough. Moving on.
The x-rays are all very carcinogenic and dangerous, so we have large amounts of lead shielding and piles of lead bricks to contain any potential escaped rays. Furthermore, if you want to let x-rays into the X21 "hutch" to do Science, there is a 5-step ENGAGE THE BEAM process that involves pressing three buttons and turning two keys while the lights in the hutch go off, an ominous red light goes on, and a long warning beep plays. The end result is that we're all very safe and we feel like Science is happening.
Sometimes the beam runs out of electrons. If there's a dip in power or if someone hits one of the Big Red Buttons, the electron beam gets "dumped." (I don't actually know where they get dumped. Over at the big RHIC ring in the northern half of BNL, their beam gets dumped into piles of lead bricks, and I suspect something similar happens at the NSLS.) One of the most popular conversation topics at the NSLS is, therefore, the status of the beam.
You know how all rowers can talk about around each other is catching crabs, the choppiness of the water, and their 2k times? At the NSLS, people are like that with the beam. When I first arrived here, the beam had been down for most of a day for some reason. One of the first conversations I overheard went something like this: "How's your research going?" "Oh, it's alright, but the beam has been in and out. Now that the beam's back up, it is progressing. Long hours tonight, but at least we have the beam!" It's like in Stephen King's Dark Tower series: All things serve the beam. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere along the ring, some superstitious scientist had set up a little shrine to the beam.
There are also planned beam downtimes. Electrons get injected into the ring, but then over time, the electron current decays. To keep the current high and the Science going strong, the beam is taken down every morning and evening at 7. An announcement goes out over the loudspeakers, the beam gets dumped, and the "booster ring" I mentioned earlier starts injecting fresh new electrons. Once a certain number of electrons have been injected, the beam goes back up and Science resumes.
We tend to plan our dinners around the 7pm beam dump. And since 7pm nears, I'll be back in a bit...
...okay, I'm back. The beam is full of brand new electrons.
Some data I took! You can tell it's real Science because it looks like a rocket ship.
Parallels to Lost(A couple days later, back in Cambridge)
Brookhaven National Laboratory reminds me strangely of the Dharma Initiative from the TV show Lost. It is sort of a science commune. There are large, manicured lawns. There's a cafeteria, fitness center, swimming pool, and lounge, and people can stay in apartments or dormitories on-site.
While I didn't see any Dharma polar bears around, BNL is full of wild animals. No, I don't mean grad students -- they mostly keep to themselves as long as you don't interfere with their primary functions: taking data and eating Cup O' Noodles. What I actually mean is that the BNL campus is full of deer, groundhogs, raccoons, wild turkeys, geese, and fireflies. And also, uh, deer ticks full of lyme disease, but fortunately I avoided those this time around.
The animals are quite tame. A buck walked up to about 10 feet away from me and stared at me curiously. A groundhog flopped down on its belly right next to the sidewalk and went to sleep. And when we were entering the BNL campus for the first time, the flock of geese walked halfway across the road and casually sat down and refused to budge, stopping traffic in both directions for a bit. These animals are tame enough that I'm considering bringing them to my thesis defense in a few years. Maybe I could come in riding a buck.
Overall, the trip was fairly enjoyable. My collaborator and I worked 12- to 15-hour days, but we got 7-8 hours of sleep each night and had a good dinner each evening. I got in a few workouts to keep myself alive and awake, and spent some time outside when I could. We also got some good data from what we can tell so far, and we had good luck with the beam.
I'm told BNL trips can get a lot more stressful if you've got a big deadline ahead of you, but this time, we had a good time! At least, as good a time as you can have when you're working 12- to 15-hour days for a week. As proof, I present the balloon we made from leftover krypton at the end of the run:
(Note to all advisors and scientists who may be reading this: this balloon was filled with the extra krypton in the gas line at the end of the run! We did not waste expensive gas of 99.99999% purity to make balloons!)
(Note to non-scientists: krypton gas is inert, don't worry. Kryptonite, of course, is another story.)
