PhD Comics has a nice one page presentation about what life is like for a typical PhD student in observational astronomy:
The faculty version involves writing proposals pretty much all the time. It’s not nearly as funny. Trust me.
(hat tip: the Astrodyke)
Cosmic Variance is a group blog by people who, coincidentally or not, all happen to be physicists and astrophysicists:
Our day (and night) jobs notwithstanding, the blog is about whatever we find interesting — science, to be sure, but also arts, politics, culture, technology, academia, and miscellaneous trivia. We have similar outlooks on many things, widely disparate opinions about others, and will do our best to keep the discourse reasonably elevated.
November 19th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
The featured people in the comic actually exists! The author did a trip to Canary Islands. More background data in this post: PhD Comics on IAC.
November 19th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
… or you could devote your life to writing on-the-edge novels… and Steven Pinker comes along and tells you your wasting your genes if you’re not providing cheap escapist entertainment to the masses who voted for Bush and probably think Pinker and the rest of the science crowd should be crucified cause they don’t believe in their gods.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:24 am
Hey! Doesn’t the new comic steal one of Sean’s lines about talking on planes? If you feel like talking, say you’re an astronomer; if you don’t, say you’re a physicist.
Or did Sean just repeat a bit of common wisdom? (I can’t find it on the internets, but I have a pretty strong memory that Sean made this comment once).
November 20th, 2007 at 5:39 am
My husband and I went to Tenerife on our honeymoon. We went on a tour up to Teide.. the landscape really is Mars-like. In fact, they filmed part of the original Star Wars films up there – you could almost see the sand people on Tatooine
I was very upset that we didn’t get a chance to visit the observatory though.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Alex — not my line, I got it from Bob Kirshner. But I suspect its origins lie in the mists of time.
November 20th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Apropos of nothing here, I would like to formally apologize to every working physicist, every supporter of science, and all persons whose heads are not firmly wedged deep in their own posteriors for my defense of Gregg Easterbrook in a previous CV post. I didn’t defend his treatment of physics, I don’t think, but still…
Reading his most recent column nearly caused my head to explode with rage. His lack of understanding would be comical if it weren’t so infuriating.
Sorry about that. It won’t happen again.
On the upside, having been online for about 15 years, it has been at least a decade since I practiced the art of the well-crafted flame email. I’d forgotten how fun it can be when one has a valid target.
Back to your regularly scheduled discussion.
November 20th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Reading his most recent column nearly caused my head to explode with rage. His lack of understanding would be comical if it weren’t so infuriating.
Isn’t his brother a physicist? Thanksgiving dinner must be pretty interesting with his family.
And I don’t know where we got it from, but every astronomer I know does the astronomer/physicist thing on planes.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
If you sit next to me on a plane and don’t want to talk you’d better answer “economist.”
November 20th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
In the (now distant) past, I used the astronomer/physicist/astrophysicist switcheroo to weed out unsuitable dates. I wound up marrying the first guy who responded to “astrophysicist” with a hearty “cool!”.
November 20th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
[...] visiting with astrophysicists. It’s the second half of a two-parter, the first of which got a favorable link from Cosmic Variance, and the people there know a lot more about this stuff than me. The [...]
November 21st, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Its nice to see that someone else is annoyed with Gregg Easterbrook. “But trust us, we’re experts!” seems to be his favorite phrase when bashing scientists. I think his brother is a judge, not a physicist.
November 21st, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Heya Travis! I think what’s odd is that people are completely fine with experts in other fields. Nobody thinks that they can do brain surgery better than a bone fide brain surgeon, but many people feel fine constructing their own theory of the universe and then demanding that “experts” give it equal time and consideration. (On the other hand, there is encroachment (sp?) on medicine from some new-agey quarters — The Seattle Times is currently doing an excellent series on them.)
Have you gotten out on the slopes yet this year? I’m expecting Mt Baker to open next weekend, so we might get out soon…fingers crossed!
November 21st, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Hey Julianne! You know just the other day I was thinking it was 10 years ago we went snowboarding. I have to admit that’s the last time I went! (Since moving to Alaska I’ve taken up nordic skiing instead. You should come visit!)
Picking on scientists for not knowing the answer is missing the point. That’s why people are studying it! Easterbrook likes to bash scientists when they say something that he interprets as contrary to his religious beliefs. And then he praises those who he thinks support his world view. He does it with every subject though, not just science.