I had the pleasure the other day of talking with science writer Jennifer Ouellette, blogger at Cocktail Party Physics, who also happens to be a black belt in jujitsu (!), and Sean’s wife. The conversation was recorded for Bloggingheads.tv, which is a (to me) peculiar project to record bloggers talking to each other. I admit to being baffled that people actually want to listen to bloggers talk into their computers. However, people seem to actually watch these discussions, and given that I enjoy talking about science (and had never had the opportunity to meet Jennifer before), it seemed like a fun thing to do. If you’re interested, the discussion is here:
While I enjoyed the actual discussion, I confess to finding it disconcerting to have a recording of myself floating around the internet. I still have a bit of the anxious 13 year old stuck in my head, replaying years-old conversations where I wish I hadn’t said something, or said something different. The rational 40 year old part of me knows these conversations were long forgotten by everyone but me, but with the internet, they’re actually not. Instead, people can replay them over and over, and (even worse) comment on whether or not I misused a particular word (I did — I said “spurious” when “serendipitous” would have been more appropriate), or whether or not it’s distracting that a hunk of my hair tends to fall down and cover my one non-functional eye. It’s like my middle school nightmares actually coming true. I’ve progressed enough in the intervening two decades that I’m not paralyzed or depressed over it, but the desire to get everything just right, and feeling faint flips in the stomach when you fall just a little bit short, has never completely gone away.
October 5th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Relax a little… I never noticed those things until you actually mentioned them.
In any case, it was a great show!
October 5th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
It was a brilliant chat/conversation/vlog/whatever you call those things, so don’t worry about the incidentals.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:59 am
I’m a big fan of science saturdays, and I thought that was a really fun and inspiring chat. It certainly gave me more respect for NASA, for one. Also the seattle science curriculum sounds quite awesome!
October 6th, 2008 at 5:49 am
I will be blunt, and allow you to know that I am no string theory scholar. Although when using six sided dice and placing them on a single plane you can see the 11 dimensions form by using a constant and watching each plane come alive in a 2 dimensional shape until you get to the 11th dimension. It, when using the constant has to be shown 3 dimensionally as a pyramid. Of course there are actually 12 dimensions but that is a given for the 12th is what is outside the edge of the universe. Next time I post I will find my notes in which I doccumented all the dice and which way they faced and give you the constant so you are able to create it for yourself.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:22 am
That was good, that was really good.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:17 am
If more scientists looked like you two, there would be more scientists.
Call me sexist, but after seeing too many scrawny white
(very white) male geeks in the field, you are a welcome breath of fresh air.
October 8th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
wow, that was great. Julianne, I must confess I’m in love with you. You are one of the reasons I’m studying astrophysics…
October 10th, 2008 at 3:56 am
I’ve enjoyed the Science Saturdays immensely! As a courier, or “road scholar” out of school for a moment, I don’t really have the chance to hear deep discussions and arguments between scientists / science philosophers. Maybe I’m nuts, but there is nothing like cruising around Southern California, checking out the conversations, pondering the universe as a wave function or the problems with cosmology. I wish more scientists / scholars would have discussions like this and put them online for us.
I hope you have Brian Greene come by soon! I have serious doubts on the reality of string theory, even though its fascinating to consider. It’d be very cool to get inside his mind and the rationality of it all.
June 19th, 2009 at 11:38 am
[...] looking for suggestions for new participants. In addition to Mark and me, we’ve already had Julianne appear. I can think of two other obvious ideas: JoAnne and John could discuss the LHC, and Daniel [...]