When we do our more-or-less annual Donors Choose drive, we’re always pleasantly surprised at how many readers are willing to throw in a few bucks to help school kids in poor areas learn science. So now we’re not asking for money — we’re just saying thanks. (Of course there are always good projects looking for donations.) The best part of the process is the thank-you letters that trickle in from the classes that are helped. Here are some pictures from a few of those classes, using their new materials.
The DonorsChoose model is elegant and effective. Full marks to the people who created it.
But I am going to go off topic. The NY Times has published a short review for Brian Greene’s book ‘The Hidden Reality’. A more knowledgeable review from you, Sean, would be most welcome.
The final part of the review quotes Greene as follows “My taste is for the expansive, but I draw the line at ideas that have no possibility of being confronted meaningfully by experiment or observation, not because of human frailty or technological hurdles but because of the proposals’ inherent nature.”
A sentiment that I heartily agree with.
Which brings me to my second question. In our current understanding of cosmology, where are the boundaries that delineate ‘ideas that have no possibility of being confronted meaningfully by experiment or observation’? That is probably a big question that needs an entire blog posting just to summarise the answer, or maybe not, either way I look forward to your thoughts on the question.
Mike
Quite apart from psmith Says’ big question, I’m taken that all of the teachers cited were women. I’m sure there must have been a couple of thank yous from men, but I just wanted to take the opportunity to say that as a species we’re certainly lucky to have women.
Sad
I don’t know, there is something about this articles I find horribly depressing. Not sure what.
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Cosmic Variance
Random samplings from a universe of ideas.
About Sean Carroll
Sean Carroll is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. His research interests include theoretical aspects of cosmology, field theory, and gravitation. His most recent book is The Particle at the End of the Universe, about the Large Hadron Collider and the search for the Higgs boson.
Here are some of his favorite blog posts, home page, and email: carroll [at] cosmicvariance.com .
