2015: International Year of Light

Well, I made it to Seattle, and my first ever astronomy meeting (the 225th AAS). I got four hours of sleep on Saturday night due to a plane delay and the effects reverberated until yesterday, when I decided to sleep most of the day with the Jersey Shore softly playing in the background. I had an intense all-day meeting on Sunday on very little sleep and then an evening meeting last night. The rest of the time, I've been trying to learn about black holes and space dust. One of the first things I learned at this meeting is that there is apparently a split in the astronomical community between those who study planets (and go to AGU every year) and those who study everything else, and come to the AAS. The AAS is considerably smaller than AGU, with only about 3,000 attendees, which feels strange. My entire working life in science was centered on such a huge meeting (AGU) that it is now normalized for me.

Another huge difference is that astronomy is studied through electromagnetic radiation, which basically means pictures of space. Working in earth science is very concrete—you just put a probe in the air, water or ground and it records direct measurements. In astronomy, pictures are analyzed, color schemes are devised and lots of math is done. It’s so very different. All of these astronomers use massive open source databases of telescope pictures to do their work. There is no such thing as a project collecting its own data because it’s so incredibly expensive. Astronomers just use what’s available and figure out novel ways to manipulate it.

Perhaps the biggest challenge, for me, has been accepting exploration for exploration sake, rather than some greater good. The study of the earth and its changes has clearly important connections to humanity. The study of space doesn't and everywhere I go there is talk of the importance of exploration--human endeavor for the sake of endeavor and not necessarily to help humanity. Going to the moon is heralded as the epitome of this philosophy. It’s weird because I keep trying to figure out why it’s important to understand how far different black holes are in a certain region of space. But I guess the idea is that it’s not—the pursuit exists as an outlet of human curiosity and that has value in and of itself.

The last thing that I have learned is that I really don’t like being apart from my family. It’s just not my thing—I don’t want to go on work trips or have a job that gets out any later than 5. I want earlier hours and as much time off as possible (probably the most important theme of this blog!). Natan sends me pics of Theo that I obsessively look at all day. It’s only five nights, but it is very hard for me to not be around my most precious things.

Here are two of them, which beg the important scientific question: How did Natan and I manage to produce such a beautiful and clever child?