History of Science

The Royal Society has published online a number of historic scientific documents. I particularly like the letter from Ben Franklin on the famous kite experiment:

The kite is to raised, when a thunder-gust appears to be coming on, (which is very frequent in this country)...

NASA Internships

I attended a very interesting talk today at the annual Delaware Space Grant Consortium meeting by Margaret Maher of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. She described their active internship program. I came away with the impression that there are many internships and they are a key path to permanent positions. I understand NASA has the goal of hiring recent graduates. Our physics and astronomy students should definitely keep these opportunities in mind. Some Useful Links:

NASA Jobs Website.
Goddard Internships.
NASA Undergraduate Internships

AstroBetter

The last time I learned a really useful trick on the Mac it was from visiting Kelle Cruz.Now I can just read her blog, AstroBetter: Tips and Tricks for Professional Astronomers. Thanks Kelle!

A Night of Astronomy at the White House (video)

President Obama Presents a Night of Astronomy from White House on Vimeo.

Also at youtube. You know, it's funny to hear him say you may discover a star, because it really is real for me. There's a picture of a "star" (or at least a "brown dwarf") I discovered in the textbook I'm using in class. In fact, it has a wikipedia page.

Astronomy at the White House

First Jazz at the White House, now Astronomy at the White House:

President Obama, having spent much of the day pondering Afghanistan, spent a few seconds Wednesday night looking through a telescope at a double-star system roughly one quadrillion miles away... It was 400 years ago, the president told the students, that Galileo built his first telescope and began probing the universe. "Galileo changed the world when he pointed his telescope to the sky. Now it's your turn," Obama said. "Don't let anyone tell ya that there isn't more to discover.

No hints though on NASA funding

Non-Academic Astronomers Network

My friend Rolf Danner has started a Facebook page for the Non-Academic Astronomers Network.

This network was originally founded as an activity of the Committee on Employment of the American Astronomical Society. The purpose of the group is to connect astronomers on a variety of career paths. If you are an astronomer working in a non-traditional job consider becoming a member.

Physics Bachelors Degree Salary Information

The AIP has put out a new flyer (PDF) with starting salaries for new college graduates. It compares offers for Physics ($40K-$63K) majors to other fields, and they do pretty well.

As we are all painfully aware, the US economy has been in a serious recession. However, we are happy to report that recent physics bachelors have been getting among the highest starting salaries. Physics bachelor’s salaries are comparable to those offered to computer science bachelor’s and graduates in many engineering fields. Physicists’ starting salaries are quite a bit higher than people who earned bachelor’s degrees in other sciences, business, the humanities, or education. These data were collected and published by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The data reflect salary offers made by campus recruiters during the last academic year. You can find the data on the SRC website at: http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/phystrends.html