Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Okay, a secret

Ta dum, the secret is revealed. Wait -- first, a story: Once upon a time I went to a Stitch & Bitch at my local yarn shop. Chit chat, yak yak, what do you do? One woman was a grad student in physics at U of Toronto. "Oh," I say, "you might know my husband..." He is, in fact, on her committee. Then a few weeks later I was knitting with a completely different gang, and met another grad student in physics. "Oh," I say, "you might know my husband..." His office is down the hall from her! (For some time I thought her name was Liz Hurley, but it turns out I was a bit off.) And the weirdest of all, I was knitting with the mom of one of Elaine's friends, and she said, "Oh, isn't your husband a physics professor?" My head darn near exploded with all the knitting physicists in the world!

So I know that there are one or two of you who will be thrilled and excited to hear this: the April Physics Today is up! I know, it's heartstopping! I used to read the job ads in the back, maybe 15 years ago ("Hey, here's one in Honolulu, but it's not quite in your field! ... Hmm, here's a good one for you, but I wouldn't want to live there ...") but since Stephen got a job, I rarely see it. But lucky me, he's still a subscriber, so I can see my name in Physics Today! Who would have thought it? Now, for the few of you who are subscribers to Physics Today, here's what you do. First, leave me a comment, so I can collect more knitting physicists! Then, go to the main page, and under Issues and Events, you'll find Web Watch. And on the Web Watch page, you'll find links to a webcam watching the installation of a detector at CERN, to Columbia University Computing History, and ... drumroll, please ... a link to Spiral Defect Chaos in Knitting! And if you're not a subscriber, just click from here! Pretty keen, eh? Knit that data!

And something not at all related:

Sunday, in case anyone missed it, was the big Boat Race! The 152nd race between Oxford and Cambridge, mens eights, on the Thames. The water was a bit choppy and Cambridge... well, truth is... they lost. By 5 lengths, which is not a teeny amount! We were in the pub watching on TV, as were tons of others. But the kids were getting antsy, and as soon as the race was over, we had to leave.

It was pouring, with sun shining low in the sky, so once the rain passed over us and we came out from under the shelter and started the walk home, we saw this fantastic rainbow! It was double and went all across the sky. Beeeeyoooootiful.

7 comments:

  1. I used to be a physicist, well, I have a physics degree - does that count, even if I am a maths teacher now? Go you getting into Physics Today!

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  2. Me too! The physics degree bit, not the maths teacher bit. I wonder how many more knitting physics types there are out there?

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  3. Do biochemists-turned-software-engineers count? Guess not. I have A-level physics, though.
    I love that sweater. It's bookmarked!

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  4. Yea the secret it out! I'm so excited that you're published in Physics Today. Charles is leaning on me to make him a spiral defect sweater vest. If I start now he may have it in time for Christmas.

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  5. Fantastic, Mary! Well done on getting into print!

    There are a lot of knitting physicists out there - Alex who blogs as lixieknitsit on blogger is another...

    And gorgeous pic of the rainbow over St George's tower there... Shame about the race though.

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  6. congrats and well done! That's one fine cardigan.

    I think that many knitters are from scientific/technology fields. Physics and I never got on though, I had a horrible physics teacher in high school and was so traumatised that I ran a mile from university physics.... but chemistry .. that's a different kettle of fish, I was really good at that.

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  7. I'm a geologist, but I get Physics Today through my membership in the American Geophysical Union. How cool to find something about knitting in it!

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