Robert McNees
@mcnees.bsky.social
Physicist and Professor at a university in Chicago. I study black holes, quantum gravity, and cosmology. Rocky Top, Tar Heel. Reposts are spooky action at a distance. My views, not my employer's. https://jacobi.luc.edu https://mcnees.github.io
I had just assumed that the state wouldn’t approve a vanity plate for a dog, but I can see how they’d make an exception for a dog who went to med school.
William Rowan Hamilton was born #OTD in 1805. His reformulation of classical Newtonian mechanics via the principle of stationary action is one of the most beautiful ideas in all of physics, and is at the heart of nearly every modern theory in physics. 🧪 ⚛️
Mathematician Mina Rees was born #OTD in 1902. She coordinated work by mathematicians at OSRD during WWII, pushed the development of computers and numerical science as head of mathematics at the Office of Naval Research, and was the first woman to serve as president of the AAAS. 🧪 ⚛️ 👩🔬
“Not to know what’s beyond is like spending your life in the cellar, being completely oblivious of all the wonderful things around us.” Astronomer Helen Sawyer Hogg was born #OTD in 1905. She was an authority on variable stars and globular clusters, and a sci-com pioneer. 🧪 👩🔬 🔭 Image: U. Toronto
Chemist Stephanie Kwolek was born #OTD in 1923. She invented Kevlar, used in high-strength / low-weight applications like body armor and airplane parts. She also invented the Nylon Rope Trick demo! 🧪 👩🔬 Images: DuPont/Stephanie Kwolek
‘I bought this before he went crazy’ sticker on a 1938 VW Beetle
Nominations for post of the month are now closed.
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley@pressley.house.gov · 6d agoOdyssey this. Odyssey that. We Odyssey ICE abolished.
Chemist Stephanie Kwolek was born #OTD in 1923. She invented Kevlar, used in high-strength / low-weight applications like body armor and airplane parts. She also invented the Nylon Rope Trick demo! 🧪 👩🔬 Images: DuPont/Stephanie Kwolek
I have been saying, it’s about time someone speaks up for the preyed-upon “lonely millionaires,” someone has to shine a light on this.
Each week he shows up at the studio with something he hit – raccoon, possum, bear cub, etc – and the chef has to do something with it.
Brandy Zadrozny@brandyzadrozny.bsky.social · 6d agoSomeone posted this in slack and I actually thought it was The Onion. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
Marie Tharp was a guest in the excellent BBC series Earth Story. Available on DVD or on YouTube. Well worth a watch, it's one of the very best series on our planet and those who study it. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
BBC Two - Earth Story - Episode guide
All episodes of Earth Story
bbc.co.uk
Robert McNees@mcnees.bsky.social · 6d agoGeologist Marie Tharp was born #OTD in 1920. She built the first accurate map of the Atlantic Ocean floor, discovering the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that provided evidence for seafloor spreading and plate tectonics. 🧪 👩🔬 Image: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Geologist Marie Tharp was born #OTD in 1920. She built the first accurate map of the Atlantic Ocean floor, discovering the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that provided evidence for seafloor spreading and plate tectonics. 🧪 👩🔬 Image: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Just finished a re-read of “Bridge of Birds.” I think I first read it around the start of the pandemic. I knew I liked it, but like many things I read around that time, I remembered almost nothing about it. So it was like reading it for the first time. What a book.
Oh how terrible, RIP Glen Hansard. We saw him at Auditorium Theatre in downtown Chicago. At one point he stepped away from the mic and amps, out to the edge of the stage, and *filled the theater* with just his voice and guitar. One of the most remarkable vocal performances I ever saw.
Isidor Isaac Rabi was born #OTD in 1898. Rabi won the Nobel Prize for his work on nuclear magnetic resonance, helped establish both @brookhavenlab.bsky.social and @cern.bsky.social, and originated the idea of a science advisory board for POTUS. 🧪 ⚛️ 🎢 Image: Columbia U., AIP
President Andrew Johnson signed the Metric Act #OTD 1.60 hectoyears ago, making metric measurements legally acceptable for US commerce.
I find sphere eversion less confusing and more believable than when someone folds a fitted sheet in front of me.
Pretty much every other block in my neighborhood right now.
Game designer Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson, was born #OTD in 1938. He had some very dumb views about women being able to enjoy RPGs (and who knows what else). But he wasn't the boss of liking D&D, so I hope you enjoy it with especial relish today.
Happy birthday to the guy who actually said something meaningful* immediately after the Trinity Test. *Not Oppenheimer with his made up story about the passage from the Bhagavad Gita
Robert McNees@mcnees.bsky.social · last yr.Physicist Kenneth Bainbridge was born #OTD in 1904. He used mass spectrometetry to verify Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence, built Harvard’s cyclotron, and directed the Manhattan Project’s Trinity Test. After that first atomic blast, he said to Oppenheimer “Now we are all sons of bitches.”
Physicist Kenneth Bainbridge was born #OTD in 1904. He used mass spectrometetry to verify Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence, built Harvard’s cyclotron, and directed the Manhattan Project’s Trinity Test. After that first atomic blast, he said to Oppenheimer “Now we are all sons of bitches.”