Life lessons from an experimental cosmologist

As some of you know, I work at NASA. I don't do anything particularly brilliant but just upstairs from me is NASA's Nobel-prize-winning pride and joy, John Mather. I sometimes like to think some of his insight and perseverance will rub off on me as we share a few air molecules via the HVAC. (OK that was pathetic.)

Today I attended a luncheon* featuring Dr. Mather. In fewer than 25 minutes, he breezed through his 20 years with the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) (which confirmed that the Big Bang is more than just a clever idea); described the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST); and ended with the lessons he's learned from it all, ... which I felt deserved a broader audience. So, all three of you, listen up:

- Aim high: the world will change in the 20-year lifetime of your project.
- Your space-based telescope should only try to do what ground-based telescopes can't do.
- Don't be intimidated by difficulty of your project, if no law of nature actually forbids it.
- It it's not forbidden, it's required (in the case of science and exploration).
- If it's not required, it's forbidden (in the case of project management).
- If you don't test it, it won't work (confidence is no guarantee of success).
- If you do test it, it still won't work BUT you'll have a chance to fix it before it has to work.
- Elementary things do fail (simplicity is no guarantee of success).
- All the hard work is worth it -- there's no substitute for major space missions.

I'm no cosmologist, yet something tells me the good Dr.'s onto some genuine wisdom here.

He gave another interesting gem to -ah- chew on: We atoms make up only about 4% of the universe. The rest is cold dark matter (23%), which no-one knows much about; and dark energy (73%), which is even more mysterious.

(* Lunch or luncheon? After extensive study, I have concluded that the "-eon" suffix is code for "wear a tie". Then again, the required preliminary chit-chat does fit the other definition.)

The other family portrait

The formal portrait we paid good money for last fall turned out pretty starched & bleached -- and besides, Olan Mills Studios would break our kneecaps if we posted it. So, here's a livelier picture of our little clan: "Ms. P., are we all stuck on the ceiling until Mom and Dad stop laughing?" CCW from top-left are Suvia, Dylan (5), Diesel (2), T.Mo (0.5), and yours truly. We'll include this in our sesquiennial Christmas - Easter newsletter... soon.

Low frequency effects

I've been enjoying my new subwoofer -- a bit of reckless Christmas generosity from the Suvias (my wife and her mother). Funny, it says right in the manual, "most people turn up the gain much too far." Understandable; I can see why subwoofers and condo apartments are an ugly mix. Fortunately our nearest neighbors are 150ft. away through trees. (If they come knocking...)

Of course the thing really shines on movies like Terminator or Finding Nemo. Besides beefing up the obvious concussive sounds (e.g., Darla tapping on the fishtank), it just makes everything a lot more immersive. But I was surprised at how much it also "anchored" solo acoustic guitar music. Also surprising: my best subwoofer demo so far (amidst stiff competition from Miles Davis' "Blue in Green") is a piece by Carrie Newcomer ("Another Thunder"). [Edit: oops, how could I have omitted Arvo Pärt's "The Beatitudes"?]

Homeland security and memories of Dad

So I was filling out the 20pp. "resistance is futile" questionnaire the other day, for the latest wrinkle in the Homeland Security blanket. Among other things, I had to come up with 3 "people who know you well ... who together cover the last 7 years of your life. No relatives, spouses, etc." A daunting task for this hermit; but I did finally come up with three. So if some disturbingly normal-seeming person calls you up asking about me, ... you've been warned.

In looking up people's addresses etc, I stumbled across a Lycos listing for my father: full name, past addresses (Hines, MN, followed by Wheaton, IL -- omitting his 40-some years as a missionary overseas), and age: 71... even though he never made it to 66. Creepy.

The same afternoon, I found a photo of him and Mom, stuck in an old Java book on my shelf. I think this picture was taken the week Dad's cancer was confirmed (Christmas '96). He died about 4 1/2 years later -- two months before 9/11. I often wonder what he (as a lifelong student of the Arabic language and Christian ministry to Muslims) would've thought of this brave new world.

Now that we've totally changed the subject... In recent years I've sometimes thought we've moved on a little TOO well since Dad's death -- sure, life goes on, but ours would probably be richer if we paused once in a while to remember him. Because he preferred counseling and coaching to publishing, there's precious little evidence of him online. So, I wonder what the Wendell Evans blog would've been like. I should write a spoof post every year or something.