nik at night

[Jeanway 0]

What are some of the things you think about nik, I'm interested.

[nik 0]

Right now, I'm thinking that I'm really speechless and flattered that anyone wants to know what I think. However, since you asked, here are some statements that have gone through my mind in the past 24 hours:

 

"The relaxing aspect of the game lies in the fact that it's sequential."

 

"My gosh! He's young!"

 

"By what process were the molecules formed?"

 

"Incredible that they all exhibit a 99.9% purity in chirality! How did that happen? The process reminds me of that which caused baryonic asymmetry in the universe. But what process?"

 

"I really need to clean my office."

 

"Indecision is a decision."

 

and finally and most importantly:

 

"It is a special type of mind that seeks to know the thoughts of others. A truly inquisitive and thoughtful mind. One that sees beyond oneself to the multitude of living universes inside the heads of others. Science at its purest."

 

Who else has a thought?

 

(I hope I haven't disappointed, Jeanway, but you really caught me off gaurd on this one! Good job!)

[Jeanway 0]

Your quite welcome Your majesty :huh:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

::whispers:: He doesn't realize I'm picking his brain for new thread ideas, sshhhhhh :huh:

Edited April 20, 2004 by Jeanway

[WEAREBORG4102 0]

Baryons...

Nice...

[nik 0]

Baryons...

Nice...

Yeah, the baryon asymmetry of the universe, though simple in it's explanation is just one of those beautiful aspects of science that astound me.

[Jeanway 0]

So nik, if we do find those pesky tachyons, then what? Aren't they emmited when a ship is cloaked, just reach out and grab one :blink: No residual anti-protons??? Grab some of those too. B)

[Jeanway 0]

YOU GOTTA GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT :blink:

 

 

1. Jeanway

 

2. Fenriz 275

 

3. Weareborg

 

4. Unadopted Angelic

 

 

Any one else? :: whispers, you know he's a physicist, don't you:: B)

[nik 0]

..... wow........ gosh guys....... Didn't know I garnered that sort of respect...... really, in the words a favorite fictional character, "Aw shucks folks! I'm speechless."

[Jeanway 0]

We love you nik, just keep talking :blink: B)

[nik 0]

We love you nik, just keep talking :blink:  B)

Always remember, however, wisdom is not found in a multiplicity of words, but in the ability to use few.

[Jeanway 0]

Yes, less IS more :blink: B)

[nik 0]

:: whispers, you know he's a physicist, don't you:: 

How did you know this? I don't recall telling you this.... (of course, I tend to forget seemingly trivial things a lot) But of course, you are correct. Good deduction! People like me appreciate good deduction.

 

At least one of you have posed questions regarding what I really do in my job.

One of the nice things about my job is that I get to travel quite a bit. I travel to lend expertise in other experiments, give talks, go to conferences, or otherwise hobknob with my fellow physicists. This week, I took a small trip to a very small nuclear structure laboratory to help with the thickness non-uniformity measurement of reaction targets. In order to study nuclear structure, many experiments involve hitting a thin target or material with a beam of nuclei. We almost always want to know the thickness of this target, but we also want to make sure that the target is the same thickness over the entire target (within 1 or 2%). To measure the thickness, we scatter protons off various positions in the target. We produce a beam of low-energy protons incident on our target. Many will pass through (an atom is mostly empty space), and some will scatter while passing through. The energy of the scattered proton depends on two things - the target thickness, and the scattering angle (kinematics). By placing detectors at specific angles, we can detect the proton, and thus the only variable is the thickness. This is how I spent the first three days this week. It's actually a pretty simple test, but we really enjoy doing this stuff, and we run around the clock - tiring but fun. Ask any physicist why he became a physicist, and one of the answers you will hear is, "I like pressing buttons."

[Jeanway 0]

When I started this thread, I didn't know how true it was going to become. :) :) Some of my best conversations have been with you, nik, late at night. But I never thought we'd be discussing the things we have actually discussed :) :) Your one of a kind nik. You need a vacation :) Good buddy :)

[nik 0]

Aw, shucks! Thanks!