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Come read my first invited Op-Ed in the news!
Posted by Ethan on August 16, 2012 
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” -Albert Einstein The Mars Curiosity Rover and the Mars Science Laboratory mission are so important that writing about the landing, going on the news, and writing about it again simply wasn’t enough. So when the Portland Tribune called…
Your First Year in Physics Grad School
Posted by Ethan on February 3, 2011 Teacher Writes on Blackboard: “The Method of Guessing” Student: “What! There’s a method???????” Teacher: “Yeah, there’s even a proof!” -overheard in a physics grad school As a physics professor, one of the challenges I face is how to advise young students nearing the end of their undergraduate career on how to succeed in graduate school…
Weekend Diversion: Sunday Funday, for Beardos and Fans!
Posted by Ethan on January 23, 2011 “There was an old man with a beard, Who said: ‘It is just as I feared! Two owls and a hen, Four larks and a wren Have all built their nests in my beard!” -Edward Lear No better song for this week than an early, live version of Jeff Tweedy‘s Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard.Some of…
Hubble for the Holidays: Have a Cigar!
Posted by Ethan on December 21, 2010 “Equipped with his five senses, man explores the Universe around him and calls the adventure Science.” -Edwin Hubble I promised you, this week, we’d be taking a look at the power of the Hubble Space Telescope. Yesterday, we looked at Eta Carinae, but today, I decided to look a little farther. Have a listen to…
What Everyone Needs to Know About College and Privacy
Posted by Ethan on December 10, 2010 “I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” -Harry Truman It’s the end of the term here at my college, as well as most colleges across the nation. And while the students are freaking out about finals,…
How many planets are out there? First Results from Kepler!
Posted by Ethan on June 17, 2010 “We are all captives of the pictures in our head — our belief that the world we have experienced is the world that really exists.” -Walter Lippmann For a long time, humans have wondered about life on other worlds, and about worlds around other stars. Until the 1990s, this was mostly speculation and hope. But…
Weekend Diversion: Midori and the Arts
Posted by Ethan on April 25, 2010 Last night, I had the absolute pleasure to hear Midori, one of the top violinists in the world, play with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. (For those of you wondering, she was spectacular.) What does Midori sound like? Here’s her playing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto fifteen years ago with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. While I recognize that…
Weekend Diversion: Goodbye to the Swayze
Posted by Ethan on September 19, 2009 I’ve got to say, I get some weird things in my head sometimes. I don’t know how many of you know who Vashti Bunyan is, but you may have heard a snippet from one of her songs last year in an NFL commercial. The beautiful, haunting song is called Train Song and it was the…
Want to be a Professional Astronomer?
Posted by Ethan on May 23, 2008 We need one of those propaganda videos, like the Marines had when I was a kid: Seriously, I remember watching that and actually thinking it would be awesome to be a Marine! (And for those of you who don’t know me that well, I loathe armed conflict.) Well, I’m a scientist. Can’t we do anything…
The Arrow of Time
Posted by Ethan on May 22, 2008 The laws of physics are the same forwards in time as they are backwards, right? At least, that’s what some physicists will tell you. They have (some) good reasons for saying this. After all, if you watch the planets orbit the Sun, they look like they obey the same laws of physics whether you watch…
