(I wrote this blog post over a period of three days; from moving out of home to settling in at ANU) So earlier this week I gave a talk at my high school to the new Year 10 cohort about "Science and the Importance of Being Curious". Talking about science, curiosity and STEM (science, technology, … [Read more...]
Reflections on a Summer at MIT
Having been back in sunny old Noosa for a week now, the past 6 weeks at the Research Science Institute at MIT seem like a strange dream. Sure I have 80+ new friends on facebook, a paper written on nuclear material science and a couple of souvenirs, but it's difficult to not help but wonder - wow, … [Read more...]
Four weeks of RSI
It's remarkably difficult to find a nice quiet hour or so to write a post without worrying about assignments, social life or activities at RSI, without finding yourself up at ridiculously late/early hours. However I now find myself over 65% of the way through the Research Science Institute, and … [Read more...]
First Week Classes
With the first weekend now upon us, us RSI folks have a brief respite to look back and reflect on the previous week, and tremble in fear and excitement for the next 5 weeks of research. It's worth talking specifically about the classes and lectures we have had so far, which as a whole have been (in … [Read more...]
The First Week – Initial Reactions
So I've been at RSI for about 5 days now, and there's definitely lots of awesome things to talk about. I should probably start off with my initial reactions to arriving on the MIT campus and getting settled in. As a somewhat country Australian kid, the sheer prestige and atmosphere of Boston, and … [Read more...]
Arrival
So I'm writing this the morning after my arrival thanks to the beauty of jet-lag waking me up an hour early. I thought I'd write a quick update on how the journey itself was. The total flight time was about 22 hours, Sunshine Coast to Sydney, Sydney to LA and LA to Boston. The big one was … [Read more...]
Pre-RSI Thoughts
As I write this I have about 14 days to go till I leave for Boston. I still haven't bought my clothes and formal attire yet and my visa only just arrived, so it's all a bit rushed. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited and of course the obvious answer is "yes, definitely", but the honest answer is … [Read more...]
Perspectives, Cats, Einstein and Quantum Physics
So my friend Blake Walker started his segment "Walker's Wisdom" earlier this week, and his first topic was on Perspectives. That is, in a philosophical and perhaps psychological sense, how our perspective can change not only the way we approach things, but our experience of them too. It was funny he … [Read more...]