Perhaps it's silly to wax lyrical over a room in a physics lab. This particular room is one that was a central part of my life for four decades. So I'm indulging in a bit of nostalgia. Room 116 is an office in the research building of Columbia University's Nevis Laboratories. An interesting side note: Most of…
Today (22-Sep-2026) I sent the following email to the principle investigators of the scientific collaborations of which I'm a member in the place I work. Subject: Use of Claude Hello [redacted]: This is a hard letter for me to write. At the past couple of [redacted] group meetings, the use of Claude has become casually discussed. The…
A work-related gripe: There are three things a physicist will never do: Go faster than the speed of light. Make two electrons occupy the same quantum state. Put something back where they found it. There's substantial experimental evidence for all three of these statements.
Today, a student comes into my office. This is one of the physics summer students who are here as a result of a nation-wide selection for the brightest. Here's the exchange: "I can't run GIMP on the server." "Did you try typing 'gimp' on the command line?" "I did, and it didn't work." I sigh, and start…
Nevis Laboratories, the physics lab where I work, is setting up an outreach program. The goal is to give the general public an idea of the work we do here. I’ve become the “social media coordinator” for the lab. Nevis now has a presence on three social-media sites: Facebook 
, Twitter 
, and Instagram 
.
As a member of a nature religion, I’m supposed to be familiar with the plants and animals in the neighborhoods in which I live and work.
In my previous post, I mentioned that I was working on a talk about the history of Nevis. I presented that talk yesterday. I'd been worried about how the talk would be received. I focused more on the history of the Nevis estate and on the construction of the Nevis synchrocyclotron than the research we've done in…
I recently picked up Playing at the World by Jon Peterson. This book is a history of the game Dungeon & Dragons.
Since many of my readers are Wiccan, I’ll use an analogy that will make sense to them: Playing at the World does for D&D what Ronald Hutton’s Triumph of the Moon did for Wicca. It explores the different elements and influences that resulted in D&D, and follows the chain of influence forward as D&D affected the world around it. [1] [2]
Two additional items about my previous post: - It looks like power will probably not be restored at work until Tuesday afternoon at the earliest. Keep those cards and letters going to my g-mail address. - It was not a woodchuck that got into the transformer. It was a raccoon. Mrs. Bucktooth is relieved and overjoyed, but…