Telescopes at the Top of the World

Because of same strange warp in the space-time continuum, many of us that used to live in the Netherlands now live in California.  We made the trip to LA to visit some of our awesome friends from the Netherlands, in a much warmer, much sunnier local.

Bram and I with Harish, Andrew, and Robyn

During our trip we made the voyage to Mount Wilson, high in the mountains overlooking LA.

Mount Wilson has some amazing and historical telescopes.  Thanks to its location high above the LA smog, the viewing here is still pretty good.   The biggest of the telescopes here is the 100 inch Hooker telescope, which was the largest telescope in the world until 1949.  (And for a point - what telescope surpassed it?)

This is the telescope that Edwin Hubble used made his discoveries that galaxies, then believed to be nebula rather than independent star systems, were actually receding from Earth - leading to observational evidence that the Universe is expanding.

These telescopes are the perfect size to be mounted on my house!  (hint hint!)

Enjoying the brisk clear air.

The solar observatory is also pretty neat.  It's located on the top of an 18 meter tower.  An image of the magnified sun is projected at the bottom of the tower on a table.

Looking over LA, Harish, Andrew, and Bram.

The Defense

Getting your PhD is a serious business in the Netherlands.  A formal, serious business.  A good friend of mine, Chiara, recently defended her PhD.  Here's an idea of what it was like.

The defense itself is in an amazingly fancy room - an "academic chapel" if you will.  On one side are tall stained glass windows...

And on the other is "balcony seating".

The entire thing is officiated by "the man with the staff".  In his formal attire, he leads the committee in, and then the PhD candidate.

Chiara is accompanied by "body guards" - two friends who technically can answer any questions for her, but in reality escort her around, dressed nicely, looking tough.

The three of them process to the front of the room, and bow to the committee members, who sit at tables on either side of the room, dressed in black robes.

The "main" committee member, in addition to his black robe, gets to wear a chain and carry a bell.

Chiara's two advisors peruse her thesis as questions are asked.  Each committee member gets one question, and they are addressed in turn.

Chiara answers each question, starting out with the phrase "I thank you for your question" or something similar (in Dutch), then proceeds to answer the question (in English).

The front of the room is quite elaborate as well, with a huge mural that the audience, of grad students, postdocs, and family members, can stare at when they can no longer follow the questions.

When time is up - time is up.  The man with the staff walks back in and demands an immediate cessation of the questioning.  It lasts precisely 45 minutes, which means that sometimes, a committee member doesn't get their question answered.  (Much unlike the system for my defense, where the questioning period went on for literally hours.)

The committee processes back out...

... followed by Chiara and her bodyguards.

After a little while, a much more happy and relaxed Chiara processes back in...

and is presented with her diploma (yay!)

Her PhD advisors take the time to give moving speeches.

Her parents look proudly on.

Afterwards, the tradition is to present the new PhD with gifts that have to do with their time in Groningen. 

First a bunch of flowers (to remember the beautiful Dutch flowers).

One of the gifts I suggested was a stuffed cow... Chiara had an encounter with a big scary Dutch cow and now she is scared of cows - so we gave her a sweet stuffed cow (immediately commandeered by her younger cousin).

Of course, espresso cups for the Italian who loves a good coffee.

And since she plays basketball, a basketball we all signed.

The Dutch and World Domination - Masters of the Land

Science is cool.  Do you know, for example, that if the world's oceans drained, the Netherlands would take over the world?


Check out the rigorous scientific proof.

The Return of the Raptors

Another visit during our New York City trip was the Natural History Museum.  They had some pretty impressive specimens.  For example, this is the jagged inside of a lava tube.

This is a black smoker - a hydrothermal vent brought up from the bottom of the ocean.  These spew out geothermally heated water and support entire ecosystems of life around them entirely different from anything else on Earth - giving us an appreciation of how little we know on the origins of life.

This meteor has deep indentations from it's semi-molten past.

Another massive meteor.

This is a core sample from Antarctica - each of the dark and light bands corresponds to another season in Antarctica, and like tree rings, can tell us about climate change.

Kind of like this tree, that was over 2000 years old when it was cut down.

Imagine being the grad student who counted these rings.

Bram takes some time to taunt the kitties.

This is a very impressive nautilus shell - mineralized into a rainbow.

The skeleton of Lucy, who lived over three million years ago!

And now, on to mineralogy!  Very  impressive rocks indeed.  This one is bigger than me:

Beautiful inclusions.

Bram told me he wanted this for Christmas: the Star of India.  Um... yeah.

A really neat geode.  I had once cut open and polished a geode that looked very similar to this one - but this was much larger.

The museum even had a complete Loch Ness Monster skeleton!

Here I am standing next to a prehistoric thunder turtle.

Check out that tail!

A T-Rex terrorizes the locals.

Ceratosaurs - extinct.  Carnosaurs - extinct.  Ornithomimids - extinct.  Maniraptors - not extinct?!?!!?

Time to brush up on raptor awareness!

Is it a dinosaur?   Or is it an ostrich?

Prehistoric thunder armadillos.

The amazing specimens continue: these imprints are of tiny dinosaurs  but the most amazing part- you can see imprints of feathers.

Another incredible specimen: this one is a fossilized fetus of a dinosaur, still in an egg.

And this is a mummified dinosaur, still with skin attached!!!

And where does this rock come from? (one point - no google!)