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Today's Planetary Atmosphere class had a pleasant surprise, instead of the general panic I have for not having taken any dynamic course before, when my professor brought in an older Atmospheric Radiation text book that was Carl Sagan's personal copy.
Carl Sagan taught here at Cornell, and his old house is somewhere within a few blocks of my apartment, and I knew that but never really thought much about it. Until today, when I opened up the text book and saw Carl Sagan's name penciled in the inside cover of the text book, written by the man himself. My professor explained that Carl Sagan, back in the day, had asked to borrow this textbook from my professor, and somehow returned the wrong one, and then as my professor put it "got sick and died." And then it hit me that my professor was a colleague of Sagan, and Sagan had probably been in the building I was in. And I was talking with a man who had on many occasions talked to Sagan.
I'm not usually one to melt in the glow of famous people and their things, but to be holding something that Sagan had used himself just made my week.
That's all. Just felt the need to brag a little. Posts: 1711 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I can see it as a 7,000 episode television series, where each show I sneak around causing general (yet hilarious) mayhem stealing and raiding and gathering a giant pile of Cornellian artifacts and throwing them into a secret vault that only I know the location of and with a truncated moral message at the end of each adventure.
And I could have a righteous, thwarting, and ideally attractive arch-villain (think along the lines of Alyson Hannigan).
Bill Nye narrates the Sagan Planet Walk, and I have that number on speed dial, so if I ever feel my geek factor drop below critical, I can call the number and listen to the sweet, replenishing voice of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Posts: 1711 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Bill Nye was at Cornell just last month for the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting. I didn't go, but a lot of people I know did. And one of my friends danced with him at one of the dance events they had. I think some of the other people she was with dared her to ask him, and she did, and he said yes. I don't really know anything beyond the "guess who danced with Bill Nye at DPS gossip". This all sounds pretty childish, I know, however, all parties involved are adults (who totally watched Bill Nye when they were kids are now scientists/scientists-in-training).
Speaking of Carl Sagan...
My undergrad advisor was one of Carl Sagan's students back in the day at Cornell. He was telling stories about Sagan's Life in the Universe class just this past weekend. Anyway, Sagan got one of those crackpot letters that university Astronomy profs are rather wont to get, and he decided to share it with the class. The letter was from a man who claimed aliens had put a neutrino detector. Most people's first response would be WTF, but Sagan read the entire letter to the class, which contained a detailed description of how he came to that conclusion. Essentially, the man had heard static noises in his head that he could not make go away. He was told that he would not hear them in a faraday cage, this failed, so he asked what penetrates a faraday cage. I don't remember all the details, but the man tried to seal himself in everything that a physicist friend said was impenetrable until there was nothing left as an external cause, save neutrinos. So once Sagan finished reading the letter, he turned to the students and asked how they could solve this man's problem, and how they could properly convince him that aliens didn't plant a neutrino detector in his head without saying, "you're crazy".
Sagan's reaction was remarkable, because I'm the sort of person who would ignore such a letter. Granted, in this day and age, people get so many more letters, and spam, and last hopes to take a money wire from Nigeria for the prince that they don't look at crackpot letters. Anyway, it says something for Sagan that he took the letter seriously. I wonder if he ever wrote back to that guy (and I just emailed to ask, can't promise a prompt update, sorry).
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote: The letter was from a man who claimed aliens had put a neutrino detector.
...in his brain, I'm assuming? Now you have to complete that story when you can. You can't leave a guy hanging like that.
And theamazeeaz, you are a grad student at Cornell (right?), and so am I, joined Hatrack at around the same time I did, and we have approximately the same amount of posts. You're not me evil doppelganger, are you?
Posts: 1711 | Registered: Jun 2004
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No, I'm not a grad student at Cornell, nor did I do my undergrad there. I am a graduate student in Planetary Sciences, which is why my undergrad prof knew Carl Sagan (he got him interested in Astronomy), and also why lots of people I know attended DPS.
My prof who knew Carl Sagan wrote back. He asked Carl what happened with the alien guy, and Sagan forgot. Darn (I'm disappointed!).
Posts: 1757 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I love looking at the wikipedia list for famous people from my town. It's really cool to see fathers of my school peers or that one guy who shops at the same grocery. Of course in real life they're famous musicians, scientists, and writers, mostly also professors at IU.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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