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Mar. 4th, 2004 07:32 amSee, this is why science (and science journalism) is just so nifty. You can turn a cubic kilometer of ice into a telescope.
Kind of funny how I stumbled across this...one of those convergence, synergy, some other paradigm-like word that means so little but says so much, type moments.
We had a guest speaker in our Science Newsriting class yesterday and one of the concepts he was discussing was using Antarctica or even the Pacific ocean to build a neutrino telescope. My thought processes were basically "huh, nifty, moving on."
At the same time, in my Business and Economics Reporting class we've been assigned to cover a local business. I chose one that builds testing and sampling devices for extreme environments (deep ocean, high atmospheric altitudes etc). The assignment is a 500 word story on any aspect of the company.
So I begin researching and low and behold, the most recent press release is that this company is building the glass housings for the detectors for the new telescope. Coin-ka-dink!
So yeah, my "business" story is going to have a cool science edge and in my interviews I got to learn all about neutrino telescopes. Particle physics is usually so cool but so far over my head, but this I was able to wrap my brain around. You don't get to interview the same women I did (Nyah-nyah), but there's a pretty nifty Quicktime that basically explains things.
It's just nice having a day when you can clearly pinpoint, "see, I learned something." I mean this time yesterday, I didn't even know there was such things as neutrino telescopes and now I can write a story about one. For all my complaining, there are times when this program just rocks!
Kind of funny how I stumbled across this...one of those convergence, synergy, some other paradigm-like word that means so little but says so much, type moments.
We had a guest speaker in our Science Newsriting class yesterday and one of the concepts he was discussing was using Antarctica or even the Pacific ocean to build a neutrino telescope. My thought processes were basically "huh, nifty, moving on."
At the same time, in my Business and Economics Reporting class we've been assigned to cover a local business. I chose one that builds testing and sampling devices for extreme environments (deep ocean, high atmospheric altitudes etc). The assignment is a 500 word story on any aspect of the company.
So I begin researching and low and behold, the most recent press release is that this company is building the glass housings for the detectors for the new telescope. Coin-ka-dink!
So yeah, my "business" story is going to have a cool science edge and in my interviews I got to learn all about neutrino telescopes. Particle physics is usually so cool but so far over my head, but this I was able to wrap my brain around. You don't get to interview the same women I did (Nyah-nyah), but there's a pretty nifty Quicktime that basically explains things.
It's just nice having a day when you can clearly pinpoint, "see, I learned something." I mean this time yesterday, I didn't even know there was such things as neutrino telescopes and now I can write a story about one. For all my complaining, there are times when this program just rocks!