Squishy Physics @ Harvard

Another item of note from last week was an invited talk I gave at Harvard on my research. The seminar series is called "Squishy Physics" and talks about the physics and mechanics of soft condensed matter (translation: how stressed out slime and goo can get). They look at all sorts of materials (cells, tissues, gels of all sorts, etc.). It was interesting to go back there, and I still have thoughts of "What if?" as I walk around those buildings since I almost decided to go there for the doctorate. Here's the link current and the link for past talks:

http://www.seas.harvard.edu/projects/weitzlab/squishy.html
http://www.seas.harvard.edu/projects/weitzlab/squishypast.html

Before the talk I saw a friend from Lincoln Lab who is also getting a PhD at Hahvahd. He and his wife also just had their SECOND child while in grad school (they have 4 in all)! And she homeschools too! Zykes... just when I start to feel good & sorry for myself, I go and meet up with him. It takes all the fun out of my pity party. Well, after chatting with my friend, I went to go find the location for the seminar, but didn't see anyone there (only 5-10 min before the scheduled start). So I went over to a custodian and asked if he knew where there was a seminar on that night... he had no clue... so then I mention that they probably make a bit of a mess with leftover pizza boxes, etc. - and then he says, "Oh yeah, I know where they meet. It's the next floor up." So I asked him if I could hitch a ride in the elevator with him. He told me (with a wink) that it was going to cost me some money for the ride... But I told him, alas, that I went to MIT, and not Harvard, so I didn't have any money! He laughed, shook his finger mockingly at me, then took me up to the seminar.

The seminar went well. I got some good questions and some silly questions ("I doubt your model can do _____...actually, it's not fair to ask you that, I shouldn't have asked...I withdraw the question!"). It was fun sharing ideas with them (and sparring with them too). In the end, my host said they measure the success of the talks by how much pizza is left over. So at least I felt good that the pizza was all consumed, although I told him it was probably a reflection on the quality of the pizza rather than the speaker . :-) All in all, a fun (albeit a bit bizarre) evening.

The Joys of Stress Relaxation

Well, I had a small breakthrough last week while I was trying to get one of my models to work... It was a viscoelastic model (which simulates stresses relaxing in objects over time), but it had a bug in it somewhere and I'd been trying to track it down for weeks... ugh! But I finally found the problem, got the correct behavior out of the model, and then proceeded to do a little jig in the family room in front of Heather while saying, "I finally got stress relaxation to work!!!". Well, Heather looks up at this odd sight and deadpans, "I've been waiting 3 1/2 years for that moment to come!" It took me a second to get the joke... which in itself is a cautionary tale for those toying with the idea of getting a PhD at a place like the one I'm at. :-) Well, a couple of more months of using that stress relaxation and writing about it and hopefully we'll get some real relaxation!

In all seriousness, please keep me (and Heather and the kiddos) in your prayers since I'll need all the help and stamina I can get over the next 6-8 weeks when all of the work needs to be finished up and I have to do the 200-300 pg write-up. 8-0