Today is Lurker Day, as explained by Chris at Creek Running North, Lauren at Feministe, and PZ at Pharyngula. (Three of the coolest blogs on all the internets, I should add.) That is, lazy bloggers avoid posting original content by asking their readers who never (or rarely) comment to drop by and leave a note saying who they are and what they like about the blog. (Other blogs also ask for something called “constructive criticism,” or perhaps even for suggestions for improvement; we here at CV see no need for such things. But if you are so moved, knock yourselves out.)
I’m especially curious as to two demographic questions: how many readers are professionally science-related in some way vs. how many are from the so-called “real world,” and among the former, how many are students vs. embittered elders. No pressure, obviously; consider this just a chance to pipe up and say hi if you haven’t yet had the chance to comment.
I’m another lurking string grad student. I trekked along from Preposterous Universe – I enjoy Sean’s no-nonse attitude Anyways, CV is always the first stop on my morning blog-walk!
First year physics grad student from the University of Kansas. Discussions, obviously are interesting. I somehow feel that we miss Prof. Feynman here! Imagine, Feynman blogs 🙂
Former-lurker; finally couldn’t resist commenting on Presposterous Universe…
Biophysicist (quasi physics, as someone mentioned above), former industrial “real world-er” turned academician.
The two worlds have more in common than they may want to admit….
Good colleagues in both worlds seem to have the same phenotype; and the not-so-good colleagues…well, their phenotypes are rather invariant across the academia/industry line too…
Pushing for a union of physics and biology will grow beyond traditional biochemistry/structural biology…of course this may only increase my embittered elder content.
I thrive on my daily fix of Cosmic Variance….keep it going folks! It’s greatly appreciated for inspiration, news, and physics!
Condensed matter theorist turned material scientist (but still theorist/computer modeler). Currently postdocing (at a gov’t lab), and beginning the academic search.
I came here to read a link (probably on evolution), and decided to make it part of my daily skimming/reading. Keep up the good work.
I saw this post the day after the fact…but I thought I’d comment anyway. I became a lurker at Preposterous Universe after I wrote an article for Swarthmore College’s newspaper about Sean’s lecture at my campus. His lecture was intriguing and I thought he did a really good job of lecturing to several levels of physics understanding. My mother was at the lecture and was able to understand the basic concepts, despite the fact that she never had any formal physics training in school. The student majors and faculty members were clearly engaged in the talk as well.
I enjoy cosmic variance’s discussions and check in almost daily to see the most recent post. Thank you all for your thoughts, intelligent discussions, and interesting explanations of various astronomical concepts.
I’m an astronomy major in my senior year of undergrad, and I am unsure of what my plans after college will be, beyond getting to Japan at some point, by hook or by crook (though doing astronomy research there would be so nice…).
lurker, real world, no science background whatsoever
I am the mom of a 3rd year physics grad student (particle, experimental, US.) Surfed over from Quantum Diaries which I read to see just what my son’s life is like even though, like many sons, he never writes or calls. If I don’t understand the science it just gives me topics for conversation and the kid gets practice explaining it to the lay people. Life looks pretty cool (especially compared to the real world.) Enjoy.
Lurked for a year in the preposterous universe, and am very glad to now contemplate the cosmic variance.
“Real-worlder” with degrees in classics and law, currently a legal aid attorney. I read the blog daily for respite and entertainment. (Also, helps me keep up with holiday meal conversations as mom is a biologist, dad is a geo-physicist, sis is post-doc steady-state
gal). Thanks to you all at CV for your effort and thoughtful posts.
Just an average reader…
I live a few thousand feet up a volcano in the middle of the tropical Pacific. Got my physics Ph.D. in theory six years ago, then turned left to study what I wanted and try to solve the whole puzzle instead of getting a post-doc or real job. I just couldn’t swallow the string cool-aid, but I really love GR, QFT, differential geometry, Kaluza-Klein, etc. So I work on my own stuff — right now trying to figure out BRST geometry in a way that makes sense is kicking my butt! I earn enough money for food and surfboards by working the interstice between academia and the real world — teaching a college class or two, picking up the occasional consulting gig, and playing the stock market. Mostly though I alternate days between working on theory and playing in this beautiful ocean.
I enjoy your posts. It’s good to have a place I can see physics discussed casually, instead of just religiously pouring over the papers that post to the arxiv. As I’m a bit isolated out here (I am the physics department), weblogs like this substitute for listening in on departmental conversations.
If anyone’s planning to vacation in Maui, drop me an email. 🙂
Definite lurker. This is my first ever post. I’m a recent UofC grad (Biological Sciences) and am currently a first year UW Genome Sciences grad student. My boyfriend, who often reads CV over my shoulder, is also a recent UofC grad (Physics and Math), is a first year UW physics grad student (so he might run into Jake from comment 40 at some point), and took both undergrad and grad GR from Sean. I read Preposterous, which I found via a Popular Science article, for about a year before it evolved into CV. I understand very little of the physics mentioned on the site, although aforementioned BF tries his hardest to get me more interested in it. I like the politics vs. science and women in science discussions, though. Although I’m a biologist, I’m in a very computational department, so male grad students still outnumber female grad students about 3:1 in my program. I understand that this is much better than the situation in many physics departments, so it’s encouraging to hear success stories from female scientists in academia, which is a path I’m trying to pursue. I also really enjoyed the conference on women in science at Chicago, which Sean has mentioned on the site.
Female graduate student, soon-to-be postdoc, in particle theory. This is one of my favorite sites to read.
postdoc at UofC/Argonne working in cond mat experiment.
I found Cosmic Variance via a reference Chad Orzel of Uncertain Principles made to Sean’s site, Preposterous Universe. Around the 3rd or so time I visited PU, Sean announced the birth of CV, which led me here. I guess I’m professionally science related in *some* way, though probably not what you have in mind. I’m a former philosophy grad student who now works in biotech. What I find most interesting at this site are the introductions to various theories, e.g. string theory and general relativity. These tend to be rather over my head, but there’s usually one or more passages that are accessible enough to be interesting to me.
Another former Preposterous lurker who’s now moved on to lurking at CV. I took GR from Sean at UofC during my undergrad and am now a second-year grad student (solar/astrophysics).
Unembittered elder and natural history illustrator knowing just enough about a whole bunch of stuff to be truly dangerous.
I’m a social scientist – a sociologist who teaches at the college level. Other than the basic interest I have in science and how the world “works” and is structured, whether physically, politically or socially, I very much like this site for adeptely integrating all off these relams. Thank-you for the illuminating perspectives on all matters related to all manners of science.
I learned relatvity partly from Sean’s lecture notes in the late ninties while I was at New Mexico Tech. When the textbook came out, I googled him because I had just moved to Milwaukee for grad school in gravitational physics at UWM in the general area of Chicago, so I ran into his blog.
I’m an assistant prof in physics in Canada, so I guess that makes me an (un)professional scientient, and the very young end of the embittered elder spectrum. Neutrinos are my thing, and I hope the Phillies win the wild card so they can be beaten by my beloved St. Louis Cardinals in the playoffs. (Sean, are you a Philly Phanatic, or is it just a Sixers thing?)
Hi Scott, I’ll be out at UBC giving the theory seminar in a few weeks. Maybe I’ll run into you then.
We usually don’t allow experimentalists in our theory seminars, but I suppose we can make an exception this time.
When not perfecting my lurking skills, I’m working on a DFA (Doctorate of Fine Arts) on science and theater. I started my lurking at Preposterous after meeting Sean at the STAR conference.
Humanities degree, work in programming/database. Came from PU (bet he didn’t check that when he started it). Like math & science, but not that good at it (ACT percentiles (1978) – English 99, Social Studies 96, something else 98, math 46, and that only because was good at geometry, for some reason.
I wasn’t even lurking on lurker day. I’ve been a computer programmer for about a decade, but I’m about to return to grad school to become a middle or high school math teacher. I started reading political blogs shortly before the election last year, stumbled upon a science blog a few months later, and via links in posts and comments have collected dozens that I now read more regularly than the political blogs. I have a generic liberal arts degree, so much of the science is beyond me, but I like seeing what’s of current interest to scientists and I’m especially interested in the interaction of science and politics (which is a more central issue on the biology blogs). I’ve commented only about a half dozen times total on other blogs (and never on this one); I don’t write quickly and by the time I’ve organized my thoughts the conversation has moved on.
al_art (comment 122),
You said: “I don’t write quickly and by the time I’ve organized my thoughts the conversation has moved on.”
Don’t blame yourself, it’s not your fault. It’s just that people usually don’t think before they write.
I’m closer to being a semi-lurker than a full-blown lurker. I’ve been a post-doc in the observational cosmology group at UCSD, run by Brian Keating, for the past year. The three years before that I was a post-doc with Shaul Hanany’s group at the U. of Minnesota.
I’m in lurk mode now as we are in the final push of lab testing for BICEP, which ships to Pole on Oct. 17. I think our sky coverage is just small enough that we will not be seriously affected by cosmic variance, actually. 🙂
Forgot to include — as for the embitterment portion of the question, I would say that at worst I am in the process of becoming embittered, definitely a case of present imperfect with that shipping deadline looming on the horizon. I’m not sure if I qualify as an elder, either.