A brief personal update as to what I have been doing. There has been much interesting science news to discuss. A possible galaxy comprised of not much more than gas and dark matter with no stars. Many other things in astronomy and physics. Things I might normally write about. So why haven't I? Well, I am getting on with the day-to-day work of being a low level academic and scientist.
Mainly I have a super full teaching schedule this semester with 13 semester hours worth of teaching. Which requires a great deal of my mental concentration to do well. It's not work in the sense of filling out a written lesson plan but I do need a mental map of the course outline, and the subject matter to teach it effectively. I need to keep up with the students' progress, or lack thereof, through the online homework system, and tailor what a lecture will be about to what they are struggling with, while also pushing them forward. While I am a physicist, and an adjunct professor, I teach mostly developmental aka remedial math at College of DuPage. These courses often compress what would be done in 1-2 years of K-12 education into 1 semester. They are a refresher for students who either did not learn well in high school or who were in high school long ago. The challenge is the material is math students know, in that they took the course in high school and got a good grade, but also don't know since they can't pass the placement test.
Unfortunately, there is far more need for that than teaching calculus-based physics.
Secondarily I am working with a collaborator within LISA on solving some interesting equations that relate to modified gravity and testing it with LISA. We have a good idea of the results and are working on finalizing the paper. When that is ready for arXiv I'll say more.
Last but not least, I have a full life of things to do. Elderly parents to take care of. Then have to leave time and space in my life to have some fun. If you are a young person and wonder what life is like for a scientist then find a few and follow them on social media. Our lives are not all labs and equations. Truth is the deeper one gets into the profession, and making a living using scientific knowledge; the less their work is comprised of doing pure research.
That said I love science communication. So, stay tuned to this space for more breakdowns of the complex topics that mainstream news reporters often get wrong. Next time there is a "room temperature super conductor". Shouldn't be long there is a story like that every few weeks it seems.
A Personal Update: The Day To Day Work Of One Physicist.
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