Las Campanas Telescopes
Friday, March 31. 2006
Las Campanas, Chile (Jan 10, 2006)
Another sunset view of Las Campanas observatory telescopes. From left to right: the Polish telescope, the Henrietta Swope telescope and the Irénée DuPont telescope.
In the last few days I was in Ballston (Arlington, VA), facing D.C. from the other side of the river. I was there for being drafted by the National Science Fundation to serve in a proposal review panel (one of the panels that decide which one, among the hundreds of astronomy grant proposals that are submitted each year to the NSF, will get funded. It is the first time I was doing this for NSF, and I am really impressed. This is something that NSF is doing very seriously. Reading all the proposal and evaluating them (for their scientific and educational impact) was a lot of work, to really understand the intellectual merit and broader impact (including its educational impact) of each proposal. Even the proposal that weren’t rated very highly were still discussed thoroughly, to point out their weak points, and to advise the proposer on how to improve them. I am happy of having been part of this process, not only because it is my duty as a member of the scientific community, but also because I learned a lot by reading these proposals, and because the experience renewed my fate in the seriousness and integrity of the way science is done in our society, despite the chronic lack of adequate funds and the occasional political pressures.
On unrelated news, I found out that my photoblog was featured by a chinese site chinadaily.com.cn. I have no idea what they say (as the feature is in chinese), but the google translations is pure poetry:
A lot of pictures and very few words become rich surroundings, and each of the pictures are behind some experience or a perception about, connections which is life. Slowly moving the mouse, back away from the time, see Spring and Autumn Period Four Seasons, like a sad, Five Continents Four Seas silent in the conversion process, gradually come out “to Japan’s 10 million sitting in” taste.
