Dark Matter and more Wednesday

Turns out Wednesday is phunday this week, because NOVA scienceNOW Premieres Wednesday on PBS, hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.

I have high hopes for this show being fun and interesting. For one thing, I have been quite impressed by Neil deGrasse Tyson, at the Nobel Conference we went to in Minnesota a couple years ago, as well as on the Colbert Report more recently. He seems very intelligent and great at communicating.

Also, they seem to be choosing interesting topics. The topics on Wednesday include:

*Dark Matter. Dark matter; what more can you say? Now you will finally know what Gabe's research was about last summer at Fermilab. If you watch, you will get a virtual trip into the Sudan mine, a former mine in northern Minnesota that is now used for particle (including dark matter) detection. Every year the physics club talks about taking an IRL trip to Sudan. Maybe this will be the inspiration that actually makes it happen.

*Of Mice and Memory. If mice can remember things they have forgotten, maybe someday I can remember - oh, shoot, I forgot what it was I was trying to remember!

*Profile: Hany Farid. Who's he, you ask? So did I. Apparently he researches how to tell if photos have been altered. Think I can fool him with this one?

*Wisdom of the Crowds. I love statistics!