The facetime moment

With iPad, iPad mini and iPhone 5 and 5S, I can facetime with any loved ones anyplace anytime.  It is good that Sylvia (Earl’s daughter) didn’t have an iPhone or iPad and not facetiming with her dad. 

 

We have more iPads than the member of the household; the same is also true for Jo’s.  A message for Jo, facetime any of my iPads with any of your iPads, but don’t catch me in an inconvenient moment, otherwise, you may have to disinfect your iPad, like Sylvia is doing her phone today.

Nuclear fission—a woman slighted by the Nobel Prize committee

Today (Dec. 17) in 1938 German chemist Otto Hahn did an experiment of bombarding uranium nuclei with neutrons in Berlin, splitting the nuclei of uranium into barium element, thus nuclear fission.  What the newspaper said was correct, but that was not the whole story—a story of a woman scientist that was slighted by the Nobel Prize committee.  Otto Hahn alone was awarded Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1944.

Otto Hahn (a chemist) and Lise Meitner (a physicist) worked together in the field of radioactivity and nuclear physic for thirty some years until 1938 when she (Jewish) had to escape in a hurry to Sweden.  Otto Hahn gave her a ring from his mother to be used to bribe the border guard.

After doing the experiment Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann couldn’t figure out what had happened.  Otto Hahn sent a letter to Lise Meitner in Sweden.  It was Christmas day in 1938 Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch (her nephew, also a nuclear physicist) figured it out that it was indeed a nuclear fission, she also calculated the enormous energy released by the neutron from this process, thus making the atomic bomb possible.


Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn in the basement of the Chemical Institute of the University of Berlin in 1909 (photo is from Alan Lightman’s The Discoveries)

In fact, Meitner and Hahn met in secret in Copenhagen on November 13, 1938, about a month before the experiment, to discuss the proposed experiment.

Lise Meitner said after the war that before the war “one could love one’s work and not always be tormented by the fear of the ghastly and malevolent things that people might do with beautiful scientific findings.”

A Surprised Gift

I received a surprised gift today; a book sent in from Amazon (This was followed by the four books I and Janice ordered last week, taking advantage of the Cyber Monday sale.)  Never did I realize the Amazon gift wrap looks so noble and beautiful.  

 
It came with an envelope printing “Keep your gift a SURPRISE  / unwrap your present before opening this envelope” (If I say “it is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”, that may give away of what book it may be.)

Now I am facing the dilemma of shall I get a surprise of who is the gift giver, as Amazon suggests, or get a surprise of what book it may be, in that case I need to open the envelope before unwrapping the present.  To open the envelope or to unwrap the present? Life is never easy.

The surprised gift is Richard Toye’s “The Roar of the Lion”, just published by Oxford University Press. The title of the book comes from what Churchill said in 1954, “I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.”

One of the four books that we (I and Janice) ordered on Cyber Monday was “The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965” The authors are listed as William Manchester and Paul Reid.  The Volume 1 and 2 by Manchester were published decades ago and I have them for so many years.   I thought I will never read the Volume 3 when Manchester passed away in 2004.  It turns out that Paul Reid began to work with Manchester when he was stricken by stroke and Reid finished the job using Manchester’s material. 

I read about one third of the Volume 3 (library book) when it came out last year and decided it is a MUST HAVE book.  It is essentially the same style as that of Manchester’s Volume 1 and 2.

The Roar of the Lion is the story behind Churchill’s WWII speeches; the kind of book I wouldn’t miss.

For the first 10-15 years after coming to the States, all the books I read were about medicine and science, which are still my “First Love”.  Reading Churchill and Lincoln led me to discover the beauty of English language, and that was the beginning of my reading literature and humanity books.

I am not going to tell who is the gift giver, that will be a surprise for you; it must be someone who knows me well.

 

 

Pittsburgh Conference (PittCon) Christmas Party

Katy’s dispatch to the World Journal (世界日報 ) reporting the Christmas Party of Pittsburgh Conference (PittCon) was published today (December 13, 2013).

You may read directly online,

http://www.worldjournal.com/view/full_pa/24220112/article-%E5%8C%B9%E8%8C%B2%E5%A0%A1%E5%8C%96%E5%AD%B8%E5%AD%B8%E6%9C%83%E8%81%96%E8%AA%95%E8%81%9A%E9%A4%90?instance=nj1

 

The Christmas Party of Pittsburgh Conference (PittCon) was held at Fairmont Hotel locates in the heart of Pittsburgh downtown.  There were about 150 attendants; most were the Organizing Committee members of PittCon; a few were invited quests.

 

PittCon Committee members come from the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP) and Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP). Professor Fu Tyan Lin (林富田教授), Dr. Fu Mei Lin (林富美博士) and Dr. S.Y. Tzeng (曾世英博士) are all PittCon Committee members.

 

PittCon is the world’s largest annual premier conference and exposition on laboratory science, attracting more than 18,000 attendees from about 90 countries.

 

The 2014 Patton will be held at McCormick Place at Chicago Illinois.  The conference/lecture will be March 2 to March 6, whereas the exposition will be March 3 to March 6, 2014.

 

PittCon donates more than one million dollars a year to support various chemical science related projects and activities and scholarship to high school and college students.

 

Dining room at the Peterhof Palace 巧扮貴婦 夏宮餐廳

(This photo of the dining room at Peterhof  is from the Facebook page of my cousin, 陳英毅, an accomplished photographer, yet an ophthalmologist by training), the following is my comment.

 

Was this lady serving you (or waiting on you) during your memorable dinner at Peterhof Palace?  I like this photo very much that I have ‘stolen’ and put it in the “Image” category of my blog.  The plain white background of the marble statue is in stark contrast to the brilliant, dazzling, vibrant and vivacious lady; even the warrior of the Peter the Great enjoys looking at her; he is mesmerized, speechless and motionless.

Grandma’s House

The scanned copies (4 pages) are the Grandma’s House that Lulu wrote with her talent and her heart.  It is amazing that this comes from a 9-year-old girl; I cannot help but put it on my blog.

This is not just a house, this is the ‘hub of the universe’ for so many people including our family, like Lulu wrote, “Everyone should have a special place like this.”  Lulu felt “very happy and lucky” when she came to the House, but felt sorry that “it takes seven hours to get there”; we’re even luckier than she is as we live only “a brick’s throw away”.

When the “empty nest” fell upon us some years ago, some friends wondered whether we might consider downsizing out house; we would never do it; how could one move away from “the best place ever” (how can one not agree with Lulu?) we ever know.

I have to admit that I read “Grandma’s House” with mixed emotion; it reminds me why we feel happy and lucky in the House, but with the passing of the “Grandma”, reading it elicits sad thought from a heavy heart because of the uncertainty of the fate of the House.  I am sure the ‘clan’ will find a way to keep the kinship and getting together of the large and extended family going. 

I love “Grandma’s House (the House and the writing). “Everyone should have a special place like this.  I love my grandma’s house.”

(Lulu must have a very good teacher, who wrote, “I want to go there now!” who wouldn’t?)