Moving to Los Alamos, New Mexico

Erin and I are moving to Los Alamos, New Mexico next week so I can take a postdoc at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Recruiting brochure published by LANL. Scanned by Colleen Bryant.

It’s an interesting move in a lot of ways. First, the work itself promises to be very exciting. I think it might, and I hope it does, turn into a permanent career (something that I knew IBM never would).

Second, as some of you know, Los Alamos is my hometown. I was born there and lived there until I left for college. I never in a million years expected to come back, even after I became a researcher – who goes back to their boring hometown these days? The lab is for physicists, not HCI people. And besides, I was a city person now.

However, this spring, Erin and I visited Los Alamos and I gave a talk at the lab, because why not, and it might be good networking and/or practice. The talk went quite well. Afterwards, my dad, who also works at the lab, was riding home on the bus (yes, Los Alamos has a bus system now!) with someone who had also been at the talk, and this person asked: is he recruitable?

Later my dad related this to me and asked if the lab was something that I would consider. Not really, I said. But over the next few weeks, Erin and I talked it over periodically, and the idea grew on us. It would be close to family. It was an institution whose legacy I was proud of, filled with smart and friendly people, and where I really could work on saving the world. I could park my bike outside without worrying about it.

So, yes, we decided, I was in fact recruitable. My dad gave me some names, and I wrote a bunch of emails and talked to lots of people on the phone; this turned into an interview visit and that turned into an offer. And now the movers will be here in a week.

Boys from the Los Alamos Ranch School on a pack trip. From Los Alamos Historical Society.

I’m confident that we’ll be happy in Los Alamos. It will take a little more getting used to for Erin, since she doesn’t have 18 years of history there to build on (for example, I am told I’m not allowed to give directions according to what used to be there). And I think for a while things will be rather strange, since all my memories are through the eyes of a child. Net, however, it’s a very positive move and a tremendous opportunity for us. I’m extremely thankful that we are fortunate enough to be able to do it.

Finally, Los Alamos and northern New Mexico are a wonderful place to visit! We hope you will do so and would love to have you.*

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*Assuming we know you. If not, accomplishing that is a suggested first step.

Science Killed Tim Russert?

I finished reading a quite remarkable book the other week, In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan (Amazon).

In it, Pollan tears down mainstream thinking on food and how to eat - "nutritionism" - arguing that to be healthy, one simply should "eat food, not too much, mostly plants".

But in a deeper sense, the book is an efficient and persuasive critique of science, pointing out how its failures over the last century have led us Westerners to a diet that slowly kills us. Those failures are:

1. Hubris.
2. Failure to stand up to those who twist our results to their own profitable ends.

These failures in the 40's and 50's led to the environmental disasters that we struggle to clean up today, and these failures in the 70's, 80's, and 90's led to the public health disaster that is only beginning to emerge.

Tim Russert died of cornary artery disease, one of a constellation of "Western diseases" rare outside the "civilized" world. As scientists, we all share the burden of his death and the duty to improve our field so that it truly and fully serves the interests of the people.