Proctoring a Midterm

Carrying a box full of blank exams down the aisle, I can sense the suspense. 150 or so eyes watch as the exam is removed and explanations are made. Several have a last minute peek at notes hoping to savor the last drop of information in hopes it will provide a needed solution. "You can begin," and the sound of flipping pages and scribbling pens/pencils fill the auditorium. And then quiet, only interrupted by sporadic page flips and tapping of pens. Quickly hands fly and questions come to my ear. Explanations are given and occasionally a quiet apology, "I'm sorry I can't answer that question." Why? Well, suffice it to say some questions were a bit leading.

The questions continue and finally people begin turning in completed exams. First one, then three, and the waves continue as each student slowly approaches the front of the auditorium scanning for any last mistakes or second guessing answers that were probably right the first time. As the end approaches, the auditorium looks rather empty. Just a handful of students remain. The last minute trickles by and all exams are collected. The exam finished, well, at least until grading begins, we carry the exam to the office for storage until tomorrow, when a bunch of instructors will sit, grade, laugh, cry, and wish that the exam had been a page or two shorter.

Mind, Vision, and a Challenge

Dr. Dale Purves delivered an excellent lecture today in MCB80 as a guest lecturer. The past few lectures have focused on vision and the biology behind it. Dr. Purves presented the class with a unique perspective. The above photo (from Dr. Purve's website), was probably one of the most intriguing shown. Believe it or not the gray at the top and the bottom are the same gray. Don't believe me? Cover up the space where the top and bottom meet and you'll see. Your finger or a pen will do just fine. See it yet? Copy the image, open it in Photoshop and use the color picker to see for yourself. The top and bottom grays are the same.

Looking at the image as is, it turns out your mind is telling you a lie! Why you may ask? Well its all about experience. Not just yours, but your father's, father's, father's experience as well. Rooted in your brain is the experience that when light shines on a surface, such as the top above, the color should have more luminance. A surface in the shadow, such as the bottom above, should appear darker than normal. What you normally see is dark gray on top and white on bottom. The odds of seeing equal grays on both top and bottom in the real world is probably quite low. Experience has taught us this. Take a picture of a dual colored cube with light shining above. Good luck getting the lighting just right such that the luminance on the top and bottom are the same. So there's my challenge. Reproduce this phenomenon in the real world - no Photoshopping. I can do a bit of that myself. I actually used Gimp, but who's asking.

Free Burrito Day!

It only happens once, well at least at this location. The new Chipotle Mexican Grill in Harvard Square (its actually in Brattle Square) had free burritos for any customer crazy enough to wait in line. Did I mention that it was a 45 minute wait? Oh yeah, it was raining and icing for about 25 minutes of that wait. Wouldn't you know, the precipitation only feel while I was standing outside. The sun was shining through the clouds by the time I entered the front door. I ordered a barbacoa burrito with pinto beans and their green chile salsa. It looks something like this. Yummy!!!
As of this post you have 15 minutes to get your free buritto. The offer ends at 8PM!!

Vision in the Boston Temple

Yesterday began with me waking up at 4am with a strong desire to attend the Boston Temple. I initially thought, they have sessions at 6:15am on Wednesdays, so I could make that session. I quickly realized that those only occur on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. Yesterday was the first Wednesday in March. I had to work and so I would have to wait until the 8pm session, once my kids were in bed. Even making that session was put in jeopardy as Kristen called me early in the afternoon saying she was sick and needed me home ASAP.

Once the kids were asleep she gave me the OK to go to the temple. I made it to the Boston Temple around 7:45pm and quickly dressed and was ready for the 8pm session with time to spare. However, I found out I was the only patron and so they would not be holding the 8pm session. It was at this point that a temple worker and then one of the temple presidency suggested I do sealings. This is where the fun began.

I enter the room and join two other couples, both actually from my Arlington Ward. They however had no idea who I was at first, but we quickly became acquainted. After a brief time, the sealer asked about me as the others apparently knew each other quite well. Here is a paraphrase of our initial conversation.

Sealer: What do you do?
ME: I am a researcher at Harvard.
Sealer: What type of research?
ME: Vision resarch.
Sealer: What kind of vision research?
ME: I study the development and disease of the eye?
Sealer: Oh really, can you be more specific?
ME: I currently am studying the role of retinoic acid (Vitamin A) plays in retina development and disease.
Sealer: Interesting, I study light and dark adaption in the photoreceptors (part of the retina) and in particular retinol and retinal in the visual cycle at Boston University. Who do you work with?
ME: I am a postdoctoral fellow in John Dowling's lab.
Sealer: I know him quite well, we'll discuss more after we are through.

I was floored! Usually I meet someone and never get very far with my research interests. Most hear something about eye, disease, vitamin A and I get a that's interesting. I also never would have thought to meet a fellow colleague in the temple was the reason for my prompting at 4am in the morning. That night we finished the session about 10 minutes to 9pm and then I spent the next 30 or so minutes talking with the sealer, Brother/Dr Carter Cornwall. We had an amazing conversation. I am just amazed at how the Lord directs us if we but listen. Who knew at 4am that I would meet Bro Cornwall in the temple and make a wonderful contact in vision science?

As it turns out I am quite interested in his work and even had included part of his research in a draft of my dissertation, though it was nixed by a couple of my committee members. He knows my current boss, John Dowling, and Steffie, John's assistant, and many others whom I work/have worked with. I am so glad that I heeded the prompting that woke me at 4am. I look forward to meeting with Bro Cornwall in the future. This was my interesting discussion of Vision in the Boston Temple.

MVEMJSUNP or MVEMCJSUNPE

What??? Well, MVEMJSUNP is known to many of us as My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas or My Very Eager Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Pins. Remember those mnemonics from elementary school to help remember the correct order of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto? Well now we have a new one thanks to the addition of two planets, Ceres and Eris (aka 2003 UB313), to our solar system. Say what? Well, it turns out they've always been there, but were recently voted in as planets - dwarf planets actually. But thanks to a little girl's winning mnemonic we can win the million dollars on "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?", the famed Fox show. (Well maybe not so famous but hosted by a bit more famous Jeff Foxworthy.) To help us all remember the order MVEMCJSUNPE we now have My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants. Ridiculous! We now get: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Eris. This is according to National Geographic, who hosted the competition the young lady won.

But, wait! Based on the published findings of IAU (International Astronomical Union) in 2006, our solar system really only has 8 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They also found that there are 3 dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, and Eris. To avoid confusing our children perhaps we should just learn MVEMJSUN. The new mnemonic could go something like: My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Noodles. Sorry kids, Pluto is now just a dwarf planet. With only 3 in that category, you are better off just memorizing Ceres, Pluto, and Eris as opposed to a silly mnemonic. Oh and in 2009, when the IAU reconvenes, we may yet learn of new confusion. For now, we can say that we have somewhere between 8 and 11 planets. Feel free to pick the ones you like most, everyone else does.