Making the "Big List"

Hello all. It's been a quiet summer for this blog but that's alright, many of us have been frantically traveling, researching, studying for prelims, and working for various professors, institutions, and the like. However, the summer "break" is almost over; I know this because the Great Minnesota Get Together has started and I'm beginning to see the tell-tale signs of wide-eyed teenagers with bookstore bags walking around campus. It's sad to say, but soon our quiet summertime campus won't be so quiet anymore. The lines will be longer at the convenience stores and God only knows when the bathrooms will be accessible again on the first floor of the Social Sciences building. This blog was only recently started in the spring semester and by the time it got rolling at all the summer had started. Hopefully, beginning with this fall, this blog will become a more active place filled with things other than pictures of fine graduate students cataloging their virtually non-existent free time.

On to some news.
You may all be interested to know that John Lynch from Arizona State developed a "big list" of HSTM blogs recently and I'm happy to say that we've made the list! If you interested in staying abreast with the hip and happenin', you might want to add these blogs to your daily reading list. Note that Suzanne Fischer's blog also made the list (and her blog is the reason I know about us making the list). Speaking of Suzanne Fischer, we all should give her a hearty congratulations on her new job as "Associate Curator of Technology" at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Mich. Congrats Suzanne!

Okay, Kate has shamed me into finally posting the long promised end-of-year picture post. Here is a small sampling of photos from assorted


convivialities celebrating the end of the 2007-2008 academic year. Click any picture for a larger version:

HARG Retreat, O'Brien Observatory

Adrian is in his element.








There were deer. We wanted to share our beer with them, but they ran away.







The fruit was still good.









Sara and Maggie supervise the grilling.


















Final ŒLSM Meeting - BBQ Wines

I believe this reaction was in response to Sid's tales of great personal peril.











Vincent and Sara hover over The Lineup.








Have you ever seen such unbridled enjoyment?











In this picture, Adrian and Barbara aren't speaking.








Sara works the grill.












John Eyler's End-of-Year Party










Surly bunch. They just sat there and scowled all night.

















Rumors of my survival have been greatly exaggerated.

The Saints Game

Here are some pictures of the us at the Saints game.

Party like it's the end of the semester

Hey all, long time no post. It's been very busy the past month and I hope everyone out in the HTMS blogosphere is doing well. As a celebration of the end of the semester, I will be organizing a trip to the St. Paul Saints game. Actually, I've already oranized it. Everyone who would like to attend is welcome. We'll be heading over to the game on Wednesday, May 21st. The Saints will be playing their consummate rivals, the Sioux City Explorers. Game starts at 7:05. We'll just be getting General Admission tickets (5$ at the gate) and sitting in the bleachers along the 3rd baseline. Come early, or come when you can. Come and celebrate the beginning of the summer with cheap beer and a turkey leg (or Minnesota cheese curds, your choice).

Library search bar

Frazier mentioned something about this to me several weeks ago, but I finally found and installed the U of M library search bar into my Firefox browser. At first glance, it looks like a great project. The search bar is unobtrusive and allows you to search the library catalog without going to the library homepage. You can search by keyword, title, subject, author, or ISBN/ISSN. For my own purposes, I'd like to see a call number search, too, but that doesn't exist at this point.

The LibX extension works with both Internet Explorer and Firefox, and there have also been versions created by a number of other libraries as well - so if you're not at the U, you might be able to find this extension at your own library.

Go to http://www.lib.umn.edu/site/libx.phtml to install the University of Minnesota version.

Junto - a critical commentary

Well, for those of you who did not attend the 51st annual Midwest Junto for the History of Science held here at the University of Minnesota this past weekend, I can only say that you missed out on one hell of a conference. Jole Shackelford did a fantastic job organizing the conference this year (with help from Jacob Steere-Williams and supposedly from me too, but I really don't deserve any thanks since I didn't do much more than say "yea, that sounds good"). Jole made sure that there were two things present throughout the weekend: good coffee and plenty of alcohol. Even if every paper had been horrible (and that was by no means the case), I would have considered this a good weekend just for those two reasons. Oh, and banquet on Saturday night at The Bakken was incredible. Cafe 421 catered and completely outdid themselves. The food was amazing, the company was great, and atmosphere was elegant.

So far in this Junto commentary I've complimented the coffee, the alcohol, the food, and the environment. As a grad student, I'm not sure what else really matters, but luckily we had great presentations and a large turn out to boot. I believe that the final number of attendees was 71 with sessions being well attended all day on Saturday and most of Sunday. Of course, the usual faculty suspects were all there, plus a good group of graduate students from various universities. A good cohort of Iowa State students made the road trip up from Ames, many of them presenting and the rest were familiar from last year when they hosted the event. We also had a good group of University of Oklahoma students make the trip up from Norman (stipends must be good down there in Soonerville, they all flew instead making it a roadtrip). Guest appearances also occurred by grad students from University of Wisconsin, Missouri, Eastern Illinois, and Missouri University of Science and Technology. We also had great presentations from what us graduate students would call "professionals" from Linda Hall Library and Duke University. I would discuss the papers that I most enjoyed, but that would just show how prejudice I am towards the history of biology....

In general, it was a lively and successful Junto. There was even a graduate student party on Saturday night after the banquet in which our carefully manufactured home brew was unveiled. It turns out, if this grad school thing doesn't work out, a few of us in the department could have a future in the brewing industry....see our new label here.

Next year's Junto is being held at the Linda Hall library in Kansas City. I've never been to Missouri or Kansas, so I look forward to seeing familiar faces in a new place next year!

Cross-posted from FHSA: News and Views

The history of American science as a field has certainly grown by leaps and bounds since the 1970s, but how much has that history filtered into the public consciousness?  

I've been pondering this question because Isaac Newton just came to my small town as part of his latest FMA Live tour.  Who knew that "Newt" was so cool?  

His website is great fun, including a brief history of Newton's career that ends with "Thanks, Newt.  Props to you for being the Man Behind the Motion!"   This program is sponsored by Honeywell and is aimed at getting middle-schoolers excited about science.  

My question for you Minnesotans is which American scientist should be next to go on tour?  And, more importantly, which instrument should they play since Newton already has a lock on lead guitar?   Feel free to post ideas at the FHSA blog.