So, we are trying to be clever – that is why we build those very large accelerators. Part of the problem is interactions we need to study in order to understand how the universe works don’t happen naturally – the natural energy level is too low. We need something like an accelerator to access those energies – which are similar to what we think happened during the big-bang (when the natural energy scale was huge compared to today).

Or did I totally miss the point of the comment.

As for the second bit of my comment – the Planck energy is ~2×10^9 J, which the Wikipedia entry claims is equivalent to the chemical energy stored in a 60 L gasoline tank. A cubic centimeter of vacuum ought to be plenty large, if we’re sufficiently clever, for us to determine all of its high-energy properties.

As for the big discoveries – the answers are all within every cubic centimeter of vacuum and accessible to the energy stored in an automobile gas tank.

http://2009sema.blogspot.com/search/label/Electric%20Vehicle%20%28Alternative%20Energy%29

Offroad Racing (extreme-duty application, ideal for Durability/Reliability testing for EV related technologies, like batteries — the key factor for EV)
http://2009sema.blogspot.com/search/label/Offroad%20Racing

[ note the "bad behavior" (burnouts in the parking lot, by "teen-agers posing as adults") by the Rockstar Energy Pro 2 & Pro 4, see video here

Get a load of this: John Rogers/Jr, is a Princeton alumni (Mechanical/Aerospace Eng major) & Harvard Business School grad, who is starting his own Automotive Co "Local Motors":

http://2009sema.blogspot.com/2009/11/john-rogersjr-ceoco-founder-local.html

They are racing the Baja 1000 (the weekend, after this weekend), despite the danger of Drug Cartel chaos in Northern Baja

[ I was there in Nov/2006, where a drug cartel helicopter crashed a few miles downstream from my location. The dead body was taken back to the Ensenada morgue, which was subsequently raided by the drug cartel SUV. The attending doctor was kidnapped, killed, as was a police officer who attempted to stop it in the country. TRANSLATION: the drug cartel is WELL FINANCED & WELL ARMED (to the point of overpowering the local police). This violence (kidnappings, murders, etc) has continued in Northern Baja, & spread to S. California & even Phoenix/AZ. In an incident in the 2008 SCORE San Felipe 250, a hitman for the Drug Cartel was ARRESTED at the start line by the Mexican Feds. There was a tank on reserve, prepared to unleash its firepower (if required) at the start of the race. Like, here (early in the race), from the 2006 SCORE San Felipe 250. ]

Bottomline:
Only goto Baja for the Offroad Races, if you travel in a group. Even so, be prepared for crime. My 4×4 van was TWICE the target of vandalism, Ensenada is a cestpool of crime. Although, recently security has been beefed up. Even so, it may not help. A famous team (McMillin Racing, they are behind the McMillin Realty/Homes of San Diego area) was the victim of a kidnapping/robbery, where a family was hijacked by the Zetas (enforcement unit of N. Baja drug-cartels, who were trained..are you ready for this..the U.S. Military!!??). Zetas use the same lethal firepower & tactics, as the U.S. Special Forces. That’s U.S. taxpayer dollars at work for ‘ya!!

On a more pleasant note, here is an interview with Kara Lawson/Amped Motors (EV ‘33 Ford, chassis by Factory Five Racing):

http://2009sema.blogspot.com/2009/11/kara-lawson-amped-motorsev-sema-09fri.html

Get this: she’s a Harvard alumni (originally a Math major, then switched to Art), from a sophisticated family on East Coast (New Jersey). Ballroom dancing required (white gloves, et al). She’s hooked up with her husband (Los Angeles based media guy), & they are selling a media-package for their EV project to the major networks. He’s a smart guy who developed software for derivatives trading, & they have 2 homes (Sonoma & Los Angeles). Now, THAT’s a business-model scientists should admire & strive to achieve. Get a side-business involving Technology (in this case Media & stock market trading), & get out of this ridiculous

“I’m a professor, & somewhat of an Educated Derelict (hardworking, smart, but poorly compensated)”

Myself, it looks like I’m making the right business-moves, towards a startup (possibly), or partnership with other Automotive Tech companies (mainly Alternative Energy). Dr. Stephen Koonin (MIT PhD in Nuclear Physics, former BP/British Petroleum Chief Scientist & former Caltech Physics Prof & Provost) is now Dept of Energy, Undersecretary of Science, along with Dr. Stephen Chu (former Stanford Physics Prof, Nobel Laureate) who is Secretary of Energy. The DoE has started the ATVM/Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing initiative, which has supplied 450 million loan to Tesla Motors

[ all electric car company, which was co-founded by my former grad-school office-mate Martin Eberhard, M.S. in Electrical Eng @UIUC. Martin & I had the same M.S. Thesis advisor, & we're both from the AI/Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Robotics field. Another AI UIUC alumni (PhD '93) is now Vice-President & Director of Research of SRA Int'l, a 700 million dollar U.S. defense contractor in Virginia (in the infamous Beltway of Washington DC) ]

Recently, I did a quick pass thru Caltech Physics Dept, trying to gain feedback on some ideas for EV + HEP initiative I’m working on. I.e., equip leading HEP physicists (experimental or theoretical) with state-of-the-art Super Cars, as part of a PR/Marketing campaign to jumpstart the “Public Perception” of Scientists as “Cool” (hipsters), instead of Boring/Dry/Intellectual (classic Albert Einstein image: Smart with a Bad Hair day..everyday).

I.e., you may see Gordon Watts tooling around U. of Washington, in a EV super-car. A $100K Tesla Roadster (0 – 60 in 3.9 secs), or a electrified Factory Five Racing GTM:

GTM Supercar

Joanne Hewett/SLAC has stated publicly on CV, that she wants a Tesla Roadster. I say, Gordon Watts should be setup in the above EV GTM (which I will develop, with fellow EV stinkheads around Caltech area). Then, have Joanne & Gordon meetup in a PR/Marketing promotional event, & “get crazy”. Like, “cruising with burnouts”:

SEMA cruising & burnouts

That would jumpstart the image of HEP physicists, revolutionize the Public Perception of scientists in general, thereby creating more Public Funding for Big Science projects, like Fermilab..right???

I.e., Gordon Watts goes from typical experimental HEP physicist (“Clark Kent”) to Hero of the Science Community (“Superman”). Similarly, Joanne Hewett (or Maria Spiropulu/Caltech/CERN) goes from typical theoretical HEP physicist (xxx, alter-ego of Bat Girl) to Bat Girl, fighting Crime (Dumbing Down of America, aka DDoA) in conjunction with Batman (Sean Carroll/Caltech, who is currently stuck with the gas-guzzling Jaguar). BTW, Maria Spiropulu already took a test-drive in a Tesla Roadster (in Switzerland), & knows Elon Musk. I’m friends with EM’s ex-wife Justine (Queens Univ grad, “Harvard of the North”), the famous novelist.

Oh, & BTW, when Gordon achieves media super-star status (darling to Film/TV & iTunes video), he will need an Agent. Hollywood, baby.. Lisa Randall/Harvard, already gets HUNDREDS of emails per week, about Entertainment proposals.

I’m just wondering how Fame/Fortune will goto Gordon’s head. Will he stay married with his wholesome wife, or will he become a ranging voyeur (taking lessons from Tommaso Dorigo, a known admirer of young females), & start “playing the field”? I.e., changing spouses like one changes socks: “on a daily basis”.

Oh yeah, here are videos of SEMA hotties:

SEMA Trophy Girls

I can detect T. Dorigo’s drooling eyes..right about now. BTW, Courtney Day is a college grad (Communications & Marketing major), who negotiates her own deals (in this case, K&N Filters). No agent required.

I really doubt any respectable academic institution would hire a scientist who sends in such an extra fancy CV like Mr. Anderson’s.

And, Wendy, as they say, often progress is just a matter of putting together several inventions that worked individually only-so-so into some package that is amazing. The iPhone, for example, is just a collection of already existing technologies into something quite compelling.

Stuart – that is very odd! It isn’t plug in – but I would have thought that it would shine in local driving. Certianly, the Prius that I rented from the UW motor pool showed significant gains. I wonder if there is a difference between the way they are constructed/programmed? I guess someone must have done a comparison (like Consumer Reports)…

However, driving on the highway is generally pretty even driving. Sure you don’t charge the battery much, but you’re using that nice efficient engine, and without trying can get 38-40 MPG easily.

Back to city driving, there’s one stretch on my commute where I go through 3 stop signs, and how much battery I have there can make or break my mileage. Same with getting a couple of lucky stop lights, being able to cruise at 35 MPH is a lot more efficient than stopping and then accelerating. Mostly because, this being any physical process, neither the slowing down nor the speeding up are perfectly efficient, and as I said accelerating is where the big gas use comes in.

Anyway, that’s my hybrid experience. Depending on how you define “city driving”, it can very easily be worse than highway if you’re not super-conscientious about it. Although if my car were a plug-in that would be a very different story…

UW, at least, has its budget roughtly divided into three sources: the hospital, grants from research, and then the so-called general fund which includes state money and tutition as its largest components. This last bit is where most (I think the number i heard was close to 80%) comes from. Some of it goes to paying for research – for example, I’m expected to spend 50% of my time on research and 50% of my time on teaching, my 9 month salary comes from that last third (2 months of pay – over the summer – are from grant submissions I make – Washington doesn’t allow me to be paid for the 12 month for some odd reason – so I get 12 months of pay over 11, whatever). The research money that comes in goes to facilities, etc., so students do get something for that (it is my understanding that most undergrad programs require some independent research as part of their degree). There was a 26% cut to the state portion of that latter third. Faced with a 30% cut there isn’t much to do. If you want to make things more efficient, that is fine, but you can’t do that with a 30% cut in one year. I’m sure there is waste at UW – but I seriously doubt there is 30% waste. Ca is in a similar position right now – forced vacations are not the way to run this.

As far as faculty salaries are concerned, there are several ways to measure this. One is to look at peer institutions and see how well you are doing compared to them. The other is to ask what would a faculty member be worth on the open market. For a university to remain competitive and attract good people they have to keep an eye on both of those things.

To address the inflation issue in the discussion, I looked at the R1 university tuition inflation issue last year, comparing the inflation-corrected tuition (and room and board) to the inflation corrected state funds:

http://doctorpion.blogspot.com/2008/07/inflated-inflation.html

Although it is true that the state funding went down over the 38 year period I looked at, at most $1500 of the $7000 tuition increase was due to the decline in state funding. That money is going to pay for new facilities, higher salaries for faculty, MUCH higher health insurance rates, increased numbers of administrators, and reduced teaching time to be sure the research money comes in.