Gravitational waves!

The big physics news today is about the detection of gravitational waves by LIGO! The merging of two black holes a billion years ago produced ripples in spacetime that were detected by the LIGO instrument in September! I'm about as excited as I've ever been about black holes. 

Research mascots

These characters have followed me from desk to desk, ostensibly to assist me with science. 

Except Jane Austen. She helps with writing.

Fensterputzer

Our office was visited by window cleaners today. Apparently, every year they spend about a week at AIP cleaning the windows. They were super efficient.

Note the serious science happening on my laptop...

At a cafe

It's tough to work from home in the afternoons, so today I headed over to a particularly pleasant cafe. My macchiato was excellent, but the cafe had no wifi.