back to science soon

Back to science soon....

I will start blogging about actual physics again soon. It's been a

busy time lately, between the start of the new semester and having two

proposals due - one this past Thursday for the IMR program, and one

this coming Friday for the MRSEC program. Writing equipment proposals

like the IMR these days feels like a complete throw of the dice. For

those who don't know, after your startup period, it can be challenging

to get the resources needed to buy significant pieces of equipment

(say $200K-$400K). You can't just ask for that kind of equipment as

part of a standard grant proposal, which is why they set up separate

proposals just for gadgetry. I'm trying to get a piece of equipment

that will be a major boost to all areas of my research program, and

after the initial grant period I'm planning on adding it to Rice's

shared instrumentation pool so that it's there to help the whole

campus community. The big question is, with the current budget woes

(described so completely by Gordon and Chad, among others, so there's

no need for me to say much more), what's going to happen to this

program? Is the proposal success rate going to be 10%? Lower? The

equivalent program at DOE just got cancelled entirely. The reason that

the recent remarks of the Harvard president hit a nerve is that there