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Reflections on My Anniversary (or, Why I Became a Science Traveler)

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The Traveling ScientistOne year ago today I left behind the first half of my life.  After more than 30 years as a working scientist I had decided to give up a comfortable salary for a life of (essentially) no income. I would become a poor starving writer.

It was the best decision I ever made.

I loved my previous life. Well, most of it. But the parts I didn’t like had grown in proportion to the parts that excited me. Using my skills, my knowledge, and my personal connections with colleagues and clients, I made a large amount of money – for others. Sure, my salary was nice enough, but increasingly the benefits of my labor went to others, and those others seemed decreasingly appreciative of that fact. Abraham Lincoln’s line from his Second Inaugural Address about  “wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces” kept popping into mind. Not a perfect analogy, but close enough.

I learned a lot during all those years – about science, about business, about people. I also learned that science is often trumped by business concerns and people’s perceptions. I felt there was a growing need to communicate science to the public, and that scientists weren’t always very good at meeting that need. I decided to do something about that.

Coincident with this desire was some serendipity that led to publication of my first professional book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. As the old saw grinds, “the stars aligned, angels’ voices rang down from the heavens” and all that not-so-scientifically-accurate metaphorical interlude. In real terms, stuff fell into place and it became clear this was the time to take the risk. So I did.

So where am I this one year later? I’ve traveled a bit, though not as much as I would have liked. One highlight of 2014 is an amazing trip to Argentina, with several smaller and more local trips throughout the year. I’ll squeeze in a few more jaunts before New Year’s and am busy planning for 2015 (Peru? China? Rushmore?). Science Traveling will play an increasingly important role in my future.

I’m also writing. Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity was back in Barnes and Noble stores mid-summer and was selling faster than it did last year (in fact, sales in the first 6 weeks already nearly matched all last year). To this I added a second book, an e-book exclusive to Amazon called Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time. More books are in the works, including my opus on Abraham Lincoln’s interest in science. Add in some manuscript editing, magazine articles, newsletter writing, and even some grant requests (plus my blogs, which I’ll reveal more about later), and yes, I’ve been keeping incredibly busy. All in an effort to bring science to the public – to make science fun again.

Finally, as I wind down my final year of the presidential cycle for the regional SETAC Chapter, I begin my first year in a leadership role with the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia. As the director of outreach and education for LGDC I’m working with an engaged group of Lincoln scholars and aficionados to celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln and ignite a new generation of interest. His “science geekiness” bridges my lifelong interest in Lincoln with my lifelong career in science. A perfect prelude to my forthcoming book. 🙂

I can confidently acknowledge that it’s a very happy anniversary indeed. The first of many.

David J. Kent has been a scientist for thirty-five years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in spring 2016.

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Vietnam for Americans – Redux

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VietnamI went to Hanoi before going to Hanoi became cool. Long after the Vietnam War but before the United States normalized relations with the unified communist nation, my first major trip out of the country was to a place that remains very much foreign to most Americans.

I posted about the trip two years ago but since then much has happened and many new people have come into my writing life. So I’m linking to the two posts below for those who may not have seen them.

Part 1: Hanoi on a Half-Shell: My initial impressions, the “shoe road,” and handmade silk shirts.

Part 2: A Cup of Tea and a Conversation I Didn’t Understand: Eating noodles while squatting on the street, and the best conversation I’ve ever had in which I didn’t understand a word that was said.

I hope you enjoy reminiscing with me…and getting a glimpse of a place most people will never see in person. I’ll have more on Vietnam (and other places) in the future here on Science Traveler.

David J. Kent is an avid traveler and is currently working on a book about his experiences traveling in Argentina. He is also the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and the ebook Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time.

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The Gravel Roads of Patagonia

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Thump.

My leg instinctively jerks away even though this is the tenth time a rock has stung the floorboards beneath my foot. The ping strikes my ears a split second after the thump has stimulated my autonomic reaction. Thump, ping, repeat.

This is Route 40, about 250 km of dirt – no, make that gravel – that Argentina considers a highway. Gravel roads are common here in the southern reaches of Argentina, which is more than can be said for road signs. Except for signs blazing the word “Desvio;” Detour. Desvio signs are ubiquitous along this side of the Patagonian Andes. Detour. The sign itself is obvious, but the road to which you’re detouring to? Well, not so much. We’re pretty much off the grid for the next several days, with hundreds of kilometers between towns, no phone service, no internet, and as I’ve been finding out, often no road.

Gravel roads in Patagonia

This is one of the better roads

I’m traveling with my long-time friend and Argentine host, Pablo. Even he has been having difficulty following the road. Desvio signs pop up as routinely as the gravel thumps against the bottom of the car. Several times we had to stop to ask for help locating the road, something that I wouldn’t have been able to do if I was traveling alone. If you don’t speak the language, it’s definitely a plus to be traveling with a native. We actually had to stop to ask the only person we had seen for many miles – the driver of a road grader leveling the mountain of rocks into a semblance of a highway.

Compounding the difficulty was that the gravel roads aren’t captured well on maps. You’ll be driving along a beautifully paved road and suddenly, with no other visible options, another sign pops up – Fin de Pavimento (End of Pavement). I should mention that we’re talking about roads that go on for tens or hundreds of kilometers with no outlets. You’re on this road going one direction, or you’re on it going the other direction. Even then, sometimes you can’t tell which direction you’re going.

Occasionally you’ll suddenly see an opening and get to pop back up onto a partially paved section in the middle of nowhere, but usually that pleasure is short-lived and you’re quickly back on gravel. The road surface ranges from packed dirt and pebbles (a rarity) to looser pebbles (more common) to coarse gravel (even more common) to what the official Krumbein Phi Scale of particle size officially calls cobble. Way too often the road is reminiscent of salmon spawning streams with rocks the size of bricks piled high in the middle of self-made tracks. These are the loudest, and scariest, clanks on the bottom of the car.

The car, by the way, is a Ford EcoSport SUV, so we sit high above the road surface. And still the stones thump.

My foot jerks away again. It actually feels like the rock is a direct strike to the bottom of my shoe.

Gravel roads are common in Pablo’s hometown of Bariloche as well, though mostly at the better end of the spectrum between “noisy but drivable” and “should be condemned as impassible.” So prevalent are gravel roads that Pablo says everyone adds one option to their new car purchase – steel plates on the underside of the car to protect the engine compartment and the gas tanks from puncture.

Thump.

But apparently not the floor boards in the back seat area. It’s a different world down here.

[For more articles on Argentina, click here and scroll down, or simply type Argentina into the search box at the top of the page]

[This is a cross-post from my Hot White Snow site while I’m out science traveling.]

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His next book is on Abraham Lincoln, due out in 2017.

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Science Traveling – Ipswich

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It’s a busy week of writing – I’m working on articles for the Lincoln Group of DC newsletter, for Tesla Magazine, and for the Smithsonian Civil War Studies website. Amidst all of this I’m out science traveling. More on that in the future. Which gets me to a quick visit in Ipswich.

I previewed my most recent trip to my hometown in Massachusetts in this article. More articles are here (click and scroll down). The talk on Nikola Tesla I gave at the Ipswich Museum is here.

Ipswich is the “Birthplace of American Independence,” the home of the famous Ipswich clam (aka, steamers), the Clam Box, Crane Beach, and “The Castle.” It’s also home to more first period houses than any other place in the United States. In short, it’s pretty cool.

Some of the more famous houses include the Whipple House:

Whipple House, Ipswich

The John Heard House (now home to the Ipswich Museum), typical of the wealthier folks in town:

John Heard House, Ipswich

Directly across the street from the Heard House is a reconstruction of a simple timber frame structure called the Alexander Knight House, circa 1657. This was the kind of house that most families lived in during early Ipswich days (incorporated 1634):

Alexander Knight House

And then there is this yellow house. I actually don’t know much about it even though it has stood on this prominent rise overlooking the main downtown area for my entire life. I’ll  dig up more information for a later post.

Big yellow house, Ipswich

There is much more to Ipswich than these glimpses. I’ll write more later but for starters you can check out the Stories from Ipswich blog by Historian Gordon Harris.

And don’t forget – if you downloaded my e-book, Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time, please leave a rating and review.

Come back on Thursday for more science traveling from Argentina. I’ll also post from the road as internet connection allows.

David J. Kent is an avid traveler and is currently working on a book about Abraham Lincoln’s interest in science and technology. He is also the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and an ebook, Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time.

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CPRC Presentation at Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center

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As this post goes live I’ll be attending the Chesapeake-Potomac Regional Chapter (CPRC) of SETAC at their annual spring meeting. As the immediate Past-President I’m happy to say that Science Traveler is a sponsor of CPRC. The meeting features Emma Lavoie of EPA’s Design for the Environment program as our keynote speaker, as well as a dozen presentations of research by students, professors, and other researchers.

Scientists

Scientist types

And I get the last word. Well, technically not the actual last word because current President Brad Pratt will present a series of awards to students for best platform and poster presentations. But I’ll be the last talk of the day before the awards and the catered reception that follows.

My topic is: Remembering the Big Picture – Communicating Local Science to a Global Audience. I’ll use photos from my recent Argentina trip to highlight the “teaching opportunities” available for reaching out to the public. More on that after I return.

The Public

Public types

This will be an incredibly busy week – books to write, education to outreach, science to travel, and much much more. See you again tomorrow.

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies at Barnes and Noble bookstores, as well as online at B&N.com and Amazon.com.

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Tesla, Travel, and Lincoln – Current and Upcoming Events

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Here on Science Traveler I cover three main topics – Nikola Tesla, Abraham Lincoln, and Science Traveling. It’s been a busy few months so far this year, and the rest of the year is shaping up to be even busier. Here are some quick updates on what to expect.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

I’ve recently become the Coordinator for Outreach and Education for the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia. In that role next week I’ll meet with key people from the infamous Ford’s Theater to evaluate any common goals and activities. I’ll also be working with the Lincoln Group President and Board to develop a program to better integrate with other Lincoln groups, scholars, and the public.

I expect to make great strides on my own Abraham Lincoln book this year, as well as a new Lincoln book project I’ll talk more about later. Meanwhile, the Lincoln Group book club is wrapping up our discussion of Herndon’s Lincoln and will decide shortly on what book we’ll tackle next.

I also had the privilege of joining Lincoln Group member and National Archives researcher Rodney Ross for a Civil War event at the exclusive Cosmos Club in Washington DC. The coordinator of that event even asked me to be a speaker on my book topic next year. That makes four or five requests for speaking engagements already being lined up for when the book comes out.

Nikola Tesla

Nikola TeslaTesla world has been equally busy. I continue to work on the Tesla and Renewable Energy ebook I expect to release in June. The ebook format will keep the cost low and allow reaching out to the large number of people who haven’t yet discovered the great inventor. Meanwhile, the second printing of my Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity book is scheduled to be in Barnes and Noble book stores in time for Tesla’s birthday in July.

I’ll be giving a presentation on Nikola Tesla at the Ipswich Museum on July 7th, and expect to be part of the Tesla Days events in Philadelphia on July 9th. I also expect to be doing presentations and book signings in July and August once the second printing is in the stores. I’m eager to include a west coast trip on the schedule.

One exciting project is the development of a curriculum to teach about Nikola Tesla in schools. The Tesla Science Foundation has been working with Ashley Redfearn Neswick at the Tacony Academy Charter School, and there is potential for using my Tesla book as part of that curriculum.

Science Traveling

James JoyceI’ve been documenting on these pages some of the highlights of my February 2014 trip to Patagonia, Argentina. I’ll have more on other trips I’ve taken in the past as well. But the next few months could get very busy with new science travel.

I’m planning a trip out to Chicago/Springfield sometime in May or June. The main purpose is to visit and do some research at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, but I’ll take advantage of the trip to also see the exhibits (including Tesla) from the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, as well as check out other Lincoln sites. In November I’m expecting to go to the Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg, PA.

July will be a trip home to New England to visit family, as well as a possible Tesla book tour to the west coast. The end of August should find me in the fjords of Norway, plus trains through Sweden and Denmark. The fall, in addition to Gettysburg, may take me to Vancouver and, hopefully, India. By Christmas I’ll be ready to curl up under the Yule log.

One more thing I initially forgot to mention: I’ll be giving a presentation on Monday, April 28th at the CPRC 2014 Annual Meeting. My topic is “Remembering the Big Picture: Communicating Local Science to a Global Audience.”

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies at Barnes and Noble bookstores, as well as online at B&N.com and Amazon.com.

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Join CPRC at our 2014 Annual Spring Meeting – April 27-28

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CPRC logoThe following is a cross-posting from the Chesapeake-Potomac Regional Chapter of SETAC. Get more information here.

2014 CPRC Annual Spring Meeting

The CPRC-SETAC Annual Spring Meeting will be held Monday April 28th, 2014 at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center in Grasonville, MD

 Registration

Registration is $65 for non-members (includes 2014 CPRC-SETAC membership), $50 for professional members and $25 for students.  The fee includes the optional “Day On The Bay” Sunday April 27th to take advantage of all that CBEC and Chesapeake Bay have to offer.  The fee also includes all of the catered food and drink (breakfast, breaks, lunch and happy hour!) during the meeting day on Monday April 28th.

To register, please fill out the 2014 Meeting Registration Form  and email to treasurer.cprc.setac@gmail.com.  Payments can be submitted via PayPal (no PayPal account is required) by following this link.

 Day On The Bay!

On April 27th, we will have a lot of fun helping the environment! CPRC along with MatrixNeworld, CBEC, and Restore the Earth Foundation organized a Coastal Wetland Restoration project where volunteers will plant nearly 600 plants over a 2,000 square foot area to restore a coastal wetland and help prevent further shoreline erosion. See attached flyer for more details.  Please take a look at the attached flyer for more details and RSVP sending an email to vice.president.cprc.setac@gmail.com.

Area hotels (pdf with map)

Best Western Kent Narrows Inn in Gasonville, MD has agreed to hold a block of rooms at the rate of $79/night for Sunday April 27th and Monday April 28th.  To get the block rate, call (410-827-6767) and tell them you are with CPRC.  They are holding only 11 rooms and the rooms will be released for general booking on March 27th.  Please contact vice.president.cprc.setac@gmail.com with any issues or difficulties.

Area restaurants (pdf with map)

 Carpooling 

Please email cprc.setac@gmail.com with 1) your name, 2) phone number, 3) address, and 4) route taken to meeting or if you need a ride.  We’ll hook you up!

Contact

If you have any questions about the meeting, feel free to contact CPRC-SETAC at cprc.setac@gmail.com.

This website, Science Traveler, is a proud sponsor of CPRC and SETAC. I’ll also be presenting at the CPRC meeting – my topic: Remembering the Big Picture – Communicating Local Science to a Global Audience. [With scenes from Argentina as my backdrop]

Come join us for a day on the bay. Make that two days on the bay!

David J. Kent is an avid traveler and the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies exclusively at Barnes and Noble bookstores.

Follow me by subscribing by email on the home page.  And feel free to “Like” my Facebook author’s page and connect on LinkedIn.  Share with your friends using the buttons below.

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In Patagonia, Don’t Miss The Cave of the Hands…or the Camels!

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Yes, I said camels. More on that in a minute. As I’ve been documenting, Ru and I joined my friend Pablo and his two daughters Juli and Mica touring, trekking, and tripping down the eastern side of the Andes mountains of Patagonia, southern Argentina. One of our stops was the Cueva de las Manos…the Cave of the Hands.

Cueva de las Manos

A UNESCO World Heritage site, the Cueva de las Manos is in such a remote location that it’s often missed by most casual tourists. Since driving all the way around to the main access road would take us over 150 kilometers out of our way, we decided to hike to it. After spending a night in a comfy log cabin, the five of us drove 17-km along a winding gravel road, along which we saw guanacos (WAN-a-coes), which look like short-haired llamas but, like the llamas, vicunas, and alpacas are actually closely related to camels.

Guanaco

We also saw choiques (CHOY-kas), which are ostrich-like birds that people up north may have heard called rheas. I’ll have more on these and other Patagonian wildlife (including condors) in a future post.

Choique (Rhea)

Eventually we arrived at the end of the road, but not the end of the trail, for where we were parked was on the opposite side of the valley from where we needed to be. So we hiked down this valley; that’s the cave peaking out from the other side.

Cueva de las Manos

And a little closer…

Cueva de las Manos

Once on the other side we could see the valley we crossed. To give you perspective, the greenery in the center are full-size trees nestled along the Pinturas River. I admit we dallied in the wonderful shade they provided from the mid-day sun as we crossed a footbridge over the river.

Pinturas River valley

By the way, our car is at the top of that ridge on the right. But let’s not think about the return trip just yet. Let’s go see the cave.

Cueva de las Manos

Okay, the cave itself is not so impressive. It’s about 10 meters high, 15 meters wide, and about 24 meters deep. It’s what is outside the cave that stirs the imagination. To get an idea of the layout, take a look at the photo below, which shows the valley and the cave system on the right wall.

Cueva de las Manos

The main cave is the hole to the right about mid-way where the slope meets the cliff. However, following along what looks like a cut as you move left in the photo traces over 4000 years of history. And what you see is…hands.

Cueva de las Manos

The hands are everywhere. At least three waves of indigenous peoples lived in this area, from about 9,000 years ago to as far as 13,000 years ago. The peoples were semi-nomadic, chasing their main food sources, the aforementioned guanocos and choiques, back and forth across the otherwise barren scrubland. To mark their ownership of the cave and environs they painted their hands onto the rock walls.

Cueva de las Manos

Painted is a bit of a misnomer. They actually stenciled negative images by holding their hands against the rock and blowing through a hollow reed a mixture of natural mineral pigments. The different colors were made by blending different base components – iron oxides (for red and purple), kaolin (for white), natrojarosite (for yellow), and manganese oxide (for black). Some unknown binder was added to get it to stick to the rock. Given that the hands are still visible after many thousands of years, one has to wonder whether the inhabitants had permanently painted mouths.

Cueva de las Manos

While most of the artwork depicts the artists’ hand (notice that most are the left hand, suggesting that they, like us, were predominantly right handed), as the photo above shows, they also painted guanacos. Needless to say they didn’t hold a guanaco up to the wall and do stencils, so these animals are directly painted as positive images (though I admit, a bit stylistically). For the occasional choique footprint, again they could hold up the three-toed appendage (presumably without the 90-lb bird still attached) and blow pigments to create a stencil.

Cueva de las Manos

As I noted above, there were at least three waves of peoples who inhabited the caves over time. Initially you see only the masses of left hand stencils, but as you walk along the rock cut you see a gradual shift in the style and patterns of the artwork. More and more hunting scenes are visible, and near the far end you start to see stick-figure people, geometric shapes, and zigzag patterns.

Cueva de las Manos was a wonderful experience. The guide gave the tour in Spanish, but luckily Pablo and Juli took turns translating the highlights so we didn’t miss much (something to keep in mind if you travel down there without speaking the language). While the site is very remote, I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. Now, only one more trek left today. All we have to do is hike back down into the valley, then back up the other side. See those white specks at the top of the ridge (just right of center)? That’s our car. I’m glad I brought a hiking stick.

Cueva de las Manos

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Ash from Chilean volcano blankets Bariloche

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I’m still out science traveling in Argentina with access by iPhone only. Yesterday I toured around the lake in Bariloche. One of the more interesting aspects was the remnants of the big 2011 volcanic eruption from Chile (the border is only a few kilometers from here).

See that sand alongside the stream? It’s not sand. It’s pumice from the volcano.

The ash was so thick it raised water levels for months. The water covered the roots of the stream side trees, hence the dead trees in the picture below.

On the lake itself the pumice, volcanic rock that is lighter than water, floats.

The beach of the lake is more pumice, at least 10-20 cm of it. That’s my host hopping across the ash/sand. And yes, there’s a story behind the broken leg. I’ll cover that when I get back to the states.

That’s all for now. Keep in mind these photos are all from my iPhone; the best photos are on the other two cameras. So much more to come.

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His next book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, is scheduled for release in summer 2017.

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Science Traveler and Science Traveling

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Candied hawthorns in Olympic Park, Beijing

Candied hawthorns at Olympic Park, Beijing

I call this site Science Traveler. And I’m currently out science traveling. So, what is science traveling? I’m glad you asked. Though the answer isn’t as clear cut as it might seem.

I’ve been a scientist for many years, and as a result have done a little bit of travel. Emphasis on “little” and “bit.” Besides the many wonderful days spent in luxurious locales such as oil refineries, sewage treatment plants, and mud bogs, I regularly attended scientific conferences in cities around the United States and Canada. A delightfully drenched week in Vancouver spent entirely inside a convention center epitomizes the excitement of that annual opportunity. For the last 15 years, however, travel has became a lot more interesting.

I’ve been lucky enough to live overseas on three different occasions, in St. George’s, Bermuda; Edinburgh, Scotland; and most recently, Brussels, Belgium. I’ve been to Asia several times, tootled around a good part of Europe, and currently am trekking through a couple of countries south of the equator. Now that I’m writing books and freelancing full time, my travels will become more frequent and more adventurous. They will also become story lines. And those story lines will usually contain some science angle.

Science traveler. Like asking whether Galileo actually did drop balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and if he did, was someone at the bottom to catch them? Like, how is it that I could carry on a conversation with an elderly (and slightly inebriated) Japanese gentleman when neither one of us spoke the others language? Like, how many Argentinian students does it take to get a visiting scientist to wade into a stream alongside an electroshock fisherman?

Of course, science traveling can also mean simply appreciating the ephemeral beauty of a sinking sunset over a Mexican beach, the astonishing talent of a renaissance artist in the Vatican, or the portentous river of water sluicing down a melting glacier in Chile. It might also include crawling through caves in Tennessee after overlooking one of the Civil War’s most infamous battle sites, admiring the orchids of Tenerife, or visiting the latest in a long list of aquariums.

Science traveling most definitely includes photographs. Thousands of photographs. And with each photo comes a story…or many stories. Science traveler will tell those stories.

So while I’m out science traveling I’ll post some photos, some stories, and hopefully some scientific insights that will bring the world closer to everyone.

David J. Kent is an avid traveler and the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. You can order a signed copy directly from me, download the ebook at barnesandnoble.com, and find hard copies exclusively at Barnes and Noble bookstores.

Follow me by subscribing by email on the home page.  And feel free to “Like” my Facebook author’s page and connect on LinkedIn.  Share with your friends using the buttons below.