"Fereastra catre Stiinta": Edward's talk on Gravitational Waves and David's talk on Atomics Clocks

In September 2019, we were invited to participate in the second edition of the festival "Fereastra catre Stiinta" from Tecuci. Its aim is science popularization. We are staunch supporters of "Fereastra catre stiinta" and we hope more cities will support such programs. We note that the foundation is supported by C.C.D.P.U Bendis and that beyond the extraordinary enthusiasm and power of volunteers coming from all over the country or in vacation from other countries, they had sponsors that offered the venue, and, e.g., for us, paid the hotel room.

After a 30 hour sitting-up train + bus trip from Lugoj to Tecuci, Edward and David gave their talk from Cornell on how to stop global warming and then Edward spoke about gravitational waves and David about atomic clocks. At night we went stargazing -- everything was organized by volunteers. Bogdan Gheorghiu (one of the primary organizers of the meeting and the owner of the telescope) also had a laser that could point to specific constellations. It was wonderful to see so much enthusiasm and to see this taking place in Romania.

 James, my mom, and I were also there. I gave a seminar discussing my women in science work in Romanian. The children did a great job -- especially given the circumstances.

Note that the videos are available on youtube and that the children are counting the number of views and likes they receive there. While such counting can be quite addictive, it is their work and they are rightfully proud of it.

The next day we took the train back home -- this time through Iasi since the route through Bucharest no longer had available sleeping compartments and we did not want to experience another almost sleep-free night. In the station as the train was leaving we could see a young woman dressed in tights surrounded by two boyfriends. She was slapping one of them over the face while he was holding his hands in a begging-like posture. The other was looking on, seemingly proud of her and of his ability to win her over competition. We could not understand what they were saying because the train was making more noise than them -- although she was loud, too -- but the silent scene was sufficient in itself. I suppose it reminded us that women can be bullies, too (or perhaps that all is fair in love and war or of a video with penguins fighting over partners) and that one can inspire this public devotion. But it mostly made me think of devotion to science, and of the way proving it is perceived in academia (and sometimes in industry, too) as having to surpass all obstacles and various forms of abuse -- a thought I did not share with my children because I do not want them to be discouraged yet. Of course, other jobs are not so different.