Postcards from the FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE

Postcards from the FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE...that's the name of a new blog from Janelle Shane, an electrical engineering graduate student here at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Janelle is part of the Ultrafast and Nanoscale Optics research group in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

The text on her blog banner reads:

"The edge of the unknown can be a strange and beautiful place. This land, the frontier of science, is the domain of the hardy brand of explorer known as the graduate student. Life here on the frontier is sometimes bizzare.

...and yes, we have lasers."

Caption for the first image:

Dramatic patterns of light and dark chase each other across the landscape.  Jagged monoliths reach for the sky, while canyons, mesas, and mountains range on toward the horizon.  

The mountains are made of solid laser material, and the plains are made of solid glass.  And it’s all microscopic, the tallest feature less than a hundredth as high as a human hair is wide.

None of this is supposed to be here. (Check out her blog for the rest of the story.)