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Middle Sister summit with Shasta
With Shasta on South Sister summit
lava sampling at Kilauea volcano Shasta at Glacier Lake -Wallowa Mts
Rock hound in training
Click here to see more photos of Shasta
Unencumbered by the thought process...
... from this page you can meander through information about geology and physical science courses that we teach, our schedules, vitae, research interests and links to other cool stuff.
Dr Bob (left), el doctor Alberto (center) and Bam Bam (right) rehearsing for the musical "Los Tiburones de Galapagos"
Humans are born feeble little organisms in the midst of a vast, unknown universe, at a moment long after evolution began and long before it will cease. Here we exist in a tiny span of space and time. Science is the game we play of trying to find out what is going on: where we are; what time it is; what has happened before, both here and elsewhere; and what will happen afterwards. In the beginning we do not even know what questions to ask, or with what words to formulate them. We are like Don Quixote attacking windmills. Science is our brazen challenge against the unknown.
(left: geology students inside Broken Top volcano. right: uplifted coral head at Bahia Urvina in the Galapagos islands)
The fantastic thing about this quest is the extent of its success. Humans can now trace their own history back for a million generations. We can describe with considerable reliability what is going on inside of stars. We have information about the structure and content of the universe out to a distance of 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles, and can analyze the detail of its parts down to a fine structure of 0.000,000,000,000,01 inch. We can measure changes as gradual as the slowing of the earth's rotation on its axis or as sudden as the excitation and decay of a nucleus, which may occur in 0.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,01 second; we can measure speeds as slow as continental drift or as fast as that of light. If the excitement of this game fires your imagination, you may throw away the standard cookbook for learning; your own enthusiasm will be your best guide.
- K Greisen
