(March 07)

WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN'D ASTRONOMER When I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

Walt Whitman 1865

I am a big believer in science; my deep appreciation coming from my Audiology Professor, Dr. Terri Hamill, formerly of Texas Tech University. Terri, the same age as I, was fiercely intelligent and dreadfully demanding of her students. Terri read complex electrical schematics and circuitous computer code the way you and I might peruse a newspaper article, shaking her head in dismay or smiling in approval at the intended design of the cipher. Despite her diminutive and waiflike stature, she could suddenly explode, sometimes in rancorous ferocity and often in brilliant insightfulness. It was not uncommon for her to assign thousands of pages of reading for each course, demanding that we come to class comprehensively prepared to defend ourselves for the barrage of questions that would soon ensue, quickly surfacing whether or not we had understood the text. While my memories of this experience aren’t always pleasant, what she left me with after four years of an academic juggernaut, was a deep appreciation of the complexity of our wondrous world at the very least graspable through the astonishing human gift for advancing science. I will always remain grateful for her amazing bequest.