You know, if I were an astronomer or astrophysicist, all I would want to do would be hang out with other space nerds.
But apparently that’s easier said than done. “[Johns Hopkins is] a very major hub of space activity in this country, but the activities have been separate, and there’s never been anything that ties them together,” physics prof Charles Bennett told the Hopkins Hub. And so Bennett and some of his colleagues banded together to launch (pun definitely intended) Space@Hopkins, an initiative aimed at uniting the university’s theoretical physicists with its astronomers and telescope builders. Public health students who are interested in astronaut well-being might want to schmooze with solar scientists studying the sun. In other words, it hopes to be the kind of interdisciplinary gathering space that’s more commonly seen in the humanities. But who said scientists don’t want to collaborate and network, too?
Space@Hopkins hopes to host mixers and workshops; for now, like the scientists they are, they’re focusing on research money. But I imagine they’ll be throwing some pretty far-out parties sometime soon.
