25 April 2005

Being thankful

We physicists grumble a lot. Maybe we should look to the example of Eric Cornell, 2001 Nobel Laureate in physics. He lost an arm and shoulder to a deadly bacterial infection yet he told the media that it was merely "inconvenient." A full text interview with Eric is available at the NIST website. Here's a photo of Eric after surviving his near-death experience.

This story reminds me of another physicist who lives with a disability: Ian Shipsey, a physics professor at Purdue. He lost his hearing while taking drugs to treat a deadly illness. After 11 years, he got a cochlear implant and heard his daughter's voice for the first time. He also remarked that his wife still had a beautiful Italian accent; he thought she would have lost it by now after living in America for so long. I wrote about Ian in an earlier post.

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