Nature close-ups

One highlight of the retreat was seeing two Western Blue-Tailed Skinks. These are beautiful little lizards with metallic-blue tails that really catch the eye in an otherwise green-and-brown forest setting.

Oh, and another highlight was seeing a tarantula :-). It was quite large-- perhaps 6 or 7 inches including the legs. It was fascinating to watch it walking down some steps outside the retreat center. It would hang its body and seven legs over the step, just suspended by one leg. But it wasn't quite big enough to stretch to the next step, so it would hang for a few seconds and then just... let go, and drop onto the flat surface of the step. Magnificent.

New major at Stanford

Stanford has launched an intriguing new major in its Engineering department: the Atmosphere and Energy major.

The interdisciplinary undergraduate program is being launched as governments and businesses around the world try to reconcile their need for energy with increasing concern about the effects of pollution on human health and the climate.

"The major will create students who will have the skills to do things that are in high demand," said Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. "To come up with creative solutions to global warming and pollution while also addressing energy needs."

Neat stuff. I would guess we'll see more and more programs like this at many undergraduate institutions. The thing to notice here is that this major is in a mainstream department -- the full-fledged Engineering department. It was not created as a "special" program sequestered off to one side, like an "Atmospheric Sciences" program or an "Environmental Engineering" minor. This major stands side-by-side with Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in status (if not yet in numbers-- but just wait).