The JASONs

I meant to write this post quite a while ago.

On Thursday, March 8th, the Caltech physics colloquium had its second historical/societal talk in a row. This time it was on a group known as the JASONa.

As stated in wikipedia, JASON is an independent group of scientists that advises the U.S. government on matters of science and technology. The group was first created as a way to get a younger generation of scientists — that is, not the older Los Alamos and MIT Radiation Laboratory alumni — involved in advising the government. It was established in 1960 and has somewhere between 30 and 60 members.

There are some Caltech profs who have been part of this and others who are rumored to be -- including some people in the audience for the talk, at least one of whom doesn't normally doesn't show up to physics colloquiua.

The talk, based on a book the speaker just published, was really interesting. It was also notable in several respects:

1. There were no visuals. The speaker is a historian, and apparently their tradition in talks is to read from stuff they wrote (with occasional skipping of paragraphs, sections, and so on).

2. This is the first physics colloquium I have ever seen in which the speaker used the word "fuck." She was quoting Murph Goldburger (as in "Murph Day"), who apparently was pretty crude in how he talked.

3. The oft-quoted "political policy is like sausage" made another appearance.

4. There was a nice euphemism about putting "people who understand our interests" in the group. I like that line.