Day 1: Introductory lectures and another trip to the Natural History Museum

We started the 2014 Geobiology course with a series of introductory lectures. This was great for me because despite being an instructor since 2002, I have never been part of the beginning of the course. These lectures were given by Frank Corsetti (Geologists for Biologists), John Spear and Hope Johnson (Biology for Geologists, Part 1&2). 

After a full day of lectures, we got treated to a visit to the Space Shuttle Endeavor! This was fantastic! As you walk into the building, you immediately get a sense of just how immense this piece of engineering and history really is! 

Then you get up close to it and you see the “patina” of many years of space flight. This includes scorch marks on the thermal tiles and locations where the thermal tiles have been replaced. I wish I knew which ones were replaced by the shuttle crew in space!

The business end of the shuttle was just as impressive. You can just imagine the sound and feeling of these babies under full throttle…

We spent about 45 minutes just staring at the Endeavor in awe. I left thinking, “let’s shoot this baby off one more time”. Thank you Ann Close for arranging such a cool treat for us!!

Tomorrow, we head off for the field. I am driving one of the 15 passenger vans. We will be heading up the Owens Valley to Bishop, CA with a few geology sight-seeing pit stops.