Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see George Lucas?
For pretty much all of my life I have attended sciencey ceremonies here and there: to honour my father, or to hang out with a bunch of scientists at some faraway meeting, or to collect swizzle sticks from every adult in the St. Louis Marriott, bored and confused, while my parents socialized with the meteoritical or geophysical set.
But this time…this time we were going to meet, what, the president? And my long-lost cousin? And the guy that did the world’s first liver transplant? And the guy that invented GPS? And the guy that invented the video game? Well, heck. I’ve taken advantage of a few of those technologies myself! (Though the cousin thing I’ll admit I’m still new to, and the current president, well, I’ve been trying to cut down.)