Skip Navigation

User banner

drail

@ drail @fedia.io

Posts
6
Comments
86
Joined
2 yr. ago

PhD in Applied Nuclear and Particle Physics. I enjoy gardening, basketball (go Nuggets!), D&D, science, and hifi audio equipment.

Migrated here due to ongoing issues on kbin:kbin.social account page

  • Replaced the drain plumbing on both of my bathroom sinks.

    Jump

  • I really enjoy the design of this house. It was my Fianceé's grandmother's untile she recently passed, and by and large, things were done correctly. The only glaring issues so far have been the plumbing and the fact that the upstairs loft addition was never insulated.

    I layed ethernet through the attic to add a WAP to the loft and found that there is enough room up there to put in a secret room. There is already a bookshelf on the adjoining wall that I can convert into a Scooby-Doo style secret bookshelf passageway.

  • Replaced the drain plumbing on both of my bathroom sinks.

    Jump

  • Too true. Snaking a drain every once in a blue moon is so much easier than dealing with draino damage.

  • Replaced the drain plumbing on both of my bathroom sinks.

    Jump

  • It lies somewhere between pride, relief, and satisfaction. I understand the feeling all too well, my last house was also a 50's build, but someone did a budget flip on it and I spent all of my 9 years there fixing their mistakes one by one. Then I moved just in time for someone else to enjoy my repairs haha.

  • Luigi Mangione indicted on murder and terror-related charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing

    Jump

  • That's not quite fair, a cardboard box has multiple uses, both built and deconstructed. The Brian Thompsons of the world are only useful to society in their deconstructed form.

  • Give us your best infodump.

    Jump

  • The assignment was to infodump, so I will take that as a compliment. I was aiming for detailed and hyperspecific.

  • Give us your best infodump.

    Jump

  • I've seen things. Things you'd never understand. All I can say is that the best dissertation defense is a good dissertation offense. So much blood on my hands...

  • Give us your best infodump.

    Jump

  • I am now Dr. Drail, so it went well! This was back in August, so I am still in recovery mode while I job search.

  • Give us your best infodump.

    Jump

  • Here goes:

    During my dissertation, I was lookig for information on the emissiom of 172nm scintillation light in mixtures of gaseous Xe and CO2 (95:5% - 98:2%), with results being difficult to come by. I found a collaborator who had tested this at lower CO2 concentrations (0-0.5%), but nothing else, no predictions or generalizable applications. Not knowing the optimal search engine terms or what textbook to look in for rules governing gaseous light emission, I ended up looking in fluorescence chemistry papers (my previous field of study) which had something called the Stern-Volmer relation for different concentrations of quenchant in a fluorescent solution. I figured gas scintillation queching was probably similar to liquid fluorescence quenching, but the standard relation didn't quite fit below 10% additive.

    I dug around more and found a modification of this relation for diffusion-limited quenching of fluorescent solutions (the same limitation imposed in gas mixtures, quenching due to random Brownian collisions) that employed an exponential term, allowing for a smoother curve down to low additive concentrations. This perfectly matched the available data and allowed me to model the predicted behavior. I discussed this with the one member of my committee who was available, an organic chemist (my PI was on vacation, everyone else was sick, and my dissertation defense was in 2 weeks). He said my reasoning and math for using this formula made sense and gave me a thumbs up to include this analysis. When my PI came back from holiday, he asked me why I didn't use some equation generally used in the field, or even just a generic exponential fit. I was ignorant of his suggestion, but it provided the same general formulation as Stern-Volmer, though Stern-Volmer was more rigorously derived mathematically.

    Mixing fields is super cool and can allow a much deeper understanding of the underlying principles, as opposed to limiting yourself to one branch of science. While my PI's recommendation would have given approximately the same answer, understanding and applying Stern-Volmer allowed me to really dig at the principles at play and generate a more accurate and in-depth model, which I managed to write up and defend at the 11th hour.

  • Tell me your favorite line from Futurama?

    Jump

  • Tie between:

    If anyone needs me, I'll be in the angry dome

    angry muttering as the PES flies away

    and

    Well Susie, it isn't foreigners, it's global warming

    Gwabu wabu?

    Uh, sure...

  • Countryside Map of my players' main stomping grounds

    Jump

  • Yup!

  • Boeing layoffs will include nearly 2,200 workers in Washington

    Jump

  • Fianceé's dad is a Senior Level Employee and he was told he'd be safe for at least the first 2 rounds of layoffs, but they couldn't guarantee he'd survive round 3. Expect two more cullings and for them to get increasing severe: if a ~20 year Boeing vet, 40 year industry vet, working the worst hours with the worst people isn't safe, nobody except the executives are (he is forced to comply with another country's work hours halfway across the world AND be present in the office for normal working hours).

  • Removed

    What are some excellent YouTube channels you recommend?

    Jump

  • North of the Border

    His name is Adam and he likes to make tiny nerdy things. He makes dioramas of nerdy stuff, sometimes normal, some times with too many teeth, fingers, and/or toes.

  • Walking into Pfizer or Eli Lilly

    Jump

  • The SEM+EDS machine in one of my school's materials labs ran 98 and there was exactly one thumb drive on campus that was allowed to be used if you wanted to pull data. The lab coordinator had to pull the output file to his computer and email them, but made it sound like the biggest inconvenience in the world if you, ya know, wanted your data.

  • grulephic design

    Jump

  • My school gave up on printing/binding theses, so they also gave up on thesis formatting requirements. As long as your advisor approved the thesis and the title page had all the relevant info, it could be formatted however you wanted.

    After finishing my dissertation, I spent maybe 20 minutes emailing the library staff about dissertation edits (date format/placement on title page mainly) and otherwise was told any other requested changes were optional so long as my advisor signed off. I have to get my dissertation printed and bound myself, but that is a small price to pay compared to the nightmare that is univeristy thesis format compliance.

  • Do PhDs HAVE to use Dr?

    Jump

  • Lol, no, but I'd be damned if I put my actual name out on the internet. Dr. Drail is my profesional anonymous title.

  • Do PhDs HAVE to use Dr?

    Jump

  • As a newly minted doctor, I prefer Dr. Drail because of the work I put in. I have seen three common name/title presentations though:

    Dr. Drail

    Dr. Drail, Ph.D.

    Mr. Drail, Ph.D.

    The last one obviously preserves a gendered title if desired. I tend to include my pronouns where applicable, as it makes clear my gender identity while allowing me to use the least cumbersome combo (Dr. Drail) without confusion. I haven't ever met someone who double stacks their honorifics (ie Dr. Mr. Drail), but if you want to make clear your gender, there aren't any rules against it, and it is common in some non-english speaking cultures.

    Ultimately, it is your title, your honorific, so you get to decide how to present it. I prefer to just go by my name 90% of the time, but while applying for jobs or introducing myself in a profesional capacity, Dr. Drail (he/him/his) is a really easy way to get all the info across succinctly.

  • Bring back 24 hour Walmarts

    Jump

  • What state are you in, if you don't mind me asking? I just moved from Dallas to Los Angeles and there are Wincos in both, just kind of out of the way.

  • Bring back 24 hour Walmarts

    Jump

  • If one is in your area, Winco is your friend then. 24hr grocery shopping. They are also worker owned and have a great bulk goods selection, so they are a better food shopping experience at roughly the same price point.

  • Ooops

    Jump

  • My goal for the summer was to finish my PhD. I defended on Friday and am now Dr. Drail, so I actually accomplished my summer task for once. I sacrificed all my sleep and sanity to do so, as I was told at the 11th hour to redo a major analysis that made up 1/4 of my dissertation, but I fucking got it done.

  • Seconds

    Jump

  • Everything should just be in eV. Particle physics natural units are the best.