Sonja Boettcher, 2024 Physics Today Science Writing Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: University of Nevada-Reno

Hello all! My name is Sonja Boettcher and I am a graduating senior with a B.S. in Physics and a minor in Mathematics from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). I have served as the local admiral and treasurer for UNR’s chapter of SPS. After graduating I will be pursuing a Master’s degree in physics, and eventually a PhD.

During my time as an undergraduate student, I have mainly worked in tutoring other college students in STEM and writing. Tutoring has inspired me to help other people enjoy physics and science as much as I do. My own passion for learning, coupled with my drive to share physics with others, has led me to be interested in scientific writing. I am excited to be this year’s Physics Today editorial intern!

Internship

Host: American Institute of Physics

Internship Blog

Week 1: I’m an intern now!

Hello everyone! My name is Sonja Boettcher, and I am a recent graduate from the University of Nevada, Reno, with my B.S. in Physics and a minor in math. Graduation and defending my senior thesis was quite hectic but I am proud of the work I’ve done and how much I’ve learned the last few years. This fall, I will be starting my Master’s in Physics through the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-PhD Bridge Program. My undergraduate research fell into condensed matter theory: looking into the electronic and structural properties of graphene on Cu(111). At Fisk, I will be directly pursuing materials science research, which I believe will be more hands-on and experimental! This summer, I am working as the SPS Physics Today intern, and I am so excited to learn more about scientific writing. I am an avid reader and aspiring writer, and I hope to learn more about the art of sharing physics with others through writing. I figured an introduction was fitting for the first week, but I wrote a whole actual blog post to follow:

I entered the TSA security checkpoint with tears in my eyes. Having never lived away from home before, spending the whole summer apart from my loved ones is a daunting task. It didn’t help that it was an overnight flight from Reno to DC, and I tend to be especially teary eyed past 9 PM. I made it into DC around 11:00 AM on Sunday and hauled my luggage to the George Washington University dorms. I hadn’t slept much since boarding the first plane at midnight, so the first thing I unpacked upon arriving at my room was my bedding. After waiting ~20 minutes for my roommate to arrive, I quickly introduced myself and proceeded to pass out. A few hours later, I had a more awake introduction with my roommate, Jenna, and we agreed to do a little grocery and household shopping that night. My first “meal” of the day was at 6 PM: a vanilla sweet cream cold brew. Jenna and I encountered the BEEFIEST pigeon I have ever seen while walking. I generally like birds, but even I was a little uneasy being so close to that behemoth. The first day in DC was pretty busy and very tiring, yet I could feel the excitement growing in me about my internship and exploring the city.

Memorial Day consisted of more household and grocery shopping. I am already very grateful to have Jenna as my roommate, as she is quite good with navigation! She got us on the Metro and all the way to the nearest Target with no problems. I have a poor sense of direction and rely entirely on landmarks when navigating at home, so the city streets and public transport can be a bit challenging. That night, most of the interns gathered in one of the dorm rooms and played some card games to introduce ourselves.

Tuesday marked our very first day of the internship, as well as our orientation at the ACP-DC office. We got to meet Kayla Stephens and other members of the SPS staff for the first time and make our official introductions to the other interns. We had a spaghetti-marshmallow tower building competition and my group won! (I’ve never won one of those before so this was a really surprising moment for me). Later that day, I had my first Zoom call with one of my mentors, Andrew Grant. We started laying out a plan for my introduction to scientific journalism and discussed some future projects that may lie ahead. In the evening, many of the interns went to the National Mall to play some spikeball. I am not too fond of ball games, but I enjoyed lazing in the grass and watching all the dogs that passed by.

In future weeks, I will be going to the College Park office some days to interact with the Physics Today staff in person. This first Wednesday, though, I had no clue how to get there so I worked from the dorm. As part of my science journalism crash course, I am reading a science news article every day and analyzing its structure and writing style. I am trying to look at these articles through a writer’s lens, rather than a scientist’s lens (although the science is still fun to learn about). Through this exercise, I have begun to notice patterns through different news outlets in how they hook the reader and organize the “story” of the research. I also began one of The Open Notebook’s free scientific journalism master classes on how to find an angle for a story. I worked from the dorm on Thursday as well and started to get a bit antsy staying in my room.

On Friday, a smaller group of the interns worked at the ACP-DC office and we acquired free food for breakfast, lunch, and some extras to take home! Interns never say no to free food. The DC office has a really cool coffee machine that can make some fancy drinks, and adjustable desks for sitting down and standing up throughout the day. Working with the other interns definitely made me more prone to blabbing, but I still completed my goals for the day. That night, most of us went to the Heurich House for a free art exhibit. The exhibit was really pretty and interactive: each guest could draw a fortune for the future, then write their own wish/prediction for the future of a location. I chose Lake Tahoe, in hopes that 100 years from now it will still be clear and blue, and that all will be able to enjoy its beauty.

Saturday involved another group trip to the National Mall for some spikeball and touch football (I once again relaxed in the grass and even got to pet a dog this time). The last couple of years have been very packed and stressful for me, and laying on my back staring up at a clear blue sky with nothing urgent to be done was an experience I appreciated greatly. One of the interns (Kai) and I went to a grilled cheese restaurant for dinner, which was delicious! Some of the cutest squirrels I’ve ever seen politely begged for some food. Friday and Saturday night involved more card games with the other interns, and the most competitive game of Go Fish I have ever partaken in. I also finished reading The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. My goal this year is to read primarily science fiction, and so far Three-Body Problem was easily the most science heavy of the books I’ve read. The author really goes in heavy on the physics, and takes some liberties that create a fascinating approach to dimensionality and alien civilization. It is difficult to tell what the book will be about from the beginning, but it builds the dilemma thoroughly and as a reader I felt invested in the actions and fates of the characters.

Today is Sunday, June 2nd. Kai, Jenna, and I went to the DuPont Circle Farmers’ Market and found some goodies! I got a $6 big jar of apple butter, which I felt was a very good price considering how much of a pain it is to make apple butter. I also found a rooibos vanilla bourbon loose leaf tea, which sounded too good to pass up. Strawberries are definitely in season right now, but I don’t think any other fruit is. Farmers’ markets are always the best place to see/meet cute dogs. People love showing off their pups at the markets, especially since vendors often have treats ready-to-go. I might go back out today to check out some book stores in the DC area. I am tempted to find the sequel to Three-Body Problem, despite the other five books I have sitting unread in my dorm.

My first week in DC has been very enjoyable, and I believe I will learn so much about scientific journalism through my mentors and other resources. I hope to build my skills and get some articles out this summer! The other interns are so friendly and fun to hangout with, and DC is an eventful city to explore. I miss my family, my boyfriend, and my dogs back home– I hope I can entertain some visitors throughout the summer! The upcoming second week seems like it will be very busy (dinner cruise?!), so I’m sure my next blog will have exciting things to share!

Week 2: No red panda, yet...

Hello all! This was a busy week as far as interning goes! I learned a lot this week about the amount of care put into choosing story ideas for Physics Today. There are many different criteria to consider when looking at a topic. As The Open Notebook says, the story angle should be intriguing, timely, supported by evidence, and original. PT staff pitch ideas in meetings and then work together to ensure that the topics chosen follow these criteria, which is no easy feat. It is hard to keep your finger on the pulse of a vast field of science, especially since modern physics research is so interdisciplinary.

I went into the Maryland office on Wednesday and met many of my coworkers in person for the first time (including my mentor, Andrew)! It is a bit of a commute to make it out there, but not as bad as some the other interns have to make. Maia and I raided the supply room for arts and crafts things and made some sick paper planes. On Wednesday evening, all the interns met at ACP DC to attend a Trimble Lecture by John Mather and Mark Clampin from NASA. Astrophysics research is exciting for many, but the amount of planning that goes into telescope creation is no trivial matter. On Thursday, we had a dinner cruise on the Potomac, entailing good food and drinks and a little synchronized line dance action. I am really getting started on a few projects now for work, and I will be conducting my first interview this upcoming week! Special thanks to last year’s PT intern, Hannah Means, who has already given me lots of assistance and mentorship!

Jenna and I did responsible adult activities on Monday, such as laundry, taking out trash, and grocery shopping. We are starting to stock up now on grocery items, so cooking is more feasible and fun! I used my mini rice cooker for the first time on Tuesday. It can make three cups of rice, which is more than enough for one person. I made chicken katsu and rice for dinner (which was great but now I have so much chicken I need to eat).

At some point during the week, we watched the third and fourth Indiana Jones movies. I had never seen any Indiana Jones before, and I might have been better off for it. The fourth movie is so absolutely bonkers that the entire time, Charlotte and I were in shock. We would think it couldn’t get worse, and then it did. We also watched Shrek, which might have been equally shocking if I hadn’t seen it a million times as a child. All songs in the Shrek soundtrack are permanently “Shrek songs” in my mind, including Hallelujah.

On Saturday, Jenna and I got brunch (see thick french toast below) at Tatte. We then went to Second Story Books and Kramer’s, and I bought two books at the latter. I have read two books since arriving in DC, so I think it’s fair if I buy two more? We did a little more grocery shopping and Jenna made some killer banana bread. A small group of us played Cranium, and I accidentally sight-read Mary Had a Little Lamb (I am not usually capable of reading music).

Today six of us went to the zoo (me, Jenna, Charlotte, Maia, Charles, and Kaden). Unfortunately, the red pandas were hiding from us. I saw a red panda for the first time last summer at the Seattle zoo, and I am convinced that they are the cutest animals to ever exist. I will have to return to the zoo later this summer and hope that the red pandas are feeling more friendly. Two other cute animals I was introduced to are the fishing cat and the sand cat (see sand cat below). We didn’t get through the whole zoo, but my favorite part so far is the small mammals exhibit.

Signing off til next week.

Week 3: Unsettling animals at the National Gallery

Hello all! My week started with conducting my first interview regarding a future article on the International Physics Olympiad. I had to commute out to the University of Maryland, and by some miracle I made it on time (my poor navigation skills pulled through). The Physics Olympiads are competitions where 5 high schoolers from each participating country work through theory and experimental physics problems in hopes to bring home the gold for their country. The students who participate in these olympiads are some of the best and brightest from their countries and are dedicated to learning. I wish the best of luck to the US Physics Team at their competition this summer!

Another article topic I am looking into involves recent statistics published by the AIP Statistics department. They have some very interesting data on the influences for choosing physics majors, and on high school physics and physics teachers. I also got to take a peek at the editing process for actually compiling an issue of PT. The staff are so multi-skilled. They have to find topics, write compelling stories, and format them in a way that is appealing to the reader. And they do all of this in a very short period of time, every month!

My plan is to read primarily science fiction this year, as I would really like to try my hand at writing some in the future. The last two weeks I took a break from reading sci-fi , but I will be back this week starting with The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. I read The War of the Worlds (also by H.G. Wells) last summer, and despite being a bit dated, I truly believe this book set the stage for many of the sci-fi novels that came after. The Time Machine is less than 100 pages long, so I will probably read that and another short sci-fi novel this week. I also got some great recommendations from Maia that I will need to look into.

On Friday night, many of the interns went to Jazz in the Garden. The band played some jazzy covers of some popular songs, which I found very enjoyable. I was largely clueless as to what “jazz” as a genre entails, but after a short explanation from Jaden I think I kind of get it now? We also made Charlotte watch Spy Kids earlier this week, which she rated as “worse than crystal skull Indiana Jones”. We found out that post-release of the first movie, someone made the executive decision to go back and add a scene where the kids swim through a cave of sleeping sharks. Apparently they didn’t have the budget for this scene the first time through (we think all of the budget went towards Floop’s crazy filming room).

On Saturday, we planned on going to a food festival near the Smithsonians, but realized there was an entry fee when we arrived, so we changed plans. We ended up spending the day in the National Gallery (which is still not enough time to look at everything there). I learned firsthand that it is so much more fun to go to an art museum with friends so that you can make fun of all the weird paintings and sculptures. Maia and I specifically sought out older paintings with dogs in them, as 90% of the time the dogs look really messed up. Honestly, I think some of the artists had never seen a dog before (or a horse, or a cow, or a cat, or a human child). I was really captivated by the painting “Mount Corcoran” by Albert Bierstadt, which is said to be inspired by his visit to the Sierra Nevada mountains. It reminded me of home, as Nevada has some scenery that is really unique, especially in the high desert mountainous regions. The caption for this painting was hysteric– apparently the painting was originally called “Mountain Lake”, but the artist changed it to “Mount Corcoran” to get an art collector, William Wilson Corcoran, to buy it. He even gave him a map to where the painting was supposedly located. This painting is also just massive and has a very eye-catching composition, so it is hard to miss in the Corcoran gallery. I am excited for the fall when I have more permanent housing, as I will bring my painting supplies and hopefully have a little time to spare for art.

Today I woke up late and made blueberry pancakes. Jenna and I tried to do a Dunkin Donuts run, but it was closed when we arrived, so we did a Starbucks run instead. I will probably be lazy for the rest of the day and play video games, and I think the interns may do a movie night tonight.

Stay tuned for next week as we may do a potluck!

Signing off.

Week 4: No such thing as free BBQ

With the exceptions of Wednesday and Saturday, this week was uneventful for me as I was feeling under the weather. When I wasn’t working I was sleeping, and I think I slept enough for the next few weeks. We all had Wednesday off for Juneteenth and some of us went to Founding Farmers for brunch. I got a really big cup of coffee and a waffle (very good, would recommend)! Afterwards, we went to the nearby National Portrait Gallery, which thankfully has much better portraits than the National Gallery. Funnily enough, the portrait gallery also has a landscapes section. I wonder how they choose which paintings go in which gallery when there is so much overlap of subjects?

I think the morning excursion took whatever energy I had built up earlier in the week, so I passed out when we got back to the dorm until it was time to start cooking for the intern potluck! Kai and I made spam musubis, Maia made dumplings (and made other people make dumplings), and overall we had some very tasty food. I found out that I am truly terrible at card games that involve a quick reaction time.

Thursday and Friday were a mix of working and sleeping, and I was reminded to buy a ticket for the 32nd Annual DC Barbecue Battle on Saturday. This was a very unique event– we paid an entry fee, then got as many free samples as we could eat from dozens of businesses. I took home an apple, kiwi, and avocado, as well as some seasonings. The unfortunate part of the event was that it was 98 degrees and humid. It felt like no matter how much water I drank I wouldn’t be able to replace how much I was unwillingly sweating off. I can’t say whether or not it was worth it because afterward I felt the worst I had felt all week. I once again passed out upon arriving at the dorm until it was time to leave for the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building, which was hosting Astronomy on the Mall.

My shift started at our spacetime demo, composed of a piece of fabric stretched around a ring and weighed down at the center to create a well. We passed out marbles and bouncy balls to people so they could roll them around the well and watch as they slowly fell in. It was fun describing the concept of spacetime and gravity to kids and adults alike, and it made me reminisce a bit to my tutoring days. Some of the kids were too young to grasp such an abstract concept as “the fabric of spacetime”, but they still thoroughly enjoyed rolling balls into the gravity well. There was a person painting a large astronaut portrait/mural live, which was really cool to watch. At some point, a rave started in the room next to ours, which made it really difficult to communicate with anyone. I feel like my auditory processing capability is already a little subpar, so adding in the crowd of the room + EDM and a shouting DJ made it impossible for me to understand any words. I still had fun at the event though and enjoyed the conversations I was able to have.

It is Sunday and I slept until noon. I made some ube pancakes from Trader Joe’s for breakfast and powered through a crossword puzzle. Jenna made some chicken and pasta for our dinner, and we watched the first Tobey Maguire Spiderman (which I had never seen before and was just flabbergasted by for 2 hours).

I hope to feel better this upcoming week. It has officially been a month since I arrived in Washington DC, and living the city life feels a lot more natural than I thought it would. I don’t feel like a real adult yet but I think I’m starting to approach that.

See ya next week.

Week 5: Jumpscared by Shrek trivia

We are halfway through the internship and work is really starting to pick up for me. I spent most of this week writing and rewriting a paragraph that should be in the August edition of PT. It may not sound like much, but since the piece was supposed to be really short, it also needed to be extremely concise. Each sentence needed to fulfill a specific purpose in a way that was readable and intriguing, and also factually correct. I also got my first physics update topic! When a topic is deemed noteworthy, it will be categorized as a full length article or as an update article. Full length articles are for topics that PT really wants to focus on, or topics that require lots of background to understand, or that have a really intriguing story. Update articles are shorter, and are released more frequently (generally close to when the academic paper came out). The paper I am writing about was published on Wednesday (7/26). Without going into too much detail, it is on precision gravity measurements using an atomic interferometer. I had never heard of this type of interferometer prior to looking into this paper so I have already learned quite a bit on the scientific side. I have a meeting with two of the paper’s authors on Monday to discuss the details and make sure I have a strong understanding of the topic.

Construction outside of the Maryland office is pretty hectic right now. It probably doesn’t seem like much for a driver, but it can be quite inconvenient for me as I walk through and around the construction zones. I found out where the coffee maker is at the Maryland office this week (and the hot chocolate packets). Maybe it is because there weren’t that many people in the office, but we kept most of the lights off or dimmed in the area. I felt more relaxed and ready to take in information with the darker ambiance. No fluorescents can be nice, especially when sitting in one room for 8 hours straight. However, I did feel like a little cave goblin, typing away at my computer and blissfully unaware of the outside world. I was pretty productive in this environment so I might try it again in the future.

On Tuesday we went to trivia night in Arlington. Upon arrival, we were made aware of another trivia group wearing Shrek ears and tiaras. I thought, “Well, they must really like Shrek I guess.” They did, in fact, really like Shrek. They also were aware that the second round of trivia that night was going to be Shrek themed. Our group was not aware of this fact. It was a pleasant surprise, really. During general and Shrek themed trivia, every person in our group pulled an answer from the most obscure corner of their memory. My contribution was remembering one (1) of Shrek’s kids’ names: Farkle.

This was my boyfriend’s first week of work at his first Real Job™, so I tried to offer moral support from the other side of the country. He also brought a kitten home (more moral support)! I haven’t met this cat yet (obviously) but I am convinced that he is the cutest cat I’ve ever seen. We haven’t decided on a name yet. I am visiting him this upcoming week for the Fourth of July, so hopefully we will be able to come up with a creative and cute name for the most perfect cat in the world (I love this cat so much already, I really hope he likes me).

Jenna went home over the weekend to visit family, so I was alone in our dorm. This is when my second cave goblin era began. On Saturday, I woke up with a wicked headache. I thought it was just a regular headache and waited for it to go away, but it was still there an hour later. At this point, I realized that it was a migraine, not a headache. I proceeded to sit in my room in the dark with the lights off and the blinds closed (light makes my migraines like 10x worse) and popped some ibuprofen. The rest of my Saturday continued in a similar fashion. The migraine was mostly gone by Sunday (thank goodness). While Jenna was gone, I discovered for the third time since moving to DC that the small pint of milk I had bought had gone bad. Each time, it has been within a week of opening, and well before the expiration date. After three milks had an untimely demise, I realized that it probably wasn’t a me problem, and it was probably a fridge problem. I don’t think our refrigerator door (where I was storing the milk) stays cold enough to store milk. I proceeded to throw the milk away (again) and I put Jenna’s unopened milk in the very back of the fridge (results inconclusive).

See y’all next week!

Week 6: Livin’ in a marmot paradise

In work-related news: I interviewed the authors for the precision gravity measurements on Monday. The interview left me feeling as though I have a good understanding of the research. I continued writing my first draft for the piece on Tuesday and Wednesday. Atomic interferometry takes advantage of the dual wave-particle nature of matter to discern the acceleration due to gravity on atomic wavepackets near a source mass. There are quite a few challenges in doing so, one of them being that Earth’s gravity is 300 million times stronger than the interaction of wavepackets with the source mass, making it very difficult to isolate the acceleration. Research of this type mainly focuses on proving/disproving theories in fundamental physics, but also has repercussions in the study of dark matter/energy and developing new technologies to make such precise measurements. I learned more about “fifth force” dark energy models and scalar fields while looking into this piece! I also finished up my statistics piece for the August edition.

On Tuesday night, I took the metro out to IAD and flew to Seattle to visit my boyfriend for the Fourth of July! We both had a four day weekend, which I believe will not be common in the future, so it was a great time for a visit. I met the perfect kittie upon arriving at my boyfriend’s apartment. This cat is so friendly, soft, and playful, and I am going to miss him so much. After much deliberation, we decided to name him Rocky (short for Ragnarok). His gray fur kind of looks like stone, and he is a ragdoll (hence, rag-narok). I worked from the apartment on Wednesday and got to hang out with Rocky all day. He really likes to tell you when he wants attention– anytime we enter a different room, he will either quickly follow or meow incessantly until he is picked up. I have never met a sweeter cat.

We went to Uwajimaya (a Washington supermarket that sells a huge variety of Asian foods, highly recommend going even if you just want snacks) and got the ingredients for hot pot for the Fourth of July. I had never had hot pot before so I wasn’t sure if I was going to like boiled meat, but hot DANG was it good! The next day, we went to a bakery called Farine and got a cruffin (crème brûlée croissant muffin, very delicious). We decided that we would drive down to Mt. Rainier at some point and go hiking, so we bought some hiking gear. Friday night we went to a revolving sushi bar for the first time! The restaurant has two revolving lines– one has a few of each dish circulating, and the other sends out orders to specific tables/seats. I had so much fun with this experience, and we got a little prize after turning in our plates (tamago sushi keychain). We will absolutely try this again in the future.

We woke up at 3:30 AM on Saturday morning to start the >2 hour drive to Mt. Rainier, when we realized the road to the trail we had chosen was closed. Luckily, we discovered this before driving all the way out there. We promptly went back to sleep and decided to find a different trail to hike on Sunday instead (and honestly we were grateful to get some more sleep). Costco was selling a really nice cat tree that fit with the colors of the apartment, so we bought it and put it together for Rocky. He isn’t quite big enough to get up to the top yet!

Finally, on Sunday we drove to the Sunrise Visitor’s Center at Mt. Rainier and started on the Mt. Fremont Fire Lookout Trail. We got there around 7 AM, so the air was still cool and the sun wasn’t blasting just yet. For the first 15 minutes, I became really afraid that we had made a mistake in choosing this trail because it was full sun and at a steep incline (we powered through and the rest wasn’t as bad). The hike is 5.6 miles round trip along with a 1200 ft increase in elevation, moving us from Seattle’s sea level to 7200 ft. I did not account for this increase in altitude, and got a pretty serious nosebleed halfway to the lookout. Hiking on a skinny trail where some parts only support one-way traffic, and adding some extra dizziness due to blood loss was more sketchy than I had desired. Nonetheless, we completed the hike (and acquired many more mosquito bites along the way). I felt like I was in a movie or video game at the fire lookout, and the surrounding mountains and trees were so surreal. Very early into the hike we saw a mid-sized rodent creature sort of prancing along the mountain. As we learned later, this animal was a marmot! We ended up seeing 10 marmots over the course of the hike. They are very cute and not too skittish so we were able to look at them up close. We also saw mountain goats from a distance! I can’t wait to go back to Mt. Rainier during future visits, hopefully during a time where more roads are open!

I am taking an overnight flight back to DC on Monday night, so I will have to say goodbye to the kittie and my boyfriend. I am rejuvenated and excited to get back to work for the last three weeks of the internship! I also miss hanging out with the other interns!

‘Til next time.

Week 7: The Beach Episode

After working from Seattle on Monday, I took the overnight flight back to DC. I slept for maybe 4 hours on the 5 hour flight, navigated my way out of the airport, and took the metro back to DC. I worked from my dorm for the rest of Tuesday, and even though I was exhausted, I went to trivia night with everybody! Historically, I am not a super strong trivia player (unless it is science related, and even then it’s kinda iffy). Still, I think we did better this time (and there was no Shrek involved)!

I went into the Maryland office on Wednesday and experienced the final editing processes for the I&E section in the August edition (which has a little piece by me in it)! Working at PT entails the research and writing of your own pieces, as well as the proofreading and assessment of others’ work. With less than four weeks to go until our final presentations, I began brainstorming for my presentation title and abstract, and started to lay out a rough outline of a slideshow. I also finished up my first draft of the precision gravity piece and got some feedback to work through! I was back in the DC office on Friday, and “pitched” an article for the upcoming News stories (I say “pitched” in quotes because it was really more of me describing what I was already writing, rather than trying to convince others that it was a good topic). I hope to refine the gravity piece more next week and begin working in earnest on the physics olympiad piece as well.

At some point, Jenna and I went grocery shopping. Trader Joe’s left me heartbroken, as their freezers were malfunctioning, so I couldn’t get any of the frozen stuff that I wanted (which happened to be a good amount this week). I will try my luck again next week. On Friday night, we went to happy hour at a pub, and I once again felt the sadness of a 20-year-old who gets mozzarella sticks instead of a drink (the mozzarella sticks were good, though, so I wasn’t actually that distraught).

My boyfriend had a great idea: we should start a server in Minecraft while we are doing long-distance. After multiple hours of frustratingly trying to download the correct launchers and mods onto my computer, we finally played a little bit Friday night. Of course, one can never play just “a little bit” of Minecraft. I woke up bright and early on Saturday (noon) and we played just a little more Minecraft (we played until 9 PM). I think my real calling in life is to be a virtual farmer. One of the mods we added introduces dozens of new crops and cooking recipes into the game, which will give me lots to explore.

We went to Sandy Point Beach in Maryland on Sunday! On the ride there and back, Charles, Kai, and I tortured each other (and Reidyn and Kaden) with delightful tunes (the new Ke$ha song, the Nickelback Rockstar Sea Shanty, Chug Jug With You). Luckily, we also discovered our mutual taste for Maneskin, so it wasn’t all torture. Thanks to my persistence in applying sunscreen to my face, my face is not sunburnt. Unfortunately, my persistence ended with my face, so the rest of me is quite sunburnt. I wasn’t sure what sort of beach this was going to be. I am used to Lake Tahoe at home, where it can be burning hot out but the water will still be under 50 degrees, so I wasn’t sure if I would actually want to go swimming. The water was actually the perfect temperature! I felt like a fish! I’ve never been to the beach with such a large group of people before, so I learned how to play some football-beach games like Monkey in the Middle.

Out of the water, I read a little bit of Agatha Christie, then gave up and fell asleep on my towel. I was woken up by the patter of rain as a big storm came in on the beach. Eventually, the lifeguards made the call to close the beach and we all headed back to the cars. My car hit Applebees on the way back to the dorms (which was actually not as bad as I remembered it being, but definitely still not good). Promptly upon my arrival to the dorm, I was called back into action in the Minecraft server. More farming work was done. I made sushi in Minecraft.

Playing video games is not quite the same as spending time with each other in person, but I am beyond grateful that we are able to play together and talk as much as we want. I am starting to realize that I will be living on my own in less than a month (without my family and friends as I have been in DC, but also without the other interns), and it makes me a little anxious.

See you next week.

Week 8: Oh no it’s almost August

I swear time is going by faster these last few weeks. My projects are slowly reaching their final stages, including my slideshow for the symposium that ends our internship. Of the three pieces I am writing for PT, the statistics one is complete, the gravity one is on its second draft, and the olympiad one is waiting on more information. We submitted the abstracts for our final presentations on Monday, and I have been working on building my presentation that encompasses everything I have done during this internship.

Jenna and Charlotte organized a tour of NIST for us on Thursday. Prior to this internship, I was entirely unsure of what NIST actually does. I have a better understanding now of the extent of their work. We listened to Brad Conrad talk about the different options awaiting us after graduation (mmm grad school). We had a little potluck and then toured the forensics lab and saw the million pound deadweight. We also listened to Sarah Hörst explain why Titan is so special as opposed to other planets and moons in our solar system.

On Friday night, a bunch of us went to Ben’s Chili Bowl for chili dogs. I don’t like the idea of putting chili on a hotdog, so I got chili cheese fries and a chocolate milkshake. I was surprised by the extra kick of spice in the chili I got, but no one else was saying anything about it being spicy so I thought I was just being sensitive. When I couldn’t finish my fries, I passed them off to others and they informed me that my chili actually was spicier than theirs. So I wasn’t just being a wimp (thank goodness). Unrelated to chili, we discussed pooling all of our stipends together to franchise a Taco Bell, which apparently is only $160,000 dollars.

I stole chocolate chip pancakes from Kai and Maia on Saturday morning, then Kai, Collins, and I walked to the Old Post Office with the intent to climb 27 flights of stairs. Upon arrival, we were informed that the post office was actually closed for the weekend (probably a good thing, because Collins and I were not excited about the stairs), and we instead toured Ford’s theater. The museum beneath the theater felt more like a Civil War museum than an Abraham Lincoln museum. They also emphasize how sassy Lincoln was during his presidency throughout the exhibit. There was a little blurb about using hot air balloons in the war– apparently we had a Union Army Balloon Corps, where the balloons were capable of telegraphing information about the surroundings to leaders. The war started just as many balloonists were attempting to cross the Atlantic on hot air balloons.

We hit Whole Foods on the way back and I grabbed some rice and yeast. I proceeded to make chicken tikka masala and a small loaf of french bread. The bread turned out pretty good. I bought a bag of flour a week ago and then realized I need to use it ASAP. I need to use a lot of groceries ASAP. I don’t have a reliable way to transport messy/refrigerated/frozen foods by airplane.

My boyfriend and I played a lot of Minecraft during our free time this week. When we started the server, we found an unoccupied house and made that our temporary home base, but it quickly became too small for all of our things and wasn’t in an ideal location for farming and mining. We spent about an hour looking for a new place to build a house and then proceeded to move all of our things over to the new location. We found cantaloupe in the game (I am now a cantaloupe farmer).

I woke up nice and late on Sunday, did almost nothing the whole day, then ate pasta and meatballs made by my favorite (and only) roommate, Jenna. I then went to the mall with the spikeball gang for Mandatory Outside Time™. I am currently reading This is How You Lose the Time War, which I am really enjoying, although it takes some work to understand what is happening at times. It is written as a series of letters back and forth between agents from enemy organizations that are fighting to control the events of the past (and they fall in love, I think). It seems I will not succeed in my goal to read one book per week, but I think 7/10 is good enough for me, and I really shouldn’t buy any more books before moving.

I’m moving in less than two weeks. It’s not a temporary move either. I won’t just be living in a new city for 10 weeks for an internship. I am moving myself and all of my belongings to Nashville to start graduate school. I am going to be a graduate student. It feels surreal. It feels scary. It also feels exciting. The Nashville zoo has red pandas.

Signing off (and slowly becoming enveloped in a palpable anxiety).

Week 9: Intern Activities™

On Tuesday, we went into the Maryland office to tour the Niels Bohr Library and Archives and answer questions as part of an SPS focus group. NBLA was so fun to tour. I listened to their podcast “Initial Conditions” after PhysCon in 2022 and was intrigued to learn more about physics history! We saw their massive physics book collection and archive, special Book Refrigerator™, and Book Vault™. We also played some archivist trivia (which as it turns out is really difficult when you know nothing about libraries or archives).

I spent Monday, Wednesday, and most of Thursday frantically working on two of my PT pieces, both of which need to be done ASAP. Thursday was Intern Appreciation Day at ACP-DC where we got free lunch and learned more about the perks of being interns. Unfortunately, lunch was salad. As a twenty-year-old adult I am still quite averse to vegetables (especially uncooked), and force-fed myself some of the lettuce.

We spent Friday touring the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The first stop was obviously the gift shop, where I bought two decks of cards (for my already ridiculously large card collection) and a shirt that has little astronaut kitties on it. We got our guest badges and headed over to the Hubble Operations Control center and learned a lot about the intricacies of Hubble maintenance throughout the years. Then we split into two groups to tour the LISA telescope and astrobiology labs. I did a project in astrophysics a few years ago about gravitational wave astronomy, so I was really excited to see something that will be used for LISA in the future. The precision required for interferometry is extremely impressive, and the ingenuity that goes into building an interferometer in space is even more so. I got to hold a real life piece of space rock that had crashed into Earth in the astrobio lab, and we also got to see some of the ways the scientists there determine if there are signs of life in a material. Finally, we got to see parts of the future Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope being tested in a clean room. I had briefly heard of this upcoming telescope, but I had no idea how much of a wider field of view it would have in comparison to Hubble and Webb. I am so excited for Roman to be launched and for the vast amounts of data it has to be accessible to everyone.

Maia and I were hungry post-NASA and went to Tonic at Quigley’s for some tater tots. I also got some BBQ pork belly mac and cheese (both of which were delicious, 10/10 would recommend).

Earlier in the week, we were given tickets to see a play at the Klein Theatre (shoutout to Paul Guinnessy). On Saturday, Maia, Collins, Reidyn, and I headed to the theater to watch a semi-modern rendition of The Rover by Aphra Behn. It was semi-modern in the sense that all of the dialogue was still in Shakespeare-era English, but there were also modern pop-culture songs interjected between scenes that translated some of the more old-timey comedy into something digestible for casual play-goers. Maia and I flipped out when the play started by blasting HOT TO GO to a theater room full of old people and four SPS interns (now everyone gets to appreciate Chappell Roan). Some critics consider The Rover to be a feminist play as its women choose their own path in love and marriage. Most of it was quite funny, although I would tell any future attendees that there should be a content warning for sexual assault. Afterwards, Maia and I went to Teaism and I got a mango lassi (mmm) and a jasmine creme brulee. We took a long walk back to the dorm and appreciated the swarms of dragonflies that scattered across the Mall.

Maia and I made plans to go shopping on Sunday. Our day started by walking to a bakery called Yellow in Georgetown (mmm very good), and we ate our breakfast watching rats and getting obliterated by bugs. We decided to stick around Georgetown and do some casual shopping among the many stores that line the streets. We found an antique store that had a weird amount of Abraham Lincoln items, including a statue that I think was supposed to be Abraham Lincoln but dressed in Roman style (might’ve also been a Roman emperor who just happened to look a lot like Abe). I got two books at The Lantern Bookshop (Asimov’s Mysteries and State of Fear). I am now trying to pawn off the books I finished this summer to the other interns as I haven’t the space to take them with me to Nashville. I also got some clothes from various stores, which I similarly do not have the space for in my luggage (a problem left for future Sonja).

Upon our arrival at the dorm on Sunday, I was quickly pulled to the Intern Olympics opening ceremony. We had four teams competing for glory in a competition to see which interns were the best at various activities that were popular this summer. My team was Jaden and Charlotte (thank goodness, because they are both athletic and like doing athletic things), so I was able to escape most of the more sporty events. I took some pretty fun action shots of the interns playing soccer, and we headed back to the dorm for the indoor portion of the olympics. My team placed third and we got bronze medals from the game master, Jenna.

Next week is our final week of being SPS interns. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been here for nine weeks already, but I’ve also packed in a year’s worth of activities, making it feel like I’ve been here longer. I have a lot of groceries I need to consume before Saturday. I have a lot of things I need to pack into not a lot of suitcase space. It’s starting to feel a little bittersweet.

Until next week.

Week 10: Busy Bee

Hello dear reader,

I am writing this final blog post from my new home in Nashville, TN. Our internship ended Friday afternoon and I flew out Saturday morning. I’ve been pretty busy for the last few days moving into my new place and attending orientation events for my graduate program. Still haven’t found a good grocery store (I was spoiled by the Trader Joe’s being so close to the dorm this summer, I miss it already).

Last week went by incredibly fast. I don’t remember what happened on which days, other than that we rehearsed presentations on Thursday and officially presented on Friday. I did a lot of finishing touches on my two PT pieces that haven’t been published yet, but they still aren’t quite done, so I will be working on them more this week.

Maia, Kai, and I got crepes at some point (I was definitely allergic to them in hindsight). I desperately tried to use all of my groceries before leaving and failed miserably. I went through almost 5 pounds of rice this summer. I’ve never quantified my rice intake before so this was an interesting number. I took all of my spices (and also Jenna’s spices) with me on the plane, but everything else was too heavy (rip my $6 apple butter, you will live forever in my heart).

Presentations went well on Friday! Some of the other interns said I seemed really relaxed– I guess it’s a good thing I came off that way, but in reality my heartbeat was going so fast that it was a little hard to breathe. No matter how well rehearsed I am, I still get anxiety over presenting. Spoiler alert for future interns: Mikayla and Kayla gave each of us a book with little notes in them, then we passed them around like yearbooks. I was SO tempted to write ‘HAGS’ and nothing else in everyone’s book but I withheld the urge (mostly).

We went to Tonic for dinner on Friday, and I got the pork belly mac and cheese again because it is really, really good. I said goodbye to the other interns, and later that night I said goodbye to Jenna. This internship was my first time away from home, and Jenna was my first ever roommate. She has set the bar high for any possible future roommates (she has also fueled my new addiction to banana bread).

Somehow, I packed all of my belongings into two massive suitcases, a duffel bag, and a backpack (sans apple butter). I succeeded in pawning off six of my books to other interns (I hope they like them)!

This internship experience meant so much to me, and I hope to take all that I’ve learned and the friendships I’ve made into the next chapter of my life. Thank you SPS and Physics Today! Thank you to the other interns who made the last 10 weeks fun, memorable, and somehow made the GW dorm feel like a home.

Yours truly,

Sonja Boettcher