The attack dogs of USC

So I went down to Los Angeles to give a talk at the University of South California (go trojans!). This was a fun adventure and I will tell you all about it. In some sense, this is a story of certain fun aspects of academic life. You go see some friends, give a talk about some topic and a lot of good comes out of it. Sometimes, you even get to have a pack of fierce dogs attend your lectures …

This goes as follows: seminars are one of the most important tools to communicate ideas. Science does not happen in isolated islands. It is a collective effort. We read each others papers, we try to extend them in various directions and we apply the ‘good ole bag o’ tricks’ to new problems.

Also we ask people over to give talks because it improves the speed at which we acquire new information. If I read papers, I might get really stuck in a passage because there is some intuition that eludes me. However, if I have the author right in front of me, I can ask questions until I understand.
Doing it by e-mail is not the same. If they are visiting you, or you are visiting them, you can get immediate feedback and go forward a lot faster. This is good for the progress of scientific inquire.

Moreover, you get to talk about other stuff (like politics and blogging, education, you name it) and make new friends, meet old friends and do all those social things that make us human, like going to a bar and having a few drinks.

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