The Futures go mobile, visiting media wizard Mark Hager after a serious auto accident and physicist Nick Herbert on the faster than light "CERN Neutrino Speculator."

Dr. Future Show 9.28.11 Special Edition

A strange thing happened after the live Dr. Future Show at KSCO this week- the station auto-logger did not record the show!  Sadly, we have no record of all the cool things we talked about this week.  Our links page does give you a good idea of the topics discussed, just not our opinions and perspectives or the questions and comments from our beloved listeners.  

So, after being bummed about this for a day, Sun (Mrs. Future) and I visited the most interesting call-in to  the non-recorded show, Mark Hager.  A tech wizard of the highest caliber, Mark has been responsible for setting up and operating the media at some of the biggest venues and shows in the Bay Area- i.e. the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, the TED conferences in Monterey, the HP Pavilion in San Jose. 

A couple of weeks ago he was in a head-on collision on Highway 9 North of Boulder Creek, and was airlifted to Stanford Hospital for a 9-hour surgical operation.  Among other things he had to have the femur replaced in one leg with a titanium rod, had his knee caps repaired as well as some major lacerations.

Wheelchair bound, we made him breakfast, and he shared with us some good info on how he has turned this ‘disaster’ into some invaluable insights about our medical system and ways to make it better, should you ever find yourself in such a situation.  He also takes us on a little journey into our species’ relationship with canines, as his golden lab, Sparky, is playing a key role in his recovery. 

Next up is Nick Herbert, a quantum physicist who shares with Dr. Future his understanding of this latest bewildering faster than light neutrino experiment at CERN in Switzerland.   He points out that measurement and timing errors only account for about 20% of the time difference between the speed of light and the speed of neutrinos.  (The CERN neutrinos are faster by 20 meters over a distance of 750 km). My favorite part of this conversation was when we were speculating on how ftl neutrinos may be useful to the stock market, and could be a great way to fund big physics experiments!  Gotta love the muse! Enjoy..