The 1970s, the decade of my teenage years, was a transitional period in American youth culture.

After a semester or so, my infatuation with computers burnt out as quickly as it had begun.

I was born in Palo Alto, California in 1961.

Conversely, I came to realize that being good at something is hardly a reason to avoid doing it.

There are relatively few experiments in atomic physics these days that don't involve the use of a laser.

My fellow students there were very smart, but the really novel thing was that they actually seemed to put a lot of effort into their school work. By the end of my first semester there, I began to get into that habit as well.

With every passing year, BEC proves that it still has surprises left for us.