Alpher, Bethe, and Gamow

There is a seminal work in big bang nucleosynthesis (the story of how we got from nothing to elements) that was written by Ralph Alpher and his PhD thesis advisor George Gamow.  The
work was the topic of Alpher's PhD dissertation, and argued that the Big Bang created hydrogen, helium and heavier elements in proportions explained by their abundance in the early universe. The original theory did not consider processes forming heavier elements, but subsequent developments showed that their conception of Big Bang nucleosynthesis is consistent with observations, with a few tweaks.  The paper was formally titled "The Origin of Chemical Elements"and published in Physical Review in 1948.

The work was largely done by Alpher, the PhD student, but when it came time for publication, his PhD advisor Gamow could not help himself.  His friend Hans Bethe would round out the authorship list nicely, make it sound like alpha, beta, gamma, making it the perfect ABC paper author list. 

Later, Gamow would write (in his book in 1952):
"It seemed unfair to the Greek alphabet to have the article signed by Alpher and Gamow only, and so the name of Dr. Hans A. Bethe (in absentia) was inserted in preparing the manuscript for print. Dr. Bethe, who received a copy of the manuscript, did not object, and, as a matter of fact, was quite helpful in subsequent discussions. There was, however, a rumor that later, when the alpha, beta, gamma theory went temporarily on the rocks, Dr. Bethe seriously considered changing his name to Zacharias."

Additionally, these lines were found:
"The close fit of the calculated curve and the observed abundances is shown in Fig. 15, which represents the results of later calculations carried out on the electronic computer of the National Bureau of Standards by Ralph Alpher and R. C. Herman (who stubbornly refuses to change his name to Delter.)"

Of course, Alpher, a graduate student, was not very pleased with this development.  The inclusion of another great physicist on his work, at a time when multiple secondary authors was rare, could make it seem like he contributed less to this work than he actually had, being in reality the sole author working with his advisor Gamow, and Bethe contributing nothing to the work.  He was still expressing resentment over the inclusion of Bethe as late as 1999.

However, after this inclusion for whimsy's sake only, Bethe began working on nucleosynthesis, contributing some excellent bits to science, highlighting how chance of a name can lead you down an interesting and unforeseen path...

Science is done by scientists, and they are people, and they are imperfect, sometimes maddening, sometimes hilarious creatures.  The Alpher, Bethe, Gamow paper is a wonderful example, highlighting the humor of George Gamow in a way that is not often seen these days.  Mostly because it's not considered ethical anymore to include your friend just because they have a last name that rounds out your alphabetical authorship list....

2019 Challenge: BUY NO MORE FOOD

Sounds a little ridiculous, doesn't it?  One whole year without grocery shopping?  Well I think I just might be able to do it.

After 4 years of living like a spice hoarder and stocking my pantry and freezer as though a zombie apocalypse is eminent, I've finally come to the realization that enough is enough.  I can't continue to cook a whole turkey just for one meal and put the rest away in the freezer for later use if I never plan to open the freezer, take out that turkey, and actually use it.  I can't continue to buy spices in bulk if I don't use them up within 4 years.  Same goes for tea and coffee and rice and beans and quinoa.  Just because it's a good buy doesn't mean I should stock it for an army for a year when there's only one of me.  First world problems, much??

So.  The plan is:

1. Empty the refrigerator first.  The fridge has a lot of awesome stuff in it right now - sour cream, half and half, cream cheese, hard cheeses, lettuces, bok choys, carrots, half an onion, pita bread, olives, tortillas, etc...  It doesn't have eggs, so this morning when I went to look for breakfast I found one chinese eggplant about to turn, a 1-c mason jar full of turkey from Christmas, and a green bell pepper.  I made Mapo Turkey (subbing out the tofu for turkey) and 2/3 of Di San Xian, because I don't have potatoes.  All of this with 1 c of rice led to a 1-c mason jar filled with chunks of half a green bell pepper, two 1-c mason jars frozen with rice and mapo turkey, and 1 mason jar with the Di San Xian.  This is after I filled my bento with rice, mapo turkey, and Di San Xian for Monday's lunch.  For lunch I had a grilled quesadilla with cream cheese, smoked salmon (whoops how was that even still good??  that's left over from Christmas, but hey, if it passes the sniff check and is a fish, then it's probably okay), lettuce, and a lemon mustard sauce.  I can say "check" for pulling from the fridge for today!  :-)
2. Empty the freezer next.  The freezer has a lot of awesome raw ingredients in it that is really well organized, including 10 lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs, at least 5 mackerel fillets, some rainbow fish, and a very large box of Stockton beef.  I should never, ever, have to buy meat again.  The beans are well organized - these I buy dry in bulk and then cook and freeze in 2-cup baggies flat for easy organization.  I have 4 cups each already cooked of garbanzo, white, pinto, and black beans.  I should not have to cook beans again for a long, long while....  BUT.  There is a dark side to this beast.  The freezer also has a less-well-organized component, including jars and bags of, "what is this? is it beef? is it even meat? it might be eggplant, or finely diced mushrooms... why on earth did I tell myself that lie that I would remember??"  There's frozen pizza with toppings I can't place, and a giant apple tart loosely wrapped in aluminum foil that was only half-baked at the time because I put it in the oven at midnight and had to be at work early and couldn't justify letting it cook all the way....  That's where the fun is going to come in.  For every one "raw" ingredient I take out of that freezer, one "processed" item must also come out.  Even if it's going to be a total surprise after it thaws.  Looking forward to this, with a non-zero level of trepidation and quite a liberal definition of "looking forward to it."  Already pulled a tray of "Zuchinni Bread French Toast" from Christmas 2017 from the freezer - looks like breakfast is planned this week!
3. Empty the pantry last.  My pantry has some things in it that never get used.  That can of pork threads for that one Vietnamese dish, for example, hasn't been touched in three years.  There's been a tin of sardines in there forever, and don't get me started on the instant ramen.  While I can turn over a half-gallon of Gold Label Duck Brand light soy sauce once a year, I have this assortment of Hawaiian and Japanese and Korean soy sauces that almost never get used (I really like the Gold Label).  I have a 15 lb sack of jasmine rice that almost never gets touched because I'd rather use the Calrose that I like better (I turn over maybe 20 lbs of that every year).  There are jars of barley and quinoa and couscous that I probably ought to eat, if I could just get out of the habit of Calrose and seaweed for breakfast.  I'd probably be healthier for the variety, as well.  This is good for me.  It doesn't suck.  It's good.  I'll just repeat that a few more times if you don't mind....

The only problems will come when I run out of eggs, garlic, onions and greens.  I foresee that being a situation akin to when Mark Watney ran out of ketchup for his potatoes (he starts putting vicodin on the potatoes, and while I might reach that level of despair, I won't have vicodin but I will have a full bag of MSG because guess what, I'm a hoarder of relatively useless food items).  I've already ran out of eggs, and that hurts badly.  I have 6 cloves of garlic left, and I'm rationing them out for the last of the bok choy.  I'm starting a garden STAT to start growing greenery for when I am out of lettuce and bok choy and any remaining green things in the freezer (oh, yeah, I also hoard seeds about like I hoard food). 

General thoughts:
No more ranch dressing soon - when the sour cream goes south or runs out that dream will end.  It's okay because I'm almost out of things worth putting ranch dressing on.  It's not even January 15th yet - not even 1/24 of the way through!