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A letter to the GMS community from Dr. Deborah Stearns-Kurosawa, GMS Associate Provost and Associate Dean\u00a0<\/span>ad interim In the spring of 1859, Dickens begins A Tale of Two Cities<\/u> with \u201cIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n These lasting words resonate in major conflicts familiar to all of us in recent years in the realms of politics, constitutional rights, systemic racism, socioeconomic and healthcare disparities, cavalier dismissal of personal respect, factual science, and reputable journalism. \u00a0The dichotomies are deep, personal, and complex. Then along came the virus and anxiety suddenly had a whole new meaning.<\/p>\n As an educational community, we will persevere because all of you are stepping up to do what is necessary.\u00a0 It’s not fun, it’s not convenient, it’s distracting and annoying.\u00a0 Yet you are doing it, and I am so very proud of our BU students who are wrestling with these distractions every day.\u00a0 Getting to campus (is the T safe?), working in laboratory (in shifts), classroom Zoom fatigue (a screen again<\/em>), missing family and friends, worrying for your elders and children.\u00a0 Every time you work through these, you and the whole community succeeds in moving one more step and one more day forward, and I am grateful.<\/p>\n Which leads me to gratitude for zeptoseconds.\u00a0 \u00a0 For the uninitiated, a zeptosecond is a unit of time in seconds measured as a decimal point followed by 20 zeroes and a 1 (10-21<\/sup> sec). \u00a0Turns out it takes 247 zeptoseconds for light to travel across one hydrogen (H2) molecule, according to research by German physicists published this month in Science<\/a>.\u00a0 It is a study of the push-eject interaction between a photon and the electron it smacks out of its orbital. No, I don\u2019t understand the physics (I studied toxins, not photons), but it speaks to me of the quintessential characteristic of scientists to explore and seek answers.\u00a0 Really, who would ask this kind of question?\u00a0 Scientists do and for that, I am grateful.\u00a0 Who knows, someday this might be the insight needed to cure our planet.\u00a0 Certainly we\u2019ll have accurate clocks.<\/p>\n Be safe, be well, wear masks and be yourself.<\/p>\n Dr. S-K<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A letter to the GMS community from Dr. Deborah Stearns-Kurosawa, GMS Associate Provost and Associate Dean\u00a0ad interim Dated: 10\/27\/2020 In the spring of 1859, Dickens begins A Tale of Two Cities with \u201cIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16806,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[795],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16806"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76105"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76185,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76105\/revisions\/76185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDated: 10\/27\/2020<\/em><\/p>\n