After this Thursday afternoon, I have no worries about my own death.

[NNadir]

My son, who recently graduated with high honors as a Materials Science Engineer, came home for a dental appointment.

I left work a little early to be sure to make dinner with him, and we had about an hour to chat alone.

He's in the process of thinking about what institution to which he'd like to apply to Graduate School and he indicated strongly that he would like one with a nuclear engineering capability, because in that area materials science is the thing. (I'm pushing him to try for MIT; most of his professors think it likely he'll get in.)

Then he asked, chip off the old block - about molten salt reactors, for which I've lost enthusiasm - and I sketched out, a completely different idea on which I've been working for maybe ten years or so. In about an hour, we discussed the properties of liquid metals, boiling metals, boiling salts, the Brayton cycle, the Rankin cycle, the sulfur iodine cycle, the problem of low level climate forcing gases; all this we discussed in one hour.

He got it.

I've been wanting to do this for a long time; on the other hand, he has his own life to live, and he's very busy and works very hard, but he got it. But I scribbled a bit on waste paper, drew some crude diagrams, talked a bit about radiation chemistry, and really, he took it all in and got it.

I explained where the files are when I'm gone, where he needs to look beyond those files to learn more, and he got it all.

If one has an idea that one may think is original, it often turns out that it isn't; if one looks, one will see others working along the same lines. Even if one does have an original idea that has occurred to no one else, one should expect that someone else will come to it eventually. Still I wondered if all this work I did in an area not connected with my professional life, would die with me, consoling myself that probably someone else would get around to it eventually.

My kid got it; clearly he got it.

Life is beautiful and then you die. When you die, I think it a marvelous luxury if one can believe that one did something to make the world a little better. What I did was to guide my sons, and for one of them, I inspired an idea that may live after me when I expected otherwise.

I am at peace.

[sellitman]

1. I understand completely

My youngest's work with NASA and his Masters revolved around telescopes and the search for Exo-planets. He is applying for a PHD program that is in the same field. Who knows what they will find? Perhaps a clean planet we can send people too when this place is toast? He makes me proud. I get it

[blm]

2. 💕

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. Yes, hoping for that "marvelous luxury" that we've made the world a bit better

before we die is a grand hope to have.

That you for puting that into words, and for your, and possibly your son's, work.

[PatrickforB]

4. That is very good news. And yes, the ONLY worthy goal in life is to live

in such a way that the world is better in some way because you have lived. For myself, I express it as serving the divine and the earth in the best way possible.

I am glad for you that your son understood. I am an economist, as opposed to a physicist or chemist or engineer, so much of that is beyond me. You and I have spoken before on these threads about nuclear power being the cleanest option for us, I believe - I recall you advocated a fusion process using the nuclear waste we already have produced as fuel could power the world for a generation.

It is my hope, for all our sakes, that your son can stand on your proverbial shoulders and move us farther along.

[NNadir]

16. At this point, I'm not so sure he's standing so much on my shoulders, as much as other shoulders...

...and surely his own two feet.

He has had the good fortune to catch some attention from his faculty; just as his older brother did in a completely different area. It was the fine scientists in the faculty who brought him forward.

My son is way smarter than I am, and I know it. If I could have held a conversation at 22 like the one he had with me about phase diagrams, phase transitions, heat transfer, technetium vs rhenium orbitals, well I might have been more interesting. It took me, well, forever to get there, and he can just waltz in and get it, before dinner.

There's that cliche about leading horses to water but not being able to drink.

My boy drinks everything up, and I do mean everything.

My sons are my only real accomplishment, and I'm not even sure they're mine so much as their mother's accomplishment.

[PatrickforB]

17. Nonetheless, it sounds as though he has a great future.

I'll be rooting for him too.

[OldBaldy1701E]

24. Wow.

Based on your assessment, I must be the most worthless human on the planet. But, I tried. Which counts for nothing, obviously. Just ask Yoda...

[erronis]

5. A beautiful paean to your life past and now and his and the future.

Thank you. I also feel that way and hope that I have passed along some of me, my interests and curiosity and joy of life.

[yardwork]

6. As a mother, I understand and am very happy for you!

[sheilahi]

7. I don't worry about my own death. My son? Not so much.

And my son comes over to ask to remove a magic marker moustache off of his son before his wife gets home. I told him just to get used to explaining his little boy's uncanny resemblance to Groucho Marx for about a month.
But I'm sure he will be explaining material science engineering to me any day now.

[3Hotdogs]

8. Me? I worked for thirty years to make New Jersey free of second hand smoke in public places.

This year is the 20th anniversary of Smoke Free NJ

My most interesting task was to carry equipment into bars, restaurants and casinos to measure particulate matter. Then I presented to the NJ legislature.

[NNadir]

9. As a citizen of that state, one who lost his father to cigarettes, I sincerely thank you.

New Jersey, for me, is nirvana, but you helped make it more so.

[3Hotdogs]

12. Some of us are back to making casinos 100% smoke free.

Smoking is set to resume in casinos at midnight, 7/4.

I posted the story of my father's death on D.U. That was a couple of years ago. His death was a shit show.... throat cancer after 70 years of 3 packs a day of unfiltered "Luckies."

I guess he wasn't too lucky.

[NNadir]

13. I've only been in a New Jersey casino once in my life, when we met my wife's friends...

...when we were all given tickets to a free magic show. It was about a year or so ago.

I was surprised there were people smoking in there.

(There were also some people wearing MAGA hats.) It all seemed a little depressing; the show was OK though, some guy who apparently has a TV magic show.

Good luck with that one: Save some lives.

[3Hotdogs]

14. My sympathy for this is with the workers.

[NNadir]

15. Yes, I agree. This should be a serious OSHA issue.

I do understand it's a job that some people need, and that they are paying health consequences of needing that job, unnecessarily.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

25. More on that:

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is part of the CDC and thus in the Department of Health and Human Services. OSHA is part of the Department of Labor. They do talk to each other.

Anyway, here's something from NIOSH. It has links.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Tobacco Smoking

New Jersey is what is called a "state plan" state, so you would want to start with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

State Plans

New Jersey state plan

[3Hotdogs]

26. Thank you.

Good place to start.

[ancianita]

10. Oh,

I feel this.

Thank you for sharing this.

[Jon King]

11. A friend of mine works in this field....

Interesting technology.

https://www.terrestrialenergy.com/technology/molten-salt-reactor/

[lillypaddle]

18. How wonderful for you both

[lunatica]

19. I worked in the MSE engineering department as staff in the University of California at Berkeley.

You remind me of the most popular professor there who taught the Materials Science course which is one of the first classes given to engineering students. He was such a good teacher that all he had to do was talk to the students about engineering to get them to choose an Engineering major. He taught so they would “get it”, and they did.

His students raved about him in the reviews! He was very cool! His office was always packed with students listening to him during office hours. They’d spill out into the hall, making it very difficult to walk down the hall. We were all used to it.

[llashram]

20. you are

truly blessed... may your son keep rising and hopefully one day he will rise to greatness...

[yonder]

21. Great post and tribute to your sons, YOURSELF

and parents everywhere who had something to do with pointing their kids in a direction that let them decide for themselves which paths are appropriate.

Ya done good.

[Duppers]

22. K & R

You've described my dh relationship with our son; it's most comforting to know your offspring understands your work and you some of his (offspring here has branched off & dad has extended son's work, even after his "retirement".)

[smirkymonkey]

23. I wish your son all the best! It sounds like he has a very bright future ahead of him.

My brother got his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from MIT and has been doing quite well ever since. He works in Nuclear Remediation for a large Environmental Services Company.

I think Nuclear Engineering might be the way to go, especially as we decrease our need on fossil fuels. It's just not sustainable. It's important to develop other low-carbon energy sources as well, but we can't ignore nuclear for its sheer capacity.