At 70, what does it mean to keep up with my degree in Metrology?

 My first thought is that I should not presume that someone reading this will know what Metrology is. OTOH, I wonder if anyone would be reading this if they didn't understand what Metrology means or were good enough at research to look it up.  

I will presume that my question is more of a comment on my state of mind at 70. Either way, I found the article fascinating. But instead of going in-depth into the article, I'd like to provide an example of one meteorologist's thoughts.  

Many years ago, when the world first considered using "fundamental constants" to provide "the standard" for determining the value of the primary, basic units of measurement, my first thought was, "Yes, I can see that works!"  My second thought was, "But if we're using the fundamental constants to measure everything, how could we know if one of those constants changes?   If everything was based on them, we would need to have some way to determine whether one of them changed, and we'd need to know whether they all were changing relative to one another; thus, there is no change.  Or, if one changed but not others, what could we use as a standard to make that determination. The article mentions that many think that these constants change. I personally have not read any of the theories behind that, but I'm also not sure that they would. Nevertheless, it's hard to believe that they will never change, and eventually, it will happen.  Of course, not in my lifetime. lol

But as to how we would know if it happened, I didn't know then, and I also didn't know until I read this article in Quanta Magazine: "The First Nuclear Clock Will Test if Fundamental Constants Change" 

<https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-first-nuclear-clock-will-test-if-fundamental-constants-change-20240904/?mc_cid=57a781a76c&mc_eid=5b5ae44319>

Yum Yum! Articles like this keep my 70-year-old mind young! :-)  My mind will return to this article periodically until I own it! :-)

Deer Whistles and statistics. Do they really *not* work or can they protect you?

 The first thing we learn in science is that anecdotal evidence is not evidence. Regarding deer whistles, there's no lack of anecdotal evidence! Actually, there is...

I've always had deer whistles on my cars; I think I picked that up from my dad, who had them on his cars.  I've also never hit a deer, but my wife has and she did not have deer whistles.  These are anecdotal and true stories because I've experienced both.  

When I searched the internet, I did a search for both types of stories. I'm sure they exist, but they've not been gathered together in one place.  One thing I noticed was a definitive lack of evidence about them *not* working.  In fact, I found fewer stories about them not working than I did about them working.  And this is the problem with anecdotal evidence.  If the horns work, no one thinks to mention this unless they decide to search for evidence or post a story contrary to their friends. The same is true if they don't use them and they hit a deer.  In the latter, we're more likely to see a story that says, "I hit a deer the other day." and not one that says they did it and they "were" or "were not" using deer whistles.  What is a person to do?

The lack of evidence one way or another is not proof they don't work.  Nor is it proof they do.  However, when all one has is anecdotal, I say better safe than sorry.  Fortunately, they're cheap, and it's not hard to mount them correctly.  My personal opinion is: The reason there are so few stories about deer horns working is because so few people have hit deer and were also using a deer horn.  Also, I do find far more stories about people hitting deer than I do about "not" hitting deer.  Of course, the reason for this is obvious. If we talked about everything that didn't happen to us, it would be boring, and no one would read it. 

Bottom Line: If you're on the fence about using them for a very small price and increased confidence, install them.  Installing them correctly and staying alert around fields and wooded areas near roads wouldn't hurt either. 

FWIW: In every instance I've seen deer and was using a deer horn, I was alert and the deer either already running across the road well ahead of me, or they were standing at the side of the road staring at me.  Whether this was because I was using a deer horn or not, frankly, I don't care.  I'm not going to stop paying attention to the driving conditions!  The best offense is a good defense!