Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, Kwanzaa, Festivus, New Year’s, or all of the above, we’re wishing you all the best from the Boyles!
The past year brought lots of changes for our family — including a new member. In June, our daughter Natalie and her husband Dan welcomed Cal to the world in State College, Pa. Both of the new parents took time off from their jobs at Penn State, and Tonia and Alan took turns in July and August to help them out in Pennsylvania.
Alan also took the opportunity to visit two of Frank Lloyd Wright’s creations in the Keystone State: the world-famous Fallingwater residence and the slightly less famous Kentuck Knob house nearby.
In October, Dan’s family and the Boyle family (including our son, Evan) converged on State College for an early Thanksgiving gathering and a chance to watch Cal take his first tentative taste of solid food. The sometimes-rainy, sometimes-sunny weather reminded us of home.
Now Cal is going to day care while his mom and dad are back at work. Natalie is the coordinator for educational programming at Penn State’s Insect Biodiversity Center and oversees projects focusing on pollinator-friendly landscaping and insect conservation. Dan is a research scientist at Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, currently focusing on synthetic aperture sonar.
This year also brought big changes for Evan: He left the world of academia behind in San Diego and moved to the Bay Area to start a new job as a staff scientist in bioinformatics at Exai Bio. The startup is developing RNA-based tests for early diagnosis of types of cancer and potentially other diseases. Alan headed down to San Diego in July to help Evan pack up his belongings, make the traffic-choked, nine-hour drive on I-5 and get him settled in his new digs in Redwood City.
Alan’s other big trip took him to Colorado for the annual ScienceWriters meeting in early October. Along the way, he spent some family time with his siblings and cousins in the Denver area, and did some sightseeing at Manitou Springs and the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. The cliff dwellings aren’t authentic: They were actually built for tourists more than a century ago. Nevertheless, Alan learned a lot during the visit and is looking forward to visiting authentic cliff dwellings in 2024.
Alan continues to work on a freelance basis as a contributing editor at GeekWire, a tech news site in Seattle; and as a contributor to Universe Today, a space news site that’s headquartered in British Columbia.
This year’s memorable stories, for good or for ill, include a test drive of an electric boat on Lake Washington and the tragic drama surrounding the loss of OceanGate’s Titan submersible during a dive to the Titanic. Alan had frequently interviewed the CEO of Everett, Wash.-based OceanGate, who perished along with four others when the sub broke up in June, and so the story was a tough one to tell.
Alan also wrote his share of stories about generative AI for GeekWire, and that put him in good stead to help craft an AI-themed stage presentation for Infinity Box Theatre’s Centrifuge production in May. Alan worked with a playwright on a one-act fictional drama, and also presented a short talk to introduce the play and provide a little background on the promise and potential perils surrounding AI.
Alan still maintains his personal news blog, Cosmic Log, which has been in operation for 21 years. And along with his co-host, science-fiction writer Dominica Phetteplace, he presides over a podcast called Fiction Science, which focuses on the place where science and technology intersect with fiction and popular culture. Fiction Science is closing in on its 50th episode and its fourth year of existence.
When Tonia’s not learning the ins and outs of being a grandmother, she’s keeping the home fires burning and has been canning up a cornucopia of delights for the year ahead. The shelves are full of jars and freezer boxes of apricot and strawberry jam, salsa and tomato sauce, applesauce and green-tomato mincemeat.
Tonia and Alan vie for the attention of our dog Ollie, who’s 51% Chihuahua, 49% Shih Tzu, and 100% good buddy. He definitely ranks among the best canine companions we’ve had over the past 37 years.
There were lots of memories made over the past year — including going to Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game and hosting family members who visited from afar. And there are plans for more memories ahead — including a road trip in April to witness a total solar eclipse from a spot near Austin, Texas, and a bucket-list journey to Egypt and Jordan that’s scheduled for next December. Here’s wishing you success both at home and away during 2024!
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