One of my brother's friends is an astrophysicist at MIT (how they got along is beyond me), and there was always the joke of "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to..." followed by: "No, wait, it does!"

Usually the subjects mentioned were things like changing a lightbulb, filling a gas tank, walking the dog, making microwave popcorn, etc.

My assignment for class this week is to write an article about an area of science I don't know much about.

Hmmmm.

Several problems: I enjoy science thoroughly, so there aren't that many areas that I neither don't know much about and also give a rip about learning more.

Silly me chooses nuclear physics. And, because it looks at the formation of elements after the Big Bang and in supernovae, I also have to learn astrophysics.

Did I mention that I cried during my physics exam in college? I was so exhausted and so frustrated when I knew knew the answer but I just couldn't think of it that I kind of cracked up. Just a bit.

I'm kicking myself for picking this topic. Though it's interesting, it's taking for-freaking-ever to wrap my little pea-sized brain around things like "How do you determine how many neutrons can be in a nucleus?" In the one interview I was able to score thus far, my most frequent question was "Could you repeat that?"

It's a challenge, and I think I would enjoy it if I had more time. But I don't. So I will have to make do with what I have.