Guest Lecture
Jan. 24th, 2024 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logs(Slightly backdated) Paige and Clint finally meet, but not in the way they expected.
Paige walked into her Intro to Experimental Physics class and grabbed a seat near the front. After a few classes of lectures, the professor had said that a special guest was coming in to speak to them. Paige was hoping that whoever it was would be more interesting than most of the class had been. She was only auditing the class, so it didn’t really matter, but she hoped it would be helpful for her mutant training. Dutiful student that she was, Paige pulled out her notebook and pen for notes and watched the front of the class to see who would be coming in.
Clint walked into the lecture hall, head bent toward Maisie as she gave him a rundown on what the students had been learning thus far and what she thought might be helpful for them to know. It wasn't the first time he'd given a lecture to one of the Physics classes at Columbia, but he much preferred the ones he gave at his alma mater. Regardless, as they reached the front of the hall, he shrugged out of his suit jacket, rolled his sleeves up, and was thankful he'd chosen not to wear a tie. Still his hair was long enough to've been pulled back into a small tail at the back of his head and, as he turned to face the students still filing in, he leaned over toward his friend and the professor of the class.
"Looks like you've got a pretty big bunch," he muttered.
"It's an intro class - most of them will figure out they don't like it and go on to environmental or chemistry or bioengineering," Maisie replied. As the hall settled, she took a step forward to address the students. "Thank you all for arriving promptly. As I mentioned during our last lecture, today we have a special guest visiting - I'd like to introduce you all to Dr. Clinton F. Barton. Dr. Barton and I attended MIT together, where he received a BS in Nuclear Science & Engineering as well as a BS in Physics followed by an MS in Nuclear Science & Engineering with a focus in applied plasma physics, and then a PhD in Computational & Systems Biology. Please be respectful of his time and his generosity in agreeing to speak with you all today."
Stepping forward, Clint nudged Maisie a bit with his elbow, then grinned widely at the class. "Alright, something before we really get started - I won't be taking any questions regarding Dr. Foster's work with Einstein-Rosen bridges."
Clint waited for the class to voice a general sort of consent, then nodded. "Alright - who's got a question about experimental Physics for me? Also, please call me Clint. Dr. Barton weirds me out."
Paige thought his name sounded familiar. Maybe, if he knew Jane Foster and her work, their professor had mentioned him before.
Brushing her thoughts aside, Paige raised her hand and turned to the list of questions she wrote while doing the reading for today.
Clint pointed to the first hand to rise, then realized who the hand belonged to and half-smiled. "Ah. Miss Guthrie. Go ahead." She hadn't been listed on the class roster, but then he remembered Sam saying something about her auditing an extra class or two. Guess he'd see how they handled this dynamic.
Paige lowered her hand, wondering how Clint knew her name without asking, and then it hit her like a truck. Sam’s beau was Clint Barton. The man currently giving a guest lecture in her physics class was also the guy Paige and Jay had spent the last month being very suspicious about.
“Uh…” Paige shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Sorry. My question was about conservation of mass and how our understanding of that has been affected by people like the Hulk who can transform significantly…if we know anything about that.”
"That's a really great question," Clint said, nodding thoughtfully. "There have been a lot of examples of meta-humans exhibiting abilities and powers that stretch the bounds of our understanding - if they don't outright break them. So far as conservation of mass is concerned, the leading theory with the Hulk is something like... well, it's something along the lines of the Hulk's human body retains all the cells that the Hulk possesses, but when triggered, a chemical reaction is set in motion that, for lack of a better term, activates those cells that are otherwise dormant. So it's less conservation of mass as a shrinkage, I guess, would be the best way to say it. The cells are always there, they're simply not always active.
"It's that, or the Hulk's body mass lives in a pocket dimension only accessible after his human has triggered the transformation. That's a bit of a wild theory, though. A different example would be mutants who are able to change their size - either increasing or decreasing it. I'm aware of several mutants who are termed in a broad sense 'shape shifters.' But even within that subset, the laws of physics might not apply. For instance, there's one mutant who can change their body type - going from short to tall. However, if they make themselves tall, the mass on their body has to go somewhere, so it's generally stretched out, which makes them seem leaner. If they make themselves short, once again, the mass has to go somewhere, so they stack it as muscle.
"On the opposite side of that type of shape shifting, you have other mutants who can seemingly increase their mass or decrease it at will and without any seeming scientific logic to it. To be clear, these are anecdotal examples. I have not undertaken any sort of study regarding mutants and the many, varied ways in which they break our supposedly unbreakable laws of physics," Clint concluded, tipping his head to the side. "So I suppose a more succinct answer to your question is that, while we have theories about conservation of mass when it comes to the Hulk and others, there's unfortunately nothing concrete that I can tell you that would make it all make sense. Was that at all helpful, or did I just muddy the waters?"
“Great thanks,” Paige said weakly. Then, since that wasn’t an adequate response, added “I think that answered it.” Truthfully, she hadn’t absorbed much of the answer. She had been preoccupied with how she was going to corner Sam and ask him why he didn’t warn her that it was his Clint coming to her class. From the length of his answer, Paige assumed he had gotten to the point. Though now that she thought about it, Sam had mentioned Clint had a physics degree. Huh, maybe he did have a point about her not listening to what he said about his boyfriend.
Nodding, Clint moved on to the next question and then the next. He did his best to answer everything, though a lot of it strayed more into theoretical than experimental and there really weren't any good ways to test the theories they kept asking about. Then, of course, one of the jackasses leaning slouching in the back row raised his hand and destroyed Clint's hope that the youth of tomorrow would be better than the youths of his past.
"So, Doctor Clint. How do you know Miss Guthrie, exactly?"
"Family friends, Mister...?" He left the question hanging, demanding a response.
"Hendrickson," the boy answered, slouching a bit lower in his seat.
"Ah - any relation to Agent James Hendrickson?" Clint asked.
The young man paused for a long moment before nodding his head slowly. "Yeah. He's my uncle."
"Small world, then. We used to be partners, James and me. How's he doing after that last trip to Alaska?" Clint arched an eyebrow.
"Fine," was the sullen response he received.
"Well, pass on my well wishes to him, then, Mister Hendrickson." Looking back toward the class as a whole, Clint asked, "Any further questions?"
The universal “no more questions” collective silence fell across the classroom. Paige couldn’t believe how fast Clint had shut that Hendrickson guy down. He had been an annoyance since the start of class, and Paige could feel her classmates sneaking glances at her, trying to figure out how she could possibly know this Dr. Barton so well. At least this was an undergraduate class and Paige could avoid pretty much everyone here if necessary.
"Excellent," Clint said, casting another wide smile around the room. "In that case, since your professor gave me all the professorial power for today, how about all of you head out early and enjoy the afternoon. It's cold, but the snow's still fresh in Central Park. Throw some snowballs. Ponder physics. Have fun."
Maisie kicked his ankle. "What if I had homework to assign to them?"
"Okay, first - ouch. That hurt. Second - har har. Like you'd give homework on a Monday when you know they're all scrambling to finish the assignment that's due on Wednesday," Clint teased, leaning down to rub his ankle. Her shoes were pointy and they'd hit his foot just right to make his toes tingle.
"Yeah, yeah," Maisie said, hiding a laugh.
Paige packed up her things, trying to be slow enough to avoid getting caught by her classmates outside of class. Of course this meant she might have to talk to Clint but it was one or the other, and she’s run into Clint at some point anyway and her classmates would probably forget this once they had to focus on their projects. Better to get Clint over with now.
Shouldering her bag, Paige stood up and walked over to Clint. “Thank you for your talk today. It was very informative.”
"Hey," Clint said, still smiling as he caught Paige's eye. "No problem. And if you ever need someone to bounce ideas off of, I'm happy to help. And if that jerk from the back gives you trouble, mention it to your brother." He didn't specify which brother, but either way it'd make its way back to him and he had no qualms about calling Maisie and even the Dean of Columbia's STEM program to discuss the character of the students they'd admitted this year.
Paige frowned. “I can handle him on my own, thank you.” The last thing Paige needed was her brother going around beating up guys who annoyed her. She’d had enough of that in high school with Sam fighting off the guys who wouldn’t take no as an answer. “I’ll tell Sam I liked your talk, that should make him happy. Guess I’ll see you around.” Paige held out her hand to shake Clint’s. A little formal, maybe, but it wasn’t like they knew each other well.
"If you wanna handle him yourself, my lips are sealed," Clint said, shaking her hand in return. "Have a good day, Paige."
Paige walked into her Intro to Experimental Physics class and grabbed a seat near the front. After a few classes of lectures, the professor had said that a special guest was coming in to speak to them. Paige was hoping that whoever it was would be more interesting than most of the class had been. She was only auditing the class, so it didn’t really matter, but she hoped it would be helpful for her mutant training. Dutiful student that she was, Paige pulled out her notebook and pen for notes and watched the front of the class to see who would be coming in.
Clint walked into the lecture hall, head bent toward Maisie as she gave him a rundown on what the students had been learning thus far and what she thought might be helpful for them to know. It wasn't the first time he'd given a lecture to one of the Physics classes at Columbia, but he much preferred the ones he gave at his alma mater. Regardless, as they reached the front of the hall, he shrugged out of his suit jacket, rolled his sleeves up, and was thankful he'd chosen not to wear a tie. Still his hair was long enough to've been pulled back into a small tail at the back of his head and, as he turned to face the students still filing in, he leaned over toward his friend and the professor of the class.
"Looks like you've got a pretty big bunch," he muttered.
"It's an intro class - most of them will figure out they don't like it and go on to environmental or chemistry or bioengineering," Maisie replied. As the hall settled, she took a step forward to address the students. "Thank you all for arriving promptly. As I mentioned during our last lecture, today we have a special guest visiting - I'd like to introduce you all to Dr. Clinton F. Barton. Dr. Barton and I attended MIT together, where he received a BS in Nuclear Science & Engineering as well as a BS in Physics followed by an MS in Nuclear Science & Engineering with a focus in applied plasma physics, and then a PhD in Computational & Systems Biology. Please be respectful of his time and his generosity in agreeing to speak with you all today."
Stepping forward, Clint nudged Maisie a bit with his elbow, then grinned widely at the class. "Alright, something before we really get started - I won't be taking any questions regarding Dr. Foster's work with Einstein-Rosen bridges."
Clint waited for the class to voice a general sort of consent, then nodded. "Alright - who's got a question about experimental Physics for me? Also, please call me Clint. Dr. Barton weirds me out."
Paige thought his name sounded familiar. Maybe, if he knew Jane Foster and her work, their professor had mentioned him before.
Brushing her thoughts aside, Paige raised her hand and turned to the list of questions she wrote while doing the reading for today.
Clint pointed to the first hand to rise, then realized who the hand belonged to and half-smiled. "Ah. Miss Guthrie. Go ahead." She hadn't been listed on the class roster, but then he remembered Sam saying something about her auditing an extra class or two. Guess he'd see how they handled this dynamic.
Paige lowered her hand, wondering how Clint knew her name without asking, and then it hit her like a truck. Sam’s beau was Clint Barton. The man currently giving a guest lecture in her physics class was also the guy Paige and Jay had spent the last month being very suspicious about.
“Uh…” Paige shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Sorry. My question was about conservation of mass and how our understanding of that has been affected by people like the Hulk who can transform significantly…if we know anything about that.”
"That's a really great question," Clint said, nodding thoughtfully. "There have been a lot of examples of meta-humans exhibiting abilities and powers that stretch the bounds of our understanding - if they don't outright break them. So far as conservation of mass is concerned, the leading theory with the Hulk is something like... well, it's something along the lines of the Hulk's human body retains all the cells that the Hulk possesses, but when triggered, a chemical reaction is set in motion that, for lack of a better term, activates those cells that are otherwise dormant. So it's less conservation of mass as a shrinkage, I guess, would be the best way to say it. The cells are always there, they're simply not always active.
"It's that, or the Hulk's body mass lives in a pocket dimension only accessible after his human has triggered the transformation. That's a bit of a wild theory, though. A different example would be mutants who are able to change their size - either increasing or decreasing it. I'm aware of several mutants who are termed in a broad sense 'shape shifters.' But even within that subset, the laws of physics might not apply. For instance, there's one mutant who can change their body type - going from short to tall. However, if they make themselves tall, the mass on their body has to go somewhere, so it's generally stretched out, which makes them seem leaner. If they make themselves short, once again, the mass has to go somewhere, so they stack it as muscle.
"On the opposite side of that type of shape shifting, you have other mutants who can seemingly increase their mass or decrease it at will and without any seeming scientific logic to it. To be clear, these are anecdotal examples. I have not undertaken any sort of study regarding mutants and the many, varied ways in which they break our supposedly unbreakable laws of physics," Clint concluded, tipping his head to the side. "So I suppose a more succinct answer to your question is that, while we have theories about conservation of mass when it comes to the Hulk and others, there's unfortunately nothing concrete that I can tell you that would make it all make sense. Was that at all helpful, or did I just muddy the waters?"
“Great thanks,” Paige said weakly. Then, since that wasn’t an adequate response, added “I think that answered it.” Truthfully, she hadn’t absorbed much of the answer. She had been preoccupied with how she was going to corner Sam and ask him why he didn’t warn her that it was his Clint coming to her class. From the length of his answer, Paige assumed he had gotten to the point. Though now that she thought about it, Sam had mentioned Clint had a physics degree. Huh, maybe he did have a point about her not listening to what he said about his boyfriend.
Nodding, Clint moved on to the next question and then the next. He did his best to answer everything, though a lot of it strayed more into theoretical than experimental and there really weren't any good ways to test the theories they kept asking about. Then, of course, one of the jackasses leaning slouching in the back row raised his hand and destroyed Clint's hope that the youth of tomorrow would be better than the youths of his past.
"So, Doctor Clint. How do you know Miss Guthrie, exactly?"
"Family friends, Mister...?" He left the question hanging, demanding a response.
"Hendrickson," the boy answered, slouching a bit lower in his seat.
"Ah - any relation to Agent James Hendrickson?" Clint asked.
The young man paused for a long moment before nodding his head slowly. "Yeah. He's my uncle."
"Small world, then. We used to be partners, James and me. How's he doing after that last trip to Alaska?" Clint arched an eyebrow.
"Fine," was the sullen response he received.
"Well, pass on my well wishes to him, then, Mister Hendrickson." Looking back toward the class as a whole, Clint asked, "Any further questions?"
The universal “no more questions” collective silence fell across the classroom. Paige couldn’t believe how fast Clint had shut that Hendrickson guy down. He had been an annoyance since the start of class, and Paige could feel her classmates sneaking glances at her, trying to figure out how she could possibly know this Dr. Barton so well. At least this was an undergraduate class and Paige could avoid pretty much everyone here if necessary.
"Excellent," Clint said, casting another wide smile around the room. "In that case, since your professor gave me all the professorial power for today, how about all of you head out early and enjoy the afternoon. It's cold, but the snow's still fresh in Central Park. Throw some snowballs. Ponder physics. Have fun."
Maisie kicked his ankle. "What if I had homework to assign to them?"
"Okay, first - ouch. That hurt. Second - har har. Like you'd give homework on a Monday when you know they're all scrambling to finish the assignment that's due on Wednesday," Clint teased, leaning down to rub his ankle. Her shoes were pointy and they'd hit his foot just right to make his toes tingle.
"Yeah, yeah," Maisie said, hiding a laugh.
Paige packed up her things, trying to be slow enough to avoid getting caught by her classmates outside of class. Of course this meant she might have to talk to Clint but it was one or the other, and she’s run into Clint at some point anyway and her classmates would probably forget this once they had to focus on their projects. Better to get Clint over with now.
Shouldering her bag, Paige stood up and walked over to Clint. “Thank you for your talk today. It was very informative.”
"Hey," Clint said, still smiling as he caught Paige's eye. "No problem. And if you ever need someone to bounce ideas off of, I'm happy to help. And if that jerk from the back gives you trouble, mention it to your brother." He didn't specify which brother, but either way it'd make its way back to him and he had no qualms about calling Maisie and even the Dean of Columbia's STEM program to discuss the character of the students they'd admitted this year.
Paige frowned. “I can handle him on my own, thank you.” The last thing Paige needed was her brother going around beating up guys who annoyed her. She’d had enough of that in high school with Sam fighting off the guys who wouldn’t take no as an answer. “I’ll tell Sam I liked your talk, that should make him happy. Guess I’ll see you around.” Paige held out her hand to shake Clint’s. A little formal, maybe, but it wasn’t like they knew each other well.
"If you wanna handle him yourself, my lips are sealed," Clint said, shaking her hand in return. "Have a good day, Paige."
