Washington, DC - I’m a physicist, and as anyone who watches the popular TV series “The Big Bang Theory” knows, it’s a commonly held conception that there is a strong connection between being a scientist and being enthralled with all things science fiction, fantasy, and superheroes. Anyone who walks into my office at NIST and notices the TARDIS, Enterprise-D, and Admiral “It’s a trap!” Ackbar mug on my bookshelf could draw the same conclusion about me. And if there was any doubt remaining, the picture of me at Comic-Con absolutely confirms the hypothesis.

Los Angeles, California - Two men died this morning in an apparent murder-suicide in the Engineering IV building at UCLA. The shootings caused a campus-wide lockdown and resulted in canceled classes and evening activities.

San Francisco, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today convened leaders from states, cities and provinces from around the world at the inaugural Subnational Clean Energy Ministerial (SubCEM) in San Francisco to highlight regional clean energy and climate action and collaboration. At the event Governor Brown also joined fellow Pacific Coast Collaborative members, Oregon Governor Kate Brown, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, British Columbia Environment Minister Mary Polak and officials from major West Coast cities to announce new efforts to reduce emissions and combat climate change and welcomed seven new signatories – including the first state from India – to the Under 2 MOU climate agreement.

Chicago, Illinois - Food Tank has hand picked 16 books that educate, inform, and inspire us in a wide range of topics. They highlight the ethics of what we eat and why we choose to eat some things over others, children’s malnutrition, starting your own urban garden, and the forgotten grains of the past.

Los Angeles, California - Police investigating shooting on UCLA campus, 2 dead:

Stanford, California - “People with disabilities are the ticking time bomb of the electorate.” So says Stanford law researcher Rabia Belt, who has new research on the disenfranchisement of disabled Americans. The intersection of disability and citizenship - in history and in the here-and-now - is, in Belt’s view, part of a great unseen in law and democracy.