@cwebber @aeveltstra Error-correcting codes are the most direct application I can think of for the study of sphere packing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech_lattice#Applications

It matters to quantum information theory, what I work on, for a slightly more indirect reason having to do with optimal quantum measurements: https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.01426

@cwebber We know the best way to pack round balls in 2, 3, 8 and 24 dimensions.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.01685

"More than one woman is going to be quiet while the rest of you praise Hawking to high heaven. Listen to that silence, please. ... if you praise Hawking as a great *man* as well as brilliant physicist, you won't get universal agreement." https://mobile.twitter.com/DrMRFrancis/status/973897504285773824

I know quite a few scientists who are good at outreach (they work hard at it, because it matters and that's what it takes). Almost none of them have ever mentioned editing Wikipedia (even the one who used his science blog in his tenure portfolio). Thanks to the pressures of academia, the calculation always favors a mode of outreach where it's easier to point to what you did, so you can get appropriate credit for it.