May 13, 2009
Angels & Demons - The science behind the story
CERN explains what antimatter is really about.
(tags: science physics education movies particles)
Figgleton v. Ditchens « Easily Distracted
"As with many similarly well-worn discussions, Iâd just as soon review the available lines of argument…
May 13, 2009
It has come to my attention that unspecified people are having a bad couple of days for unspecified reasons and could use a pick-me-up. Thus, I give you the cutest laughing baby in the universe.
Hope this helps. Have a nice day.
May 13, 2009
An example problem from today's lecture:
A sleep-deprived parent is warming a bottle for a midnight feeding. He places a bottle containing 250 ml of infant formula at 275K into 300 ml of water at 320 K. When the two liquids reach equilibrium, what is the temperature of the formula?
Answer: Trick…
May 13, 2009
I'm currently the president of the local chapter of Sigma Xi (an honor society, not a fraternity, thankyouverymuch), and as such have been collecting RSVP's and dues for this year's new inductees. As part of this process, I've been struck by how many students don't have checks-- I've had a couple…
May 12, 2009
Spirit Stuck - The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society
"The Spirit rover on Mars is currently stuck in a patch of loose material. After a few attempts to get free, the team has wisely decided to do further experiments on Earth instead of on Mars. They will now recreate the conditions…
May 12, 2009
As you can guess from the title, I've done this twice before when I had stuff to do that precluded quality blogging. Kate's in Rochester for a court appearance, leaving me home with SteelyKid, so this seems like a perfect occasion for a third go-round.
The pairs of words in the following list are…
May 11, 2009
18 and Under - The Marks of Childhood or the Marks of Abuse? - NYTimes.com
"This year, the study of child abuse is coming of age as a medical specialty. In November, the first medical board exam will be offered in a new official specialty, child abuse pediatrics. Knowledge and research that have…
May 11, 2009
A former student asks about water contamination:
My mother went and had
our water tested and discovered that we have high uranium and radon
levels. Radon is not a big deal, its a gas, and as I have read you would
need to take a shower for somewhere around 4 hours to suffer damage from
it. The…
May 11, 2009
Over at the Inverse Square blog, Tom Levenson announces that he's started Twittering in a post that contains, via Carl Zimmer, the best argument for why Twitter matters:
Carl laughs me out of my seat. He points out that he tweeted his visit to my class, and received in return a couple of requests…
May 11, 2009
It's that time of year again in academia. The time when academics at other institutions write posts directed at graduates, reminding me that summer is starting for everybody else, while we have another four %$^*$ing weeks to go before the end of the term.
Grumble, mutter, grump. Stupid calendar.
May 11, 2009
Everybody I know who has back problems swears up and down that sleeping on a really firm mattress is key. My father used to have a big plywood board under his side of the mattress, so that his side of the bed would be less soft (I think they have since bought a new mattress that is uniformly hard…
May 10, 2009
Disco Hayes: It's all Greek to me
"And then the joke hits me. It's witty, it's relevant ... ah, it's perfect. It happens so fast, before I know it my lips are making a coy, dry grin to indicate I'm about to be a smart alec. I figure the Doctor has a hundred physicals to perform, I might as well…
May 9, 2009
The winners of Slate's "Define Baseball in 150 Words" contest. - By John Dickerson - Slate Magazine
"Seven guys wait for these other two guys to play catch but this other guy is jealous because he wants to play and so he's trying to stop them with a stick." should've won.
(tags: silly sports…
May 8, 2009
The Final Frontier: The Science of Star Trek: Scientific American
"To get a sense of how much actual science has made its way into the science fiction universe of Star Trek, ScientificAmerican.com spoke to Lawrence Krauss, author of The Physics of Star Trek, the first edition of which appeared on…
May 8, 2009
It's a nice demonstration of the oddity of the blogosphere that a libertarian political blog has become my go-to-source for thoughtful blogging about physics education. Thoreau had two good posts yesterday at Unqualified Offerings, one on the problems created by breaking down incorrect intuition,…
May 8, 2009
Via Michael Nielsen, a page documenting what I really hope is the dorkiest family vacation ever: Project GREAT: General Relativity Einstein/Essen Anniversary Test Clocks, Kids, and General Relativity on Mt Rainier:
In September 2005 (for the 50th anniversary of the atomic clock and 100th…
May 8, 2009
We had a colloquium yesterday from Ted von Hippel of Siena College, over on Route 9, about "White Dwarf Debris Disks and the Fate of Planetary Systems." The abstract was:
After a brief introduction to white dwarfs and debris disks, I will present observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope and…
May 8, 2009
I get sent a lot of publicity material by people hoping I'll mention it on the blog, but because I'm a terrible person, very little of it actually gets used. One thing that shouldn't be allowed to slip through the cracks, though, is the announcement of the program for the 2009 World Science…
May 7, 2009
Evolution and the Second Law | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine
"Without even addressing the question of how âlifeâ should be defined, we can ask what sounds like a subsequent question: does life make thermodynamic sense? The answer, before you get too excited, is âyes.â But the opposite has…
May 7, 2009
It's been an uneven week for SteelyKid. She was a litle bit sick last week, and really only got better last weekend, only to turn listless and feverish at day care Monday. This led to yet another trip to the pediatrician, at which we learned that waking a sleeping baby up to press a cold…
May 7, 2009
You might think that Monday's discourse on thermodynamics in the Goldilocks story was the only children's story in which physics plays a role, but that's not true. Physics is everywhere in fairy tales.
Take, for example, the story of Rumpelstiltskin, in which a mysterious little man demands a…
May 7, 2009
I was surprised, a few days ago, to see a post from ZapperZ recommending a Wall Street Journal article on quantum entanglement. It was surprising not only because it's weird to see anything in the WSJ that doesn't have an immediate financial connection, but more than that, I was surprised because…
May 6, 2009
'Columbine,' by Dave Cullen -- New York Magazine Book Review
Most of what you think you know about the Columbine school shooting is wrong.
(tags: society books review history media)
The Laptop in the Classroom « Easily Distracted
"I am sure there are students in my classes who have multitasked…
May 6, 2009
I'm waiting for the toaster when the dog trots into the kitchen. "You should give me some bacon!" she says.
"Why is that?" I ask.
"To prevent swine flu!"
"Look, there's no chance that I'm going to get swine flu from eating pork products. I know you saw some people on the Internet saying that they'…
May 6, 2009
The proprietor of Good Mom, Bad Mom emails to point out a post spinning off Monday's Goldilocks post. A good thing she did, as Technorati has collapsed into utter uselessness, at least for finding people who link to my posts.
Her post quotes an unnamed correspondent, who writes:
My two daughters…
May 5, 2009
Why Canât You? « Easily Distracted
"I had a fun conversation with a student this week who had a number of challenging questions about issues to pose to me. The question Iâm still knocking around: if academic cultural critics understand expressive culture so expertly, why canât they create it?…
May 5, 2009
I'm never quite sure what to make of Malcolm Gladwell. Lots of smart people seem to be favorably impressed by his writing and ideas, but whenever I actually read anything by him, there doesn't seem to be much there.
Take, for example, this New Yorker piece on basketball as a metaphor for innovation…
May 5, 2009
As I understand it, the Physics ArXiv Blog is not affiliated with the people who actually run the Arxiv (Paul Ginsparg et al.). Which is probably good, as I'm never entirely sure how seriously to take the papers they highlight.
Take yesterday's post, Diamond Challenges for Quantum-Computing Crown,…
May 4, 2009
The 25 most important movies ever made about war and diplomacy. - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine
"Last week, in the online edition of Slate's sister publication Foreign Policy, two of its regular bloggers, Stephen M. Walt and Daniel W. Drezner, drew up lists of what they regard as the best…
May 4, 2009
SteelyKid is not yet at the stage where I can usefully read to her-- she likes sitting on my lap while I read just fine, but she's more interested in trying to eat the pages than listening to the story. I was reminded this morning, though, that when she gets to bedtime-story age, I'm going to face…
