"Prof. Orzel gives the impression of an everyday guy who just happens to have a vast but hidden knowledge of physics." (anonymous student evaluation comment)
The miscellaneous ramblings of a physicist at a small liberal arts college. Physics, politics, pop culture, and occasional conversations with his dog.
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
« Baghdad Update: There Is No Normal | Main | J K Rowling and the Complex Trope of Female Delusion »
Category: Science • Silliness
Posted on: August 8, 2006 7:58 AM, by Chad Orzel
If you're in the habit of reading science blogs, you've probably already seen Mark Trodden's article on the science of coffee, including a chemical analysis of the contents of espresso. You might be asking "Is there nothing these science types won't analyze?"
Apparently not, as Dylan Stiles demonstrates. Now there is somebody who needs to get out of the lab for a while. Take a walk, read a book, just don't take NMR spectra of anything for a few days.
(TrackBack URL for this entry: )
YES! Send me a free issue of Seed.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
(Non-U.S. subscribers, click here.)
Comments
# 1 | Ed Martz | August 8, 2006 8:56 AM
Heh, that's actually a nice piece of work. The TLCs were a nice touch.
When I was in grad school, the NMR room was one of the few rooms in the building that had air conditioning, so I was always looking for excuses to use the instrument.
# 2 | Uncle Al | August 8, 2006 11:38 AM
Organiker Dylan Stiles is a hero! He doesn't just talk the talk with a paper synthesis of doyermommamine. Stiles walks the walk: isolate goo from his bachelor ears, analyze it, confirm with analytical standards.
The August Physics Today demonstrates axions are undetectable. Does string theory postulate or ignore the Equivalence Principle? Poltroons! Organikers do it, then take an NMR. We aren't too stinkin' proud to have waste crocks. No fear!
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/lajos.htm
Physicists ignore the only empirical divergence of teleparallel vs. metric gravitation. A chemist will do it in scut hardware at 300,000 times the sensitivity of your most expensive apparatus, over two days of mostly doing nothing. "Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?" "8^>)