Posted by Chad Orzel on January 21, 2010 Set the bloggy flags at half-mast, for Dave and Greta are shutting down Cognitive Daily. OK, maybe three-quarter-mast, because they’re doing it of their own free will, but still, they’ll be missed.
And now I need to find a new example of an extremely successful blog that is always and unfailingly about science, with no excursions into politics or media criticism. Suggestions welcome in the comments.
Terry Tao’s blog.
Terry Tao’s blog is a slightly different thing than Cognitive Daily was, though. It’s mostly class notes and formal derivations, for people who are mathematicians or at least serious math students.
Cog Daily was more of a popular-audience science blog– good, solid articles about current results in science, written for an audience of non-scientists. I was really impressed by how successful they managed to be at that while never succumbing to the temptation to throw up a few political posts or cat pictures to drive traffic.
What about “Not exactly Rocket Science”? I guess Ed does a little media criticism, but not much. There’s also BPS Research Digest.
You've read the blog, now try the books:
How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog is published by Basic Books. "“Unlike quantum physics, which remains bizarre even to experts, much of relativity makes sense. Thus, Einstein’s special relativity merely states that the laws of physics and the speed of light are identical for all observers in smooth motion. This sounds trivial but leads to weird if delightfully comprehensible phenomena, provided someone like Orzel delivers a clear explanation of why.” --Kirkus Reviews "Bravo to both man and dog." The New York Times.
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is published by Scribner. "It's hard to imagine a better way for the mathematically and scientifically challenged, in particular, to grasp basic quantum physics." -- Booklist "Chad Orzel's How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is an absolutely delightful book on many axes: first, its subject matter, quantum physics, is arguably the most mind-bending scientific subject we have; second, the device of the book -- a quantum physicist, Orzel, explains quantum physics to Emmy, his cheeky German shepherd -- is a hoot, and has the singular advantage of making the mind-bending a little less traumatic when the going gets tough (quantum physics has a certain irreducible complexity that precludes an easy understanding of its implications); finally, third, it is extremely well-written, combining a scientist's rigor and accuracy with a natural raconteur's storytelling skill." -- BoingBoing
January 21, 2010
January 21, 2010
January 21, 2010
