What's Wrong with "Atom Laser"
Why the phrase "atom laser" bugs me, and why it's ironic given the "framing" argument here.Posted on May 9, 2008 9:35 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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"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.
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Experiment:
Pimp Me Old Papers
What pre-WWII paper should I read for the Skulls in the Stars challenge?Posted on May 7, 2008 1:37 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A Stable Heavy Element?
I see a lot of science stories that sound like kookery, but this is the first in a while that sounds like Golden Age science fiction.Posted on April 29, 2008 8:07 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
What Do You Need to Make a Quantum Computer?
What features do you need to have in a system for it to be the basis for a practical quantum computer?Posted on April 8, 2008 11:16 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Having brought in a huge new audience at the end of last week-- partly through the "framing"/"screechy monkeys" things, but mostly because my What Everyone Should Know About Science post hit the front page on Reddit-- I figured I should...Posted on April 7, 2008 11:17 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Semi-Comfortable Question: Personal Particle Accelerator
Back in the comments of one of the "Uncomfortable Question" threads, Matthew Jarpe asked (as background research for a new novel): If someone were to hand you the keys to your own particle accelerator and you could do any experiment...Posted on March 28, 2008 10:39 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Chain, Chain, Chain... Chain of Valves
Here's a picture of the gas-handling line leading to the discharge region seen in the plasma post: How many valves can you count in that picture? If you said "seven," give yourself a pat on the back. Here's the same...Posted on March 25, 2008 10:48 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Lab Porn: Plasma!
A couple more pretty pictures of the apparatus, to pass the time: This is the plasma discharge source that we use to make metastable atoms. We excite the gas using a RF coil (under the tinfoil) with a couple of...Posted on March 24, 2008 10:58 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Lab Porn: Doomsday!
Behold, the end of the world is at hand! They said I was mad-- mad!-- but now they'll pay... Well, ok, it's not actually a doomsday weapon. It's a shot of the main experiment chamber in my lab, taken in...Posted on March 24, 2008 9:44 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Uncomfortable Questions: Particle Physics
"Why do you try to hide your secret desire to be a high-energy particle physicist?"Posted on March 18, 2008 8:06 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Lab Visit Report: Unusual Lattices
New experiments with optical lattices that begin to explore structures beyond the simple cubic lattice.Posted on March 17, 2008 9:41 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Lab Visit Report: Four-Wave Mixing
The next lab visit experiments I want to talk about are really the epitome of what I called the "NIST Paradigm" in an earlier post. These are experiments on "four-wave mixing" done by Colin McCormick (who I TA'd in freshman...Posted on March 14, 2008 10:54 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Lab Visit Report: Francium
A proposal to search for new physics by doing precision spectroscopy of francium.Posted on March 13, 2008 10:32 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Lab Visit Report: Cold Plasmas
Another of the labs I visited while in DC was Steve Rolston's lab at the University of Maryland. This actually contains the apparatus I worked on as a graduate student, including many of the same quirky pieces of hardware-- Steve...Posted on March 11, 2008 10:57 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A User's Guide to Vacuum Pumps Part 2: Quiet Pumps
the second and final part of our survey of the wonderful world of vacuum pumps.Posted on March 11, 2008 9:14 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Lab Visit Report: Cavity QED
The Orozco lab at Maryland has some clever tricks for making atoms in superpositions of two different states.Posted on March 10, 2008 10:32 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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