Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
Thoughts on physics, politics, and pop culture, by a physics professor at a small liberal arts college, plus occasional conversations with his dog.
You've read the blog, now try the books! How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is published by Scribner, and available wherever books are sold. How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog is published by Basic Books and will be available 2/28/2012, as foretold by the Maya.
"Uncertain Principles" features the miscellaneous ramblings of a physicist at a small liberal arts college. Physics, politics, pop culture, and occasional conversations with his dog.
"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)
Emmy is a German Shepherd mix, and the Queen of Niskayuna. She likes treats, walks, chasing bunnies, and quantum physics.
Category: Academia
Over at io9, they have a post on the finances of running a research lab at a major university. It's reasonably good as such things go, but very specific to the top level of research universities. As I am not...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:47 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
I didn't pay that much attention to the mini-controversy over the NSF's proposed revision of its grant evaluation criteria when they were first released, because I was working on the book. I was asked to say something about it yesterday,...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:34 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
My talk at Maryland last Thursday went pretty well-- the impending Snowpocalypse kept the audience down, as people tried to fit in enough work to compensate for the Friday shutdown, but the people who were there seemed to like it,...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 2:26 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Physics
A number of people have commented on this LA Times op-ed by Steve Giddings about what physicists expect to come out of the Large Hadron Collider. It includes a nice list of possible particle physics discoveries plus a few things...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:50 AM • 30 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
A couple of days ago, the LHC Blog asked about the future funding of the arxiv pre-print server, currently hosted at Cornell. Cornell is looking to get some external funding, though: Currently the plan is to ask the "heaviest user...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 2:03 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Physics
I've been dimly aware that physics in the UK was being hit hard by a financial crisis for a while now. It seemed to be a bit deeper than what people in other countries complain about, but I hadn't given...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 11:13 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
A purely hypothetical situation for today's poll. Purely. You have agreed to read and review six grant proposals by Sunday. Today is Thursday, and you have not read them yet. What do you do?(poll) If anybody needs me, I'll be...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 12:30 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
The National Science Foundation uses a computerized proposal-and-report submission system called FastLane. When I first submitted a proposal, this required three things to log in: your last name, your Social Security number, and a password of your choice. Sometime in...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 2:56 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
Whether because I'm a blogger, or because I'm a previous recipient of their money (I suspect the latter), I recently got email from the Research Corporation announcing their new Scialog 2009: Solar Energy Conversion program: Scialog will focus on funding...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:38 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Physics
Martin Perl, a 1995 Nobel laureate in Physics for the discovery of the tau lepton, was awarded an honorary degree yesterday at commencement. Perl actually has a significant Union connection-- he started his career as a chemical engineer, and was...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:10 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
