Now on ScienceBlogs: Charles Darwin February 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882
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: Science
The really interesting cases for science are the occasional violations of Murphy's Law: cases where experiments turned out to work better than they had any reason to expect.
Posted by Chad Orzel at 10:34 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Physics
Before leaving Austin on Friday, I had lunch with a former student who is currently a graduate student at the University of Texas, working in an experimental AMO physics lab. I got the tour before lunch-- I'm a sucker for...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 11:24 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Physics
One of my pet peeves about physics as perceived by the public and presented in the media is the way that everyone assumes that all physicists are theoretical particle physicists. Matt Springer points out another example of this, in this...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 11:31 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
In the time that I've been at Union, I have suffered a number of lab disasters. I've had lasers killed in freak power outages. I've had lasers die because of odd electrical issues. My lab has flooded not once, not...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 10:52 PM • 30 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogs
Dave Ng has recently upgraded the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique site, which provides a variety of achievement badges for members to claim and post. I'm not a big one for extra graphics...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:27 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: MXP
Over the past several weeks, I've written up ResearchBlogging posts on each of the papers I helped write in graduate school. Each paper write-up was accompanied by a "Making of" article, giving a bit more detail about how the experiments...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 10:09 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: MXP
Thesis writing, too much signal, and the power of pulsed lasers.
Posted by Chad Orzel at 11:17 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: MXP
"Quantum mechanics is magic," "Who came up with this word, 'ballistic?'" and McDonald's cheeseburgers.
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:17 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: MXP
Collegiality, the "one-afternoon experiment" that took three months, and the "biological lock."
Posted by Chad Orzel at 10:37 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: MXP
In a previous paper, we applied the light for a long period, and measured the change in the collision rate; here, we applied the light for a very short time, and watched the collisions happen in real time.
Posted by Chad Orzel at 10:13 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Tim Lambert 02.01.2012
PZ Myers 02.12.2012
Tim Lambert 02.08.2012
Jason Rosenhouse 02.10.2012
Orac 01.20.2012
