June 15, 2012
In which we look at the job situation for different specializations, yet another dumb modest proposal to fix education, and a smackdown of NBA players who are ignorant of fashion history.
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Physics and Physicists: Job Advertisements For Theorists and Experimentalists In Physics Today…
June 14, 2012
Last night, as I was flying in to San Francisco, Matt Cain pitched the first perfect game in Giants history. Now, a casual observer might think these events were unrelated, but to ancient alien theorists, the connection between them could not be more obvious. Thus, you should come to Kepler's Books…
June 14, 2012
In which physics tackles a burning question from the world of computing, a famous biologist says something idiotic, and the world's smallest violin plays for frequent fliers.
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Does Your Download Progress Bar Lie to You? | Wired Science | Wired.com
Different browsers do this differently…
June 13, 2012
I just realized that I forgot to do the annual congratulatory post for our graduates this year. I plead jet lag-- my flight back from DAMOP didn't get in until after midnight, and graduation was first thing Sunday morning. I didn't march in the procession for only the third time-- instead, I snuck…
June 13, 2012
In which we look at the end of the Steelypips era and the launch of ScienceBlogs.
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Before the Great Upgrade derailed things completely for a month, I was working on a recap of this blog's history, and had gotten up through the end of 2005, which marked the end of my time as an…
June 12, 2012
In which we look again at the question of why, despite the image of physicists as arrogant bastards, biologists turn out to be much less collegial than physicists.
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While I was away from the blog, there was a spate of discussion of science outreach and demands on faculty time, my…
June 12, 2012
In which we look at a great commencement speech, the oversupply of mediocrity, the nominees for a science blogging award, and Facebook games distilled to their essence.
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Wellesley High grads told: “You’re not special” | The Swellesley Report
Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted…
June 11, 2012
Two How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog items:
First and foremost, I'll be appearing at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, CA, this Thursday, June 14 at 7:00pm. I'll probably read a bit of the book, so if you've ever wanted to hear me do the silly dog voice live, here's your chance. Provided, of course…
June 4, 2012
In which we do a little ResearchBlogging, taking a look at a slightly confusing paper putting a new twist on the double-slit experiment.
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I'm off to California this afternoon, spending the rest of the week at DAMOP in Pasadena (not presenting this year, just hanging out to see the…
June 4, 2012
In which we look at a prize for science blogging, a new book club, and the unhappy situation of associate professors.
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3quarksdaily: Sean Carroll to Judge 4th Annual 3QD Science Prize
As usual, this is the way it will work: the nominating period is now open, and will end at 11:59 pm…
June 3, 2012
In which we look at the very latest in amphibian science.
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The embedded video shows one Prof. S. Kid describing her latest observations in detail. It's a very comprehensive study.
June 3, 2012
In which we look at one of the great spoofs of all time, a clever twist on a viral physics video, one of the great cartoons of all time, the puzzling lack of relationship between violence and the NFL's popularity, the new approach of the US National soccer team, one of the greatest musicians of all…
June 1, 2012
Ten years. Still the best decision I ever made.
May 31, 2012
In which I talk about the common complaint that we teach students physics that "isn't true," and the limits on that statement.
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Frequent commenter Ron sent me an email pointing to this post by David Reed on "What we “know” that t’aint so…. and insist on teaching to kids!":
he science we…
May 31, 2012
In which we look at creepy fairytales, the writing of science books, when overfishing is actually okay, and what it means to be an experimental physicist.
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10 Creepy Details Glossed Over By Modern Versions Of Fairy Tales
A surprising number of these can still be found in SteelyKid's…
May 30, 2012
In which I get a little ranty about basketball.
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Over at Slate, Matt Yglesias has a column about why everybody ignores the Spurs.:
America—at least in its own imagination—stands for certain things. For the idea that hard work and sound judgment bring success, and that success deserves…
May 30, 2012
In which we compare a couple of different systems for evaluating teachers, looking at what's involved in doing a fair assessment of a teacher's performance.
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Another casualty of the great blog upgrade, in the sense of a post that was delayed until the inspiration for it has been forgotten…
May 30, 2012
In which we look at the evolution of Republican attitudes toward higher education, the early days of nuclear secrets, the science of communicating science, the amazing things you find in textbooks, and the unwritten rules of science journalism.
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Confessions of a Community College Dean…
May 29, 2012
In which I talk about why it is that particle physics and cosmology are so over-represented in popular physics, and why my own books contribute to that.
[The too-short excerpts on the new front page are beyond my ability to change, so I'll be doing Victorian-style "In which..." summaries at the…
May 29, 2012
In which we look at relativistic rockets, scientific revolutions, and the mathematical connection between entanglement and nonlocality.
The Relativistic Rocket
Science fiction writers can make use of worm holes or warp drives to overcome this restriction, but it is not clear that such things can…
May 28, 2012
In which we post a new collection of random links in an effort to see if the RSS feeds actually work now but aren't showing anything because I haven't posted anything.
Craig Sager's Suits and Sideline Sartorial Disasters - Grantland
You've been blown off your couch and knocked from your barstool…
May 25, 2012
The blog is recovering from the transition to WordPress, but I'm still not fully confident in it. So We'll turn to another corner of the social media universe for my procrastinatory needs this morning: Having Emmy answer physics questions on Twitter.
The same deal as when we've done this before: If…
May 23, 2012
So, as you may or may not have noticed, ScienceBlogs has gotten a makeover. If you read via RSS, you might not notice anything, but if you come to the blog itself, you'll see a new look. The previous three-column layout is gone, and posts on the front page now show only short excerpts and "featured…
May 21, 2012
I was going to post something noting that the great WordPress transition will begin at 7pm tonight, and comments after that time will be lost like Roy Batty's tears. However, I have much happier news: tomorrow's Science Times (available on the Web already) will include a review of How to Teach…
May 21, 2012
Because I need to test out some features of the new WordPress system, including the image handling, here's a place-holder post with a bonus SteelyKid photo:
This is SteelyKid kicking back at Niska-Day over the weekend (the annual community fair here in Niskayuna). Don't be deceived by the lazy look…
May 21, 2012
Back of the Envelope Problems
A collection of classic estimation problems, with answers, written by E.M. Purcell for the American Journal of Physics back in the day.
nanoscale views: The unreasonable clarity of E. M. Purcell
Purcell had the insight that in a cavity, the number of states available…
May 18, 2012
So, you find yourself living in the San Francisco Bay area, and you maybe have a dog who would like to know something about relativity, or you maybe want to someday have a dog who will want to know something about relativity, or you maybe want to know something more about relativity yourself, in…
May 18, 2012
The poor and their time are soon parted § Unqualified Offerings
Why do I bring this up? I bring it up because I read this article about how the poor get trapped in a system that rains shit down on them. No, I'm not here to offer the poor advice on how to find good prices. They know far more…
May 17, 2012
This has been out for a little while now, and Chris has been promoting it very heavily, and it's sort of interesting to see the reactions. It's really something of a Rorschach blot of a book, with a lot of what's been written about it telling you more about what the writer wants to be in the book…
May 16, 2012
n+1: Lions in Winter, Part One
A very long and thorough history of the New York Public Library, how its current plans to gut the main research library came about, and what they mean for the idea of a public research library.
Correcting the Record on College Graduates and Job Prospects by Joshua…
