Physical Sciences
drorzel | November 23, 2009
Seeing Laser Beams : Built on Facts
"I have to say it's a nice job perk that I can see old science fiction tropes come to life pretty much every day."
(tags: science physics optics blogs built-on-facts lasers)
blarg? » A Note To Maya
"So according to the old joke, a fed-up student asks the physics prof who's going over kinetics in protracted detail, what good is all this? What will I ever use this for? To which the professor, not even looking up from where he's writing on the board, says "This stuff saves lives." The student balks for a second and then gets belligerent, demanding to know…
hrynyshyn | November 23, 2009One of the commenters to my last post, an attempt to explain why the hacked climatology emails do not constitute a scientific scandal, came up with a darn fine idea:
If you think that global warming rests on a few temperature data sets and models, you are very wrong. If you don't understand this then you don't know enough to have an opinion on the subject, and you most likely will be treated just like any other ineducable troll.
Grab a climate textbook and do some reading...it will help if you have some physics background too. Yeah, science takes effort...
I just happen to have at hand a…
palmd | November 18, 2009In a piece written for health reporters, journalist Jane Allen gives some useful advice about covering alternative medicine, but there are some gaps that are are hard for a non-medical professional to recognize (and frankly, for many medical professionals as well). She quite rightly urges skepticism, but when looking into ideologic and muddled topic of alternative medicine, skepticism needs to be turned up to "11". A major complaint that doctors have about health coverage is not the objectivity, earnestness, or research abilities of the reporter but the lack of some of the fundamental…
emjohnson | November 18, 2009Carl Zimmer, science writer extraordinaire and blogger at The Loom will be speaking tonight at the University of British Columbia. It's at 7pm in
Room 2 of the Woodward Instructional Resources Centre (map).
According to his hosts at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum:
This year the world celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species; the most important book in the history of modern biology. The science of evolutionary biology has come a long way since 1859. In this talk, Carl Zimmer takes a look at how scientists are studying evolution to…
clock | November 17, 2009Article-Level Metrics and the Evolution of Scientific Impact:
Formally published papers that have been through a traditional prepublication peer review process remain the most important means of communicating science today. Researchers depend on them to learn about the latest advances in their fields and to report their own findings. The intentions of traditional peer review are certainly noble: to ensure methodological integrity and to comment on potential significance of experimental studies through examination by a panel of objective, expert colleagues. In principle, this system enables…
drorzel | November 17, 2009
Why Wine Ratings Are Badly Flawed - WSJ.com
"[A] 1996 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology showed that even flavor-trained professionals cannot reliably identify more than three or four components in a mixture, although wine critics regularly report tasting six or more. There are eight in this description, from The Wine News of a Silverado Limited Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 that sells for more than $100 a bottle: "Dusty, chalky scents followed by mint, plum, tobacco and leather. Tasty cherry with smoky oak accents..." Another publication, The Wine Advocate, describes a wine…
agelman | November 16, 2009The other day I commented on an article by Peter Bancel and Roger Nelson that reported evidence that "the coherent attention or emotional response of large populations" can affect the output of quantum-mechanical random number generators.
I was pretty dismissive of the article; in fact elsewhere I gave my post the title, "Some ESP-bashing red meat for you ScienceBlogs readers out there."
Dr. Bancel was pointed to my blog and felt I wasn't giving the full story. I'll give his comments and then at the end add some thoughts of my own. Bancel wrote:
I find it disappointing that a Columbia…
drorzel | November 13, 2009
Physics Buzz: Best physics inventions of 2009
"TIME magazine has announced the 50 best inventions of 2009. NASA's Ares family of rockets was a shoo-in for best invention, given the recent launch of Ares 1-X, the family's test rocket. I'll give them that; NASA could certainly use the cheerleading.
But I was surprised to see "Teleportation" sixth on the list. When did I miss this? Has everyone else been teleporting to work while I've been trudging in the rain? How can I get my hands on a teleporter?"
(tags: science physics quantum blogs physics-buzz)
The 10 weirdest physics facts, from…
agelman | November 12, 2009A reporter contacted me to ask my impression of this article by Peter Bancel and Roger Nelson, which reports evidence that "the coherent attention or emotional response of large populations" can affect the output of quantum-mechanical random number generators.
I spent a few minutes looking at the article, and, well, it's about what you might expect. Very professionally done, close to zero connection between their data and whatever they actually think they're studying.
(Just for example, they mention that their random number generators are electromagnetically shielded--which seems kinda funny…
drorzel | November 11, 2009I've gradually gotten used to the idea that as a semi-pro blogger, I will occasionally be sent review copies of books I've never heard of. These are generally physics books, and I have a stack of them sitting next to the bed at the moment, not being read nearly fast enough.
It's only recently that I realized that, having written a book in which I explain quantum mechanics through conversations with my dog, I'll probably start getting dog books as well. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind-- we like free books, here in Chateau Steelypips-- but it's going to be a significant change.…
clock | November 11, 2009
Continuing with the introductions... I got some nice positive feedback about this series - makes it easier for people to get to know everyone little by little instead of digging through the entire list of everyone who's registered for the conference all at once.
Rebecca Skloot is an accomplished science writer, currently excited about the publication of her first book (to universal accolades) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. She is a SciBling, blogging here on Culture Dish and can be found on Twitter. The Keynote Speaker at last year's conference, this time Rebecca will lead three…
oracknows | November 3, 2009Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. After a prolonged wait, it's finally here:
Yes, my promotional copy of Suzanne Somers new book Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer--And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place. (The Dalek was included because, well, I was just feeling perverse when I took this picture.)
I can only say that, after having perused the next couple of chapters after Chapter 1, I can already feel my brain melting and oozing out through my ears, screaming as the neuron-necrosing stupidity liquifies it. I've also noticed that, by and large, this book is…
drorzel | October 31, 2009
A Plea for Peaceful Coexistence - The Pour Blog - NYTimes.com
"Beer and wine are not in competition. Yet people in the wine business, who I assure you drink an awful lot of beer, don't often take it seriously as a beverage. And people in the beer business, perhaps in reaction to not-so-imaginary slights, rarely even acknowledge the existence of wine, much less deem it worthy of drinking."
(tags: booze food blogs culture)
Casual Fridays: Is political wishy-washiness a general phenomenon? : Cognitive Daily
"Kevin [Drum] suggested that someone do a study to see if some people flip-flop no…
cortex | October 29, 2009In the latest N+1, Marco Roth takes a critical look at the rise of the "neuronovel":
The last dozen years or so have seen the emergence of a new strain within the Anglo-American novel. What has been variously referred to as the novel of consciousness or the psychological or confessional novel--the novel, at any rate, about the workings of a mind--has transformed itself into the neurological novel, wherein the mind becomes the brain. ince 1997, readers have encountered, in rough chronological order, Ian McEwan's Enduring Love (de Clérambault's syndrome, complete with an appended case history…
neurophilosophy | October 28, 2009FOLLOWING the surgical removal of a body part, amputees often report sensations which seem to originate from the missing limb. This is thought to occur because the brain's model of the body (referred to as the body image) still contains a representation of the limb, and this leads to the experience that the missing limb is still attached to their body. Occasionally, amputees say that they cannot move their phantom limbs - they are perceived to be frozen in space, apparently because they cannot be seen.
Yet, research shows that the body image is malleable and easily manipulated. And according…
oracknows | October 28, 2009Damn you, PZ!
Not only are you muscling into my territory (what, aren't creationism and atheism enough?), but you had to subject me to the most mind-numbing example of why homeopaths are the most clueless purveyors of pseudoscience there are! Behold, Dr. Charlene Werner, an optometrist (apparently) and a homeopath. I warn you, however. If you have any understanding of physics or chemistry whatsoever or if you've ever read (and liked) Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (or anything else he's ever written), sit down now. Take a deep breath. Heck, crack open a bottle of wine and down at…
drorzel | October 27, 2009
Elements I Have Yet to Use. In the Pipeline:
"I wrote about this topic a few years ago, and thought I'd update it. Many chemists find themselves looking at a periodic table and wondering "How many of these things have I personally handled?" My list is up to nearly 45 elements (there are a couple that I've got to think about, one-off catalyst reactions from twenty-two years ago and the like). And there are at least 29 that I hope to never use at all, since they're radioactive and I'm generally not in the mood for that. So what does that leave me?"
(tags: chemistry medicine industry blogs in-…
eklemetti | October 26, 2009A few weeks ago I asked you to submit questions on the 2008-present Chaiten eruption in Chile to pose to Dr. Jonathan Castro. Dr. Castro recently had a paper on the ascent rates of Chaiten rhyolite published in Nature and he kindly volunteered to answer your questions. Here are the answers to selected questions ... enjoy!
Chaiten in Chile erupting in 2009. Image by Dr. Jonathan Castro.
Dr. Jonathan Castro
Biography:
B.S. from Humboldt State University
Ph.D. from University of Oregon*
Currently a Research Geologist at CNRS-Institut for Sciences de la Terre, Oreans, France
Soon moving on to…
drorzel | October 23, 2009
An Inside Look at the Physics GRE | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine
"I am sworn to secrecy about a lot of the details, for good reason, but let me try to tell you from my perspective as an exam writer how to study for this dreaded event in your physics education."
(tags: science physics academia education blogs cosmic-variance)
Living Like Fitzgerald « Whatever
"To flag my own genre here, "Six cents a word," should sound vaguely familiar to science fiction and fantasy writers, as that's the current going rate at the "Big Three" science fiction magazines here in the US: Analog (which…
emjohnson | October 22, 2009I am tremendously excited to have David Sloan Wilson as a member of ScienceBlogs, and having had a small role in his decision is extremely gratifying. However, I take serious issue with the thesis of his first entry that bears the subtitle "Science as a Religion that Worships Truth as its God." This sat uncomfortably with me when I first saw it and it's been a persistent irritation ever since.
A light went off when I read one of the comments on his inaugural post. It was buried down the list (#54 to be precise), was only two sentences long, and would easily have been overlooked if I didn…