The del.icio.us automatic blog posting that usually produces the daily links dump posts here has been broken during the recent ScienceBlogs upgrade. The links dump posts from last Thursday on didn't happen, but we've kludged up a way to get that material back. These are the links that should've posted on Saturday the 25th:
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Mmmmmmm.... potstickers.....
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"A Ph.D., in which you have to do a research project, is a whole different thing. For me, it was a daunting task. How could I possibly frame the questions that would lead to significant discoveries; design and interpret an experiment so that the conclusions were absolutely convincing; foresee difficulties and see ways around them, or, failing that, solve them when they occurred? My Ph.D. project was somewhat interdisciplinary and, for a while, whenever I ran into a problem, I pestered the faculty in my department who were experts in the various disciplines that I needed. I remember the day when Henry Taube (who won the Nobel Prize two years later) told me he didn't know how to solve the problem I was having in his area. I was a third-year graduate student and I figured that Taube knew about 1000 times more than I did (conservative estimate). If he didn't have the answer, nobody did. That's when it hit me: nobody did. That's why it was a research problem."
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"I freely admit that I believe the scientific merits of a manned mission to Mars are very slight. There is, at this point, nothing that humans can do over there that robots, telescopes, orbiters, etc., couldn't do at a tiny fraction of the cost and risk. But -- and as a scientist, this is a tough admission -- we have more to consider than just science. NASA was not originally a scientific organization, although it accomplished (and continues to accomplish) some great science. It was originally a military organization, and my point is that I believe the purposes of NASA projects do and should go beyond the purely scientific. "
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"The thing is - the science case is overwhelmingly in favor of the robots right now. Check out the poster-child for this - the Mars Rover Missions. 5 years of exploration and science. Less than one billion bucks. What did putting a man on the moon cost? I can't find firm numbers - but it isn't uncommon to see numbers like 100 billion. Now, I don't think going back to the moon would be that expensive - it usually is cheaper the second time around. Mars, which was Bush's stated goal, would probably be that or close to it. For that kind of cost you could littler Mars with rovers and send a few to other planets."
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"I'm at the Topical Conference on Advanced Laboratories, and the first day has highlighted several questions about the laboratory curriculum that have been rolling around in the back of my mind. The conference considers advanced labs to be any labs beyond intro physics, and participants come from a wide range of institutions. One obvious topic of discussion was the objectives for advanced labs, and the list was amazingly lengthy, ranging from experimental and technical skills to conceptual understanding of physics topics to exposing students to the nature of science and allowing students to practice collaboration, interpersonal, and communication skills. Such lists are particularly daunting considering that at many schools there are only two or three semesters of lab beyond introductory physics."
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"[T]o really be anti-technology these professors would have to really advocate teaching naked, and I mean that in the fullest sense of the term, as in teaching sans clothing. For, any teaching practice requires technology. Are we to imagine that these luddite professors disallow paper and pen from class? "Students should not take notes in class, the technology gets in the way of discussion." Are we to imagine that they do not allow books in class? "No books, they get in the way of discussion." Books, paper, pen, desks, chalkboards, whiteboards, all of these are technologies. In fact clothing itself is a technology, so if a professor really wanted to be against technology he would have to give up his tweed jacket and bow tie, because as a technology this might get in the way of the students learning, instead really go "naked" so as to better connect with the students."
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"I'm not talking about simply recording myself giving a regular lecture. I think that would suck. I am talking about making a high production value movie for every lecture. I'm talking about professional script writers (those guys that make the Daily Show or the Colbert Report so funny), about special effects and computer graphics to illustrate the concepts instead of the board, about high end directors, cameramen, and producers (like the guys who made my Nova special). "
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"Do I believe that a lot of cops are hotheads? I sure do; even as a white man I've been the victim of idiots who think that a badge is a license to swagger like Dirty Harry. But I'm also a professor. Do I believe that an academic of an exalted reputation such as that of Professor Gates is capable of being belligerent, arrogant, and disrespectful of someone deemed "beneath" them? Hell, yes! I see it all the time. And therein lies the problem. There are two stories circulating, both of which are plausible, and the only people who know what happened are Gates and Crowley and perhaps not even they recall it exactly as it went down."
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