drorzel | February 12, 2010There have been a bunch of stories recently talking about quantum effects at room temperature-- one, about coherent transport in photosynthesis , even escaped the science blogosphere. They've mostly said similar things, but Thursday's ArxivBlog entry had a particular description of a paper about entanglement effects that is worth unpacking:
Entanglement is a strange and fragile thing. Sneeze and it vanishes. The problem is that entanglement is destroyed by any interaction with the environment and these interactions are hard to prevent. So physicists have only ever been able to study and…
drorzel | February 12, 2010Miscellaneous stories and links about How to Teach Physics to Your Dog:
-- There's a nice review by Margaret Fisk (who has been reading it for a while, and mentioning it on her blog, which kept turning up in the vanity search):
Orzel does a wonderful job of finding physical parallels to explain quantum concepts in ways that make a reasonable amount of sense, whether in the behavior of dogs on a walk or the "magically" refilled food bowl. Though scientifically inclined, through a series of events I ended up with little formal training, and this book is written for people in just that situation…
drorzel | February 12, 2010
The Mid-Majority : Last Man
"For the past 20 years or so, I've played my own game every year at this time. It's called The Last Man In America To Know Who Won The Super Bowl, or just "Last Man." It's a game heavily reliant on tactics, organizational skill, and evasive procedures. The object is to go as long as possible without obtaining a small piece of pervasive data. Mastering this game requires a careful balance of hiding and plain-sight activity, enough of the latter to make sure that things still get done. It's mental paintball. And I'd like to believe that I'm the world's premier…
drorzel | February 11, 2010SteelyKid has had a bit of a sore throat the last few days, which has led to a bit of screaming and crying. Those have been interspersed with her usual cute-toddler behavior, and we managed to squeeze in the traditional Baby Blogging photo:
"Why is she waving around a Triscuit box?" you ask. Because she was cooking:
This is the latest manifestation of the rich inner life of a toddler. She gets really absorbed in this little game where she takes small objects (rocks, fridge magnets, small toys) and places them carefully in some kind of container (a piece of tupperware, one of her stacking…
drorzel | February 11, 2010Relevant to yesterday's discussion, I let Windows install its critical updates on my work computer last night. So far this morning, I have: 1) Spent five minutes looking at the blue Vista start-up screen, as the computer was hung up-- not a screen with a "Configuring updates" message, mind-- an otherwise blank blue screen with "Windows Vista" at the bottom, 2) Had Word inform me that it is unable to find the file I double-clicked to open Word, 3) Opened Word, opened the file from within Word, closed the file, tried to quit Word, and was told that I can't quit Word because it's in use by…
drorzel | February 11, 2010What's the application? Measuring the distance from the Earth to the Moon by bouncing a laser off one of the retro-reflector arrays left there by the Apollo missions.
What problem(s) is it the solution to? 1) "How does the distance from the Earth to the Moon vary over time due to things like tidal drag?" 2) "Does the strength of gravity change over time?" 3) "What can we do with a laser to really cheese off people who think the Moon landings were fake?"
How does it work? This concept is simplicity itself. You simply point a laser at the Moon, fire off a short pulse of light, and wait for it…
drorzel | February 11, 2010
Cocktail Party Physics: a few choice words from the red pen brigade
"The hardest thing about teaching anybody anything is finding the right level of communication, and the right way to express the concepts. It would seem logical that you don't go all jargony on a rank beginner, anymore than you have to spend time explaining the basics to an expert. But you'd be surprised how hard it is to put that into practice. [...]
But that's not all that you have to worry about, either. The next problem is expressing that knowledge clearly in a way that will allow the listener or reader to follow your…
drorzel | February 10, 2010The never-ending discussion of whether the Web can or should replace books has shifted into the corners of blogdom that I follow again, with Kevin Drum arguing for more books, Henry Farrell arguing for shorter books, and Jim Henley agreeing with Henry, and expanding it to fiction. They're all at least partly right-- more shorter books would be a good thing.
I do want to pick up on one thing Kevin said, though. He writes:
This is, I grant, a purely personal reaction, but one of my occasional frustrations with the blogosphere is a sense that people sometimes think they can understand complex…
drorzel | February 10, 2010What's the application? Using lasers to reduce the speed of a sample of atoms, thereby reducing their temperature to a tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero.
What problem(s) is it the solution to? 1) "How can I make this sample of atoms move slowly enough to measure their properties very accurately?" 2) "How can I make this sample of atoms move slowly enough for their quantum wave-like character to become apparent?"
How does it work? I've written about laser cooling before, but the nickel version of the explanation is this: You can think of a beam of light as being made up of photons…
drorzel | February 10, 2010We had a meeting yesterday with the chair of the CS department, who wanted to know about our computing needs. Sadly, she just meant that she wanted to know what computing things we would like our students to be taught, because my real computing need, as I said to Kate last night, is "I need the entire computer industry to operate on a different paradigm than it does now, because the current system is making everyone miserable."
I was half joking, but not entirely. I genuinely am annoyed at the whole way the industry operates, because planned obsolescence means that I am constantly being…
drorzel | February 10, 2010
News: Anything But Studying - Inside Higher Ed
"Students' relatively small dedication of time to out-of-class studying has remained about the same since the survey was first conducted in 2003. In 2008, students in the physical sciences and engineering averaged 15.1 hours each week on out-of-class academic work; while students in the biological sciences reported spending 13.7 hours on academic work; students in the arts and humanities, 11.9 hours; and students in the social sciences, 11.5 hours.
In average weekly study time, the difference between a 3.60 GPA and a 2.79 or lower GPA is only…
drorzel | February 9, 2010Just a reminder, I will be on KSOO radio Tuesday evening, 6:30 pm ET, if you'd like to hear about How to Teach Physics to Your Dog on the radio at the end of an extremely long day. If you're in broadcast range of Sioux Falls, SD, tune it in, or you can listen live via their web site.
I'll also be at Boskone this weekend, reading book-related stuff on Sunday morning. If you're in the Boston area, stop by. If you're not, well, there's still no way to experience a convention over the Internet. Sorry.
drorzel | February 9, 2010No substantive blogging for you today, as my alarm clock decided not to go off, causing me to oversleep by the hour that I usually spend on bloggy things. So that you're not left without blog-related entertainment, though, here's an appropriate poll topic:
How early do you have to set your alarm to get to work/class on time?(polling)
Of course, despite oversleeping by a full hour, I was still here twenty minutes before this morning's lab. And probably a good half-hour before the majority of my students. Their late arrival will do wonders for my mood.
drorzel | February 9, 2010
BBC News - More cat owners 'have degrees' than dog-lovers
My favorite bit is the note that "Cat and dog numbers were last estimated in a scientific peer-reviewed journal in 1989," because, of course, peer review is critical to the process...
(tags: pets dog society education social-science)
Bright Idea: The First Lasers -- A history of discoveries leading to the 1960 invention.
An excellent step-by-step history of the development of the laser, including interviews with laser pioneers.
(tags: lasers science history physics optics atoms molecules)
The highs and lows of this year's Super…
drorzel | February 8, 2010What's the application? The use of lasers to provide an entertaining light show for humans, dogs, or cats.
What problem(s) is it the solution to? 1) "How will I entertain my dog or cat?"
2) "How can we distract people from the fact that Roger Daltrey has no voice left?"
Why are lasers essential? Lasers provide coherent beams of light, which remain small over very large distances, allowing you to project a small spot or a tight beam across a room, or even a football stadium.
Why is it cool? Duuuuude! Lasers, duuuuude!
Why isn't it cool enough? 1) It's fundamentally just a toy. 2) No amount…
drorzel | February 8, 2010A couple of weeks ago, I announced a contest to determine the Most Amazing Laser Application. After a follow-up post listing the likely candidates, we have a final list of candidate applications, an even dozen of them (after consolidating some related topics):
Cat toy/ dog toy/ laser light show
Laser cooling/ BEC
Laser ranging/position measurement
Optical tweezers
Optical storage media (CD/DVD/Blu-Ray)
LIGO
Telecommunications
Holography
Laser ignited fusion
Laser eye surgery
Laser frequency comb/ spectroscopy
Laser guide stars/ adaptive optics
Here's how this will work: over the next week…
drorzel | February 8, 2010The usual "This is the stuff that looks interesting to me" post, based on the preliminary online program. Subject to change if they move things around, or if I discover something I overlooked that sounds more interesting, or if I decide I'm hungry, and opt to blow off panels in favor of food.
This year's program is lighter on panels, but includes both a signing and a reading. Which will be a very different experience than years past...
Friday 7pm Harbor 1: The Singularity: An Appraisal
Arguably the idea of the Singularity -- a period where change happens so quickly that life afterwards is…
drorzel | February 8, 2010There was some discombobulation yesterday afternoon that kept me from posting these-- I had meant them to be a Super Bowl alternative for the non-football-inclined. They'll work just as well as a Monday brightener, though. So here's a clip of SteelyKid a couple of weeks ago, laughing at the "got your food wrapper" game:
And here's one of her talking on the phone with her grandmother:
I've been on the other end of one of those conversations, and while I still have no idea what she was saying, it's awfully cute.
drorzel | February 8, 2010
More than 300 cases of mumps reported in Monsey, New Square | LoHud.com | The Journal News
"At least 60 percent of the people in Rockland who have gotten mumps during the current outbreak had not been fully immunized, Facelle said.
Mumps were common before the vaccine became available. In 2008, there were only two reported cases in Rockland, according to the Department of Health's year-end communicable disease report."
(tags: medicine vaccine health-care stupid science news)
Temple Grandin | Other Shows | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club
"Playing Grandin in the HBO biopic Temple Grandin,…
drorzel | February 7, 2010It occurs to me that if you take the Super Bowl as a comment on the current state of the US of A-- which, you might as well, because it's as good as anything else-- we are totally screwed.
I mean, consider the fact that two-thirds of the ads were for Bud Light. OK, that may be a slight exaggeration, but I think every commercial break in the first half had at least one Bud Light ad in it. That basically tells you that the only company with the money to spend on Super Bowl advertising is one that makes its money from helping people drown their sorrows. That's an encouraging statement.
Worse yet…