drorzel | October 24, 2008Claims of the non-existence of dark matter are a staple of astro-kookery, but Physics World today has a news story with the provocative title "Galaxy survey casts doubts on cold dark matter," which makes it sound like people from reputable collaborations are questioning the existence of dark matter.
So what's the deal? Well, here's the explanation of the results, which come from a survey of 200-odd galaxies identified by both radio and visible telescopes:
Using data from both telescopes, the team classified the galaxies in terms of six independent properties. These were two optical radii (…
drorzel | October 24, 2008Chris Mooney visited Union on Wednesday, talking to two classes (one Environmental Studies class, and one class on presidential politics), and giving an evening lecture titled "Science Escape 2008." He's an excellent speaker, so if you're looking for someone to give a talk about science and politics, you could do a whole lot worse.
I enjoyed the evening talk quite a bit, in part because it echoed a lot of things I said in my talk at the Science21 meeting last month (video, live-blogging), thus reassuring me that I'm not a lone crank on these issues. He talked about his experience with…
drorzel | October 23, 2008
Good Math, Bad Math : Credit Default Swaps: Gambling as Insurance
"Credit default swaps are interesting - in the same way that a Rube Goldberg device is interesting. They are in a fundamental sense very simple, but the structure that's built up around them is so bizarre, so ridiculous on the face of it, that when you look at it in retrospect, it's hard to believe that anyone actually thought that it was a good idea, or that it could ever work."
(tags: economics math stupid)
Spin segregation puzzles physicists - physicsworld.com
"John Thomas and colleagues at Duke University found that…
drorzel | October 23, 2008Your weekly picture of SteelyKid with Appa:
She's getting big enough that it's starting to be difficult to keep them both in the frame, at least in the porta-crib bassinet thing. I may need to change the way I'm taking these.
On the developmental front, Kate reports hearing SteelyKid laugh on several occasions. I still haven't heard it. When I do the Baby Dance with her, she sometimes makes a little coughing sound that I think is the beginning of a laugh, but I have yet to hear real giggling.
She's also getting better with her hands. They're not always clenched in fists any more, and she can…
drorzel | October 23, 2008As part of my intermittent series of posts highlighting particular individual projects, here's a request for basic scientific equipment for a school in Manhattan:
You will make it possible for my students to develop a greater understanding of the nature and the process of science by contributing these basic materials for my science class. The hands on activities will increase student curiosity and minimize boredom and talk in the teaching of science.
My students need 15 lab coats in order to conduct ongoing science experiments, 15 thermometers in order to carry out experiments that involve…
drorzel | October 23, 2008Doug Natelson is thinking about fortuitous physics, inspired by some solid state examples:
Every now and then you stumble across a piece of physics, some detail about how the universe works, that is extremely lucky in some sense. For example, it's very convenient that Si is a great semiconductor, and at the same time SiO2 is an incredibly good insulator - in terms of the electric field that it can sustain before breakdown, SiO2 is about as good as it gets.
From my own field of physics, I would suggest the rubidium atom. Rubidium isn't a substance you run across every day, and that's a Good…
drorzel | October 22, 2008Another question from a generous donor, in this case Natalie, who asks:
As for my question, how about "who is your favorite author, and why?" or, if you'd rather, "what's your favorite book, and why?"
This is a difficult question, because it's subject to a sort of quantum projection noise. That is, my "favorite book" and "favorite author" exist in a sort of quantum superposition of all the various possibilities. When someone asks, I can give an answer and either the wavefunction collapses to that value at that instant, or the universe splits into many parallel universes, each with its own…
drorzel | October 22, 2008Some time back, I wrote about what you need to make a quantum computer. Given that it's election season, I thought I'd revisit the topic by looking in detail at the candidate technologies for quantum computing.
The first up is Ion Trap Quantum Computing, probably the most well-established of any of the candidates. The field really starts with Dave Wineland's group at NIST, though there is outstanding stuff being done by Chris Monroe at Maryland, and a host of others.
So, how do they stack up? Here are the facts about ion traps as a quantum computing system:
What's the system? Ion traps are,…
drorzel | October 22, 2008Inside Higher Ed this morning has a story about a mock trial to be held at Northern Kentucky University:
The trial centers around the termination of fictitious biology teacher Susan Scott (a traditionally trained evolution adherent), who according to her complaint, encouraged students to "explore creation theories." Scott, who will be played by Simon Kenton High School teacher Heather Mastin, is suing the fictitious Chandler County School Board for wrongful termination and seeks reinstatement, compensatory damages and a judicial declaration that the school board violated her First Amendment…
drorzel | October 21, 2008
Introduction to the work energy theorem | Dot Physics
"I think it is interesting to look at how most textbooks define energy:
Energy is the ability to do work
This is really a stupid definition. Kind of circular logic, if you ask me. "
(tags: physics education science energy academia)
Powell Endorses Obama | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"There goes his standing with people who were tolerating him because he was in the Bush administration."
(tags: politics onion silly)
PHD Comics: Academic Salaries
In the words of David St. Hubbins, "Too much f*$%ing perspective."
(tags:…
drorzel | October 21, 2008Chris Mooney will be visiting Union tomorrow (I'm picking him up at the airport in a couple of hours). He'll be speaking to a couple of classes and then giving a presentation about science and politics in the evening.
If you have any questions that you've been dying to ask Chris, and haven't been able to get him to address on his blog, leave them in the comments. If they're reasonable, I'll see if I can get answers during one or another of tomorrow's events.
drorzel | October 21, 2008Lots of people talk about "Science 2.0" and "crowdsourcing" and the like. EurekAlert provides a story about taking it to the next level:
Nalini Nadkarni of Evergreen State College currently advises a team of researchers who sport shaved heads, tattooed biceps and prison-issued garb rather than the lab coats and khakis typically worn by researchers. Why is Nadkarni's team composed of such apparently iconoclastic researchers? Because all of her researchers are inmates at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, a medium security prison in Littlerock, Washington.
With partial funding from the National…
drorzel | October 21, 2008"Donate to my dad's DonorsChoose challenge, or I will pop you right in the mouth!"
"Bang! Zoom! To the Moon!"
You don't want to mess with her-- she's fierce. So please give generously.
For those keeping track, the current tally, at the time of this typing, is $4,887. Or, for the figure you really care about, that's $1,113 before I have to dance like a monkey.
That offer has brought in a little over $3,000 since last Wednesday, which is pretty impressive. There's been nothing at all since late Saturday night, though, so we may have tapped out the monkeyphiles.
drorzel | October 20, 2008
Physics - From atoms to molecules (and back)
"Atoms colliding in a magnetic field can form weakly bound states called Feshbach molecules. These states have now been used in combination with advanced laser techniques to create tightly bound ground-state molecules close to quantum degeneracy."
(tags: physics molecules atoms experiment science news low-temperature)
The Cartoon Lounge: Online Only: The New Yorker
Farley Katz (of the New Yorker) and Randall Munroe (of xkcd) in an old-fashioned cartoonist's duel.
(tags: xkcd comics internet silly)
drorzel | October 20, 2008Checking in from Cairo, Senior Uncertain Principles Middle East Correspondant Paul Schemm, with a wire story titled "Ultraconservative Islam on Rise in Mideast":
Critics worry that the rise of Salafists in Egypt, as well as in other Arab countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, will crowd out the more liberal and tolerant version of Islam long practiced there. They also warn that the doctrine is only a few shades away from that of violent groups like al-Qaida -- that it effectively preaches "Yes to jihad, just not now."
In the broad spectrum of Islamic thought, Salafism is on the extreme…
drorzel | October 20, 2008From this weekend's visit home, a picture of my father and me, with our respective babies:
You recognize SteelyKid, I hope. The fuzzy yellow guy is Bodie, my parents' new Labrador Retriever puppy. Bodie is one day older than SteelyKid, and true to his Labrador breeding, he's a born experimentalist, running around the house giving everything an exploratory bite or two. You can even see him eying SteelyKid:
He's thinking "I could totally eat that."
And, of course, as a puppy, he maintains an unassailable dignity at all times, even when sleeping:
OK, maybe not so much with the dignity thing.
drorzel | October 20, 2008the New York Times Magazine has a cover story this week about Barack Obama's efforts to reach working-class voters. The headline writers did it no favors by tagging it "Will gun-toting, churchgoing white guys pull the lever for Obama?," which makes it sound like the worst sort of demographic electoral college nonsense. The actual article, though, is much better than the title suggests.
It's not perfect-- it's still got a lot of pundit-class chin-stroking about whether Obama is actually connecting with working-class whites, written in a manner that suggests that these elusive creatures are…
drorzel | October 19, 2008
Michael Nielsen » The most remarkable graph in the history of sport
"It may not be obvious at first glance, but it's a remarkable graph, even if you don't give a fig about cricket"
(tags: sports statistics)
The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.: On Being Skipped
Notes from the sausage factory.
(tags: books publishing blogs SF)
nanoscale views: Faculty searches, 2008 version
"[I]t never hurts to present this topic again at this time of the year."
(tags: academia jobs science)
On Who is American « Whatever
Yes.
(tags: US politics race religion society culture diversity)
drorzel | October 17, 2008
Don't scrap the squiggle! -- Crooked Timber
"My only complaint about the crawler is that CNN removes it from the screen when the debate finishes. I absolutely wish that they continued to show the favourable/unfavourable reactions of the dial-testing focus group to the talking heads on the news afterwards; you'd be able to see the worm plunging every time Wolf Blitzer opened his gob."
(tags: television politics society silly social-science)
Tony Womo Out Three To Four Weeks With Bwoken Widdle Fingey | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"Team doctors originally believed Womo's poor,…
drorzel | October 17, 2008In the wake of the debate the other night, there's been a lot of talk about the disparity between the way tv pundits "scored" it-- most of them thought McCain did well-- and post-debate polling of actual voters, which gave a huge edge to Obama. Kevin Drum, Mark Kleiman, and Steve Benen all comment on this, and they have links to other people saying similar things.
None of them take the logical next step, though. The important question isn't "Why are the pundits so wrong?," the important question is:
Given that the tv pundits are so far off, why are you watching them?
It's not like Wednesday'…