Between trip planning and thinking about Boskone, I've been thinking a fair bit about Japan recently. I took a whole bunch of pictures when I was there, with a camera borrowed from my parents, and looking at them now, my first thought is "Boy, I could make these look really good in GIMP..." Of course, save for a few that I scanned in (the picture at left is a cut-down version of one of those), these are all on paper, not in electronic format, and scanning them in doesn't produce the best quality, as you can see even in the small version. This got me wondering, though: is there an efficient…

SDL 5401-G1, October 2001- February 6, 2007 SDL 5401-G1 ("Sid" to friends) died today of static shock, after five years of service in a grating-locked diode laser system. He had survived three lab floods, and more than a dozen power outages, but succombed to electric shock following a mishap with a Tesla coil. He is survived by three siblings from the same batch, one of whom has already taken his place in the grating-locked laser mount. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you send research grants. Sic transit gloria laseri.

We were away for the weekend, so I'm a day behind in reading the Sunday Times. This week's magazine section has a story about the controversy over "hybrid" dogs: Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association, told me, "You're going to have a real battle here" between hybrid dog breeders and "the purists who say this is all 25th-century voodoo science." The rift seems to epitomize a peculiarly American tension: between tradition and improvisation, institutions and fads. The American Canine Hybrid Club, one of a growing number of hybrid dog registries, will soon…

For the half-dozen people who care, my Boskone panel schedule for this year, with a few comments. I don't know for sure that this is the final final version-- I might get added to something else-- but it's probably pretty close. Fri 8:00pm, Visiting Japan If we attend the Worldcon in Yokohama this August, what knowledge should we bring along? What ten phrases are essential? What societal differences should we be prepared to accommodate? What are Japanese SF fans like? What will we eat? How much could all this cost? Vince Docherty, Chad Orzel, Peggy Rae Sapienza I'm sure I'm not the only…

President Bush's budget request for next year has been released. Surprising approximately no-one who has followed current events over the last seven years, it's a mixed bag for science: President Bush rolled out a 2008 spending plan Monday that disappointed advocates for scientific research, even as it called for hefty increases for several key programs in the physical sciences aimed at continuing the president's drive to double such spending. While they applaud that goal, academic leaders are troubled by the fact that the administration's budget plan, if adopted, would result in a reduction…

Cognitive Daily proves it scientifically. I love it when life imitates Brust.

The new issue of Locus arrived just before we left, so I spent some time reading reviews and commentary on the SF field over the weekend. It's actually a pretty good issue-- the retro-review of Isaac Asimov is interesting, and while the John Barnes interview doesn't ask the important question ("How can the same person write Mother of Storms and One for the Morning Glory?"), he says some interesting things about his other books. There's also a recommended reading list, that I'll probably comment on elsewhere. I do want to mention, though, the review column by Gary K. Wolfe, in which he reads a…

I watched the game at a Super Bowl party hosted by some of our senior majors, because Kate didn't want to see it. Of course, the guys who hosted the party didn't have cable, so we were watching the game through a haze of static and swirly lines that made the weather look even worse than it was. Game comments are below the fold, for the sake of marital harmony in Chateau Steelypips: What a dog of a game. Seven turnovers in the first half-- three fumbles by each team, and a Manning interception. Then Rex Grossman lobbed up two more interceptions down the stretch, sealing the win for the Colts.…

Today is the official beginning of the week of Just Science. The many blogs who signed up have pledged to post only about science for the week, and particularly not to post about "anti-science"-- no "religious people are stupid," no "alternative medicine is crap," no "global warming denialists are a bunch of cranks." I didn't sign up for three reasons: one, that I'm lazy and didn't get around to it; two, that I don't want to give up posting about academia and pop culture for the week; and three, that it would be sort of redundant, since I don't really do much "anti-science" posting in the…

I'll put my prediction behind the cut, as since the Pats lost, Kate has been trying to pretend that football season is over, and I wouldn't want to upset her... I don't really have a strong rooting interest in either team. I have some good friends who are Bears fans, but that could cut either way, and while I'd like to see Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy win one, because they're both good guys, that's not a real strong interest, either. I havent really seen enough of either team to make a solid football-based prediction, either. Looking at the rosters, though, I see that Adam Vinatieri is on…

I didn't actually plan for the site to go completely dark for the weekend, but Kate and I were off at a wedding for the weekend, and wound up not actually having regular Internet access, so I couldn't post any of the weekend things I didn't get around to scheduling before I left. I'm sure this ruined many a weekend... The wedding and reception was in a VFW hall in New Hampshire, and when we got back to Kate's parents' afterwards, we all took showers and changed clothes to get rid of the cigarette smell. As I type, my good winter jacket is in the wash, along with Kate's, because they still…

Time spent locating the parts for the Compton Effect experiment: 15 minutes. Time spent dragging lead bricks for radiation shielding into the lab: 10 minutes. Time spent bulding little lead houses for the hot 137Cs source and Photo-Multiplier Tube (PMT): 15 minutes. Time spent trying to find somebody who knew the administrator password for the computer: 20 minutes. Time between saying "What happens if you just click 'Cancel?'" and getting the computer working: 2 seconds. Time spent connecting the detector, amplifiers, and high-voltage power supply: 5 minutes. Time spent swapping…

Late spring/ early summer is Conference Season in academic science, with lots of meetings scheduled during the academic break, so that everybody can attend without cutting into their teaching responsibilities (of course, our trimester calendar means we're still in session for most of these, but whatever...). The peak time for conferences in my subfield is late May and early June-- the main meeting I go to, the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics is actually later than usual this year, presumably because it's in Calgary, and they need an extra week or two to thaw out. Of course…

Eurekalert has a press release about new results involving "articifical atoms" at Yale. This is new work appearing in this week's Nature from the Schoelkopf lab. The term "artificial atoms," while evocative, doesn't really mean what you might think (the name they give it on their own page is Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics, which is more accurate, but too technical for the mass media). What Schoelkopf and his group have done is to fabricate very small structures on silicon chips that act in a manner similar to atoms, with discrete allowed states for the electrons, and absrobing or emitting…

I'm really bad about remembering these things-- I ought to start putting them on my calendar-- but the physics blogging carnival Philosophia Naturalis is now up, collecting many excellent posts about physics. If you've been away from the computer for the last month, or would just like a quick recap, go check it out.

Via Eurekalert a poll of American attitudes toward science confirms that people are a little confused about the whole science thing. I think the most concise desription of the problem is in the second sentence: Most (87%) rate being a scientist as one of the most prestigious careers, yet 75% can't name a living scientist. Yep. That's your problem, right there. (As an aside, am I the only one who sees the name of the group that conducted the study, Research!America, and thinks: Research!America = (Reasearch)(Research-1)(Research-2)...(2)(1)(America) ? (I am? Oh, good.)

Over in LiveJournal land, I've been reading a bunch of posts about superhero stories, mostly in the form of forty-odd years of comic books on DVD (mentioned in locked posts on a pseudonymous LJ, so no link for you). I end up reading these posts with a sort of detached interst, because I don't really get the whole superhero thing, particularly in comic form. I think the last time I regularly followed superhero stuff was when the "Superfriends" show was on tv on Saturday mornings. It's a little weird, because I like some stories that riff off the idea of superheroes (Watchmen), and I've…

In the comments to the post where I noted how many more people had least favorite textbooks than favorite ones, dr. dave writes: Textbooks... particularly SCIENCE textbooks, are not really written to be ENJOYED by anyone. They tend to be purely utilitarian. Asking for someone's favorite textbook is kind of like asking someone to choose their favorite screwdriver. To which my reaction is: "What's wrong with having a favorite screwdriver?" So here's a new dorky poll. We'll broaden the category a little, so as to be more inclusive, but inspired by dr. dave: What's your most essential tool? I'm…

Gordon Watts has deja vu: [Leaving a colloquium], I got stopped by another member of our department, who is a good friend of particle physics, and she said basically the same thing: all particle physics talks look the same. Some of the comments: Two slides on the detector. Some pictures of quarks, and then some hard-to-understand plots. Where is the story? I only know how hard it is to do this sort of thing because I know you guys: I'd never guess how hard it is from your talks. It is the same plots over and over! To a certain extent, he's being too hard on himself-- after a while, all sorts…

There's been much less hoops-blogging than usual around here this year for a couple of reasons. For one thing, I'm busy with work, and more substantive blogging, so I don't have time to watch a lot of games. I'm also playing a fair amount of basketball these days, both pick-up games at lunch, and IM games Sunday evenings, and a lot of my hoop-related energies are going into that. Really, though, the main reason for the scanty hoops-blogging is that my favorite teams both stink. Syracuse got bombed by Notre Dame last night, and Maryland rolled over after the half against Florida State. And, of…