drorzel | August 4, 2006One of the perks of this semi-pro blogging gig is that people have started sending me free copies of books about physics. I'm halfway through a new book on quantum mechanics at the moment, and a copy of Lee Smolin's forthcoming The Trouble With Physics is on its way.
If you can't wait to hear what I have to say about the book (which might take a while, as I don't have much reading time any more), Bee at Backreaction has an advance review posted already. And if you can't get enough of Lee Smolin (Loop Quantum Gravity theorist and string theory opponent), she also has an interview with the man…
drorzel | August 3, 2006The Dave Bacon post linked earlier today is actually the beginning of a plug for Doug Natelson's list of hot topics and controversies in condensed matter and nanoscale science.
As was suggested in a recent comment, now that a nonzero number of condensed matter and nano people are (apparently) reading this blog (at least occasionally), this could be a fun opportunity to have a series of discussions about the hot topics and controversies out there in the world of condensed matter and nanoscale science. The idea would be to take maybe one topic a week, give a relatively gentle introduction to…
drorzel | August 3, 2006We're still a month away from the start of classes at most schools, but over at Learning Curves, Becky Hirta has some advice for new students. Some of this is university-specific ("Dress in layers. The University Center is never above 70 degrees; the math building is never below 80 degrees."), and other bits are matters of practical finance ("You don't need a shiny new computer. Save your money."), but the general advice is excellent.
There are a couple of things I especially want to highlight, starting with:
Often your instructors will tell you exactly what to do. Pay attention to these…
drorzel | August 3, 2006Quantum Pontiff Dave Bacon preaches the Word:
One thing that bugs the heck out of me, is when I hear particle physicists talk about their field as if it is all of physics. I have a great love of particle physics, so I'm not dissing the field at all, nor arguing that it isn't more fundamental, but it rubs me the wrong way to disregard all of the rest of physics that is currently going on. This especially irritates me since it gives students the wrong impression that the only exciting physics is in particle physics.
Can I get an "Amen!"?
I sometimes wonder if people in other disciplines have…
drorzel | August 3, 2006This is a few days old, now, but Truth and Beauty Bombs has done something I would've thought impossible: They've suggested a way to make Garfield amusing. Who woulda thunk it?
It's not as deeply and gloriously wrong as yesterday's Medium Large, but it's weirdly compelling.
(Via a mailing list.)
drorzel | August 2, 2006Temperatures in Schenectady hit the mid-90's yesterday (do your own metric conversions), so I took the opportunity to do a little experimental thermodynamics: I played pick-up soccer after work with some of the students who are here for the summer. On the field-turf football field, which was a good ten degrees hotter than the ambient temperature elsewhere. It was an excellent opportunity to run down Jim's checklist of heat stress symptoms ("Hmmm... I'm not sweating as much as I was a little while ago. Perhaps this would be a good time to go sit in the shade and drink water...").
(Let this be…
drorzel | August 2, 2006Another email update from Senior Middle East Correspondant Paul Schemm, this time including some stuff that could be read as sort-of positive, if you're a fan of the American presence in Iraq:
The US soldiers obligingly stopped periodically during one patrol and
allowed me to clamber out and talk to people. What they said
surprised me so much that I later sent some of the Sunnis from the
office to the same neighborhood to check it out.
These people wanted the Americans around. They trusted the Americans [...]
Of course, you really need to see it in context to judge, so the full text is below…
drorzel | August 2, 2006Continuing the recent "careers in science" theme, Inside Higher Ed has a story about what people with science degrees do with their lives, based on a new NSF report. From the Inside Higher Ed piece:
Many science and engineering degree recipients continue to get use from their undergraduate studies even years after they've graduated, and even if they've switched disciplines.
According to a report from the National Science Foundation's Division of Science Resource Statistics, in 2003, two-thirds of workers whose highest degree was a bachelor's in a science or engineering field reported that…
drorzel | August 2, 2006Over at Cocktail Party Physics, Jennifer Ouellette offers dating advice for the geek set. Mostly, this reminds me again how happy I am to be married, and not worrying about this stuff any more, but her advice seems reasonably sound, save for one point:
There's nothing sexier than a man who's confident and comfortable in his own skin, and therefore isn't afraid to show a little affection and emotion at opportune moments. To paraphrase a famous line in the classic film, Say Anything: don't be a Guy. The world is full of Guys. Be a Man. Come to think of it, rent Say Anything for your date, and…
drorzel | August 1, 2006The previous post reminded me of something I had marked as interesting: Technorati led me to ChemJerk, who pointed in turn to the Princton Review's list of Most Popular College Majors. In reverse order, with the top five below the fold, we have:
10) Political Science
9) Computer Science
8) Communications
7) English
6) Education
5) Nursing
4) Biology
3) Elementary Education
2) Psychology
1) Business Administration and Management
A lot of these aren't terribly surprising. "Biology" is probably a proxy for "pre-med," which usually isn't an official major, and English and Political Science…
drorzel | August 1, 2006There have been a number of responses to my Science Is Hard post over the last several days, and I've been trying to come up with something to say about them. This is the second of two posts responding to comments by some of my fellow ScienceBloggers.
Turning to Steinn's first post on the subject, I actually hadn't intended to link the "Science Is Hard" post to the "Why They're Leaving" post. Those two subjects just happened to catch my eye on the same day. Their juxtaposition was not meant to imply that students leave science because science is hard-- in fact, the particular difficulties I…
drorzel | August 1, 2006Today is the 25th anniversary of the launch of MTV, back in 1981, with "Video Killed the Radio Star." Blogdom is, appropriately enough, full of people offering tributes and soliciting fond recollections of the days when they played music videos on MTV. See, for example, posts by Abel and Scalzi.
Just to be contrarian, here's a space for a different sort of reminscence: When, in your opinion, did MTV pass the point of no return on the path that led to the current nearly-music-free channel?
My personal feeling is that while it became irretrievable with the launch of "The Real World," the…
drorzel | August 1, 2006There have been a number of responses to my Science Is Hard post over the last several days, and I've been trying to come up with something to say about them. In particular, Steinn points out that science is easier than digging ditches, while in comments, "revere" of Effect Measure says that science is tedious, just like digging ditches. Well, OK, that's flippant-- what he really said was:
The dirty secret we don't teach our students is that most real research is tedious, time consuming and routine, just like any other kind of work. Whether you think it's hard or the ride of a lifetime is…
drorzel | August 1, 2006Here's a link for Ed Brayton, who does a fair bit of poker blogging: via Dave Sez, Brian at MGOBlog is playing the the World Series of Poker, and blogging about it.
You may or may not regard the WSOP as the beginning of the end for ESPN, but the broadcasts are weirdly hypnotic. I've played just enough poker for fake moneyto know that I'm not very good, but it is kind of fun to play. I occasionally think about trying to play more often, but I don't know any non-students who play locally, and really, an online gaming habit is just above "heroin addiction" on my list of things to acquire.
Anyway…
drorzel | July 31, 2006Via Victor Revelles (among other sources), news of a proposed experiment to follow up an earlier experiment that reportedpolarization shifts of photons in vacuum in a strong magnetic field. There's a similar news story about the new experiment.
The idea here is to try to nail down the cause of that earlier rotation, which isn't the sort of thing you normally expect to happen. Photons passing through vacuum are supposed to, well, pass through the vacuum. They're not supposed to change their polarization, even if there is a big magnetic field present. In order for the earlier experiment to have…
drorzel | July 31, 2006There's a comment to the most recent Open Thread at Making Light asking why there isn't more handicapping of the Hugo Awards. The commenter, Kathryn from Sunnyvale, makes reference to a comment on John Scalzi's "Please Vote" thread, that suggested there was a clear favorite in the balloting:
There is a certain book on the short list that had more preorders than the rest of the books had sales combined -- by a factor of 10, most like.
This certain book's author has a fan community that meets up at each Worldcon and throws the biggest and best parties. This year, over 100 members are expected,…
drorzel | July 31, 2006The academia and family life discussion continues on ScienceBlogs and elsewhere, and continues to be fascinating (at least if you're fascinated by this stuff...). The Female Science Professor has two more posts on the topic since I last linked her, one on awkward interview questions (though nothing to compare to this anecdote), and another on kids and tenure. Between those, there's a post on changing jobs in academia that's also worth a look.
Elsewhere, Mary at View From the Corner (who has an RSS feed now, yay) talks about the evolution of her view of the professoriate:
I don't think…
drorzel | July 30, 2006The internal distribution of picture of the ScienceBlogs get-together in NYC (referred to here) prompted several calls for me to update my picture. I have, after all, lost rather a lot of weight since the picture in my profile was taken. Thus, I had Kate take a new picture of me post-weight-loss:
For the sake of science, the "before" picture (which was cut down to make the old head shot) is below the fold, so you can do a valid comparison:
As you can tell, my hair has gotten messier, and I've changed my shirt. The profile picture has been updated to reflect this.
drorzel | July 30, 2006One item I forgot to mention in the previous post: The Times Book Review section today features an article on backlist books and the so-called "Long Tail" exploited by on-line sales. It has some interesting stuff on the business of publishing and the sales of backlist books.
As with the medical story referenced in the previous post, I'd be interested to hear what any of the publishing types out there think of this. As an outsider, it sounds interesting enough, but it could be horribly inaccurate, and I'd never be able to tell.
drorzel | July 30, 2006Miscellaneous stories that caught my eye in today's New York Times:
First, on the science sdie of things, a long article about how people are living longer, not to mention bigger and healthier, than their ancestors. It compares medical records for Civil War veterans with people of similar age today, and finds amazing reductions in all manner of health problems. This is attributed to better pre-natal and early-childhood nutrition and medical care.
I hope this is on the radar for the various medical types here at ScienceBlogs, as I'd love to hear the opinions of real live doctors on this. It…