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Counting Photons

ScienceBlogs' own Chad Orzel has on a number of occasions discussed the photon concept in relation to physics pedagogy. He thinks (as I do) that it's a good concept to teach early even though formally speaking photons are considerably more complicated than the "particle of light" idea that's often presented as an intuitive concept. But even that billiard-ball model is in a lot of ways not so far from the truth. Since we're speaking of intuition, it's worth noting that the photon model is not necessarily something that at first seems to have a lot of connection to everyday reality. When was…

Story of My Life

One of the things required for the tenure review is a full and up-to-date curriculum vitae. Having spent an inordinate amount of time updating and re-formatting my CV, it seems a shame not to make more use of it than that, so I might as well recycle it into a blog post (after stripping out my home address and a few other items). Of course, I'm too lazy to do it in proper HTML, so what's below the fold is an automated conversion from the RTF file into really, really bad HTML. But, having spent an inordinate amount of time updating and re-formatting the Word file to get it to look right, I'll…

Move Over, Schrödinger's Cat

A couple of quick book-related items that I can't resist posting, even while on vacation: First, the sales rank cracked the top 500 on Amazon last night, peaking at 396. I don't know if this is just a matter of relative sales volume being low, or what, but it's a huge kick all the same. For the moment, it's the top seller in the Physics category, and #35 in Science as a whole. Statistical fluctuation or not, that's very cool. Even better is this excellent online review from New Scientist: Talking quantum physics with a dog may seem a tad eccentric, but Orzel's new book is a true delight to…

How Do You Shelve Your Books?

Wow! This is nuts! And this is nuts in a different way! Fortunately, Scott McLemee, Chad Orzel, Josh Rosenau and Brian Switek bring in some reality to the topic: what goes on the living-room bookshelf? Commenters chime in. Good stuff. Read it. So, what are "rules" in the Coturnix house? First, the house is too small to allow too much fine planning as to what the guests will see. Second, we do not have guests very often (again, lack of space), so the bookshelves are not aimed at them. Third, we have about 5000 books and they have to be stored somewhere, in some fashion. Fourth, we have…

My picks from ScienceDaily

This Is Your Brain On Jazz: Researchers Use MRI To Study Spontaneity, Creativity: A pair of Johns Hopkins and government scientists have discovered that when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring and inhibition, and turn on those that let self-expression flow. More coverage from Smooth Pebbles, Mind Hacks, Wired Science, Neurophilosophy, Science A Go Go, PsychCentral and The Rehearsal Studio Evolution Of Aversion: Why Even Children Are Fearful Of Snakes: Some of the oldest tales and wisest mythology allude to the snake as a mischievous seducer,…

Pepsigate: Yes, I'm staying

For now, at least. My natural inclinations about this whole mess are probably closest in nature to either Chad Orzel's or Jason Rosenhouse's, so reading them will probably give you a pretty close idea of where I stand. Bora, not surprisingly, has collected a lot of the reaction. I also really like what Christie Wilcox has to say: Let me make it clear, though - I don't blame anyone for leaving. I don't hold it against them. While I may not have had the same visceral reaction they did, I also haven't been here that long. I haven't dealt with this kind of mismanagement and gotten fed up about…

The Physics of Rapunzel

Our excellent physics blogger Chad Orzel has a post up about the thermodynamics of Goldilocks. Seems it's a little questionable to have the porridge configured as it was in the old tale. A few wags in the comments complain that in a story with talking bears physics is the least of the concerns, but I think that misses the point. Suspension of disbelief requires that we grant the story the ability to say wild things so long as it does so in an internally consistent way. Don't, for instance, make time-travel commonplace enough so that a 13-year-old girl can use it to rearrange her school…

DonorsChoose 2009 Social Media Challenge: How we did.

Hey ScienceBlogs readers: you rock! In a year where lots of folks are waiting for the signs of economic recovery to be manifest in their daily lives, and where public school budgets have been even more hard hit than they were a year ago, your generosity helped us significantly surpass the impact of our October 2008 drive. Let's break it down: In 2008, ScienceBlogs bloggers mounted 21 challenges. 270 donors to those challenges helped raise about $38,000 to fund classroom projects. This year, ScienceBlogs bloggers mounted 13 challenges. The 266 donors who stepped up and gave to those…

Brief thoughts on analogies

Apologies for the unusually crappy blogging this week. With the arrival of a replacement from my lost/stolen laptop, I should catch up on the 12,000 unread items in NetNewsWire soon, and return to normal crappy blogging. In any event, Chad Orzel replies to last week's ruckus over "ways of knowing" by observing that "Using Analogies on the Internet Is Like Doing a Really Futile Thing": No matter what the analogy is, any attempt to use analogy, simile, metaphor, or any other lofty rhetorical technique in a debate being conducted on the Internet is doomed to end badly. No matter how carefully…

Why genetic determinism is inevitable in a meritocracy

Yes, the title is a bit asinine, but it got your attention didn't it? This post is a response to Chad Orzel's response to my response to his response to last week's "Ask a Science Blogger" where I allude to the benefit of tightening labor for our working classes (these United States). Chad states: ...the point is to make it possible for the children of the lower classes to become scientists and engineers rather than factory workers and farmers. Economic class should not be hereditary, and one of the purposes of public education is to keep economic class from being hereditary. There is a…

Science and Faith at the World Science Festival

Last year I attended a paleontology conference in Cincinnati. While I was there I attended a session on science and religion, during which a parade of people trumpeted the warm relationship between the two. Predictably, there was much bashing of the New Atheists, with Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and Stenger all specifically called out by name. There was a lot of preening about how it is only clueless atheists who blur the lines between science and religion. This, remember, at a paleontology conference. The session consisted of a series of fifteen minute presentations with no Q and A's…

Arrival, Eschatology, and Philip K. Dick

The new film Arrival, based on a story by Ted Chiang, is unlike most any science fiction blockbuster at the box office these days. It's a tense, thoughtful, somber meditation on the human condition and the nature of a higher reality. In many ways, it is a religious film that deals with eschatology (the end times or judgment day). Unlike Chad Orzel, I haven't read the source material, so I experienced the film with fresh eyes. I was immediately reminded of Philip K. Dick and his real-life experience of being 'touched by an angel.' Dick, both a life-long Christian and prolific author of…

One Reason Why the Imminent Demise of Printed Books Is Ridiculous (and Scary): Libraries

There's been some recent discussion about what eBooks will mean for publishing (ScienceBlogling Chad Orzel has a good roundup). As it often is, my take on this is 'follow the money.' Maybe my reading habits are skewed*--or more accurately, my book acquisition habits are skewed--but about eighty percent of the books I read I check out from the library (it's lower for fiction, nearly 100 percent for non-fiction). I don't think most books, especially non-fiction, where it's really hard to judge from reviews if a book is any good, are worth the full hardcover price (or even a twenty to thirty…

The Big Quench

I like Chad Orzel's True Lab StoriesTM series so much that I've decided to be inspired by (read: steal from) him and tell the only vaguely worthy story from my short researching experience. Not too long ago, I was but a wee undergrad doing her senior research in physics. The project had started with vast ambition ("Build a variable capacitor that will work under these extreme conditions!") and, over the year, turned into something more modest ("Figure out whether this one piece of equipment could possibly be a component in a variable capacitor that will work under these extreme conditions…

SiBlings, Part IV

Here is the forth and final part of the introduction to SEED sciencebloggers. Check out the first part, the second part and the third part if you have missed them before. There ain't no eleven left, so today we have only ten (but I hear there will be a couple more soon....): Jake Young of Pure Pedantry is a neuroscience student and the founder of The Synapse. His interests are broad, as in Economics as Evolution, Practice over Innate Ability, Chronicles of Higher Ed Symposium on Academic Blogging and Hummers vs. Hybrids Redux: On Corporate Research, but you really need to read everything…

Scientists & Science Journalism in the age of Blogging

This is hard. A few days before Xmass, I have HOT results comming out of the lab, and a major snafu is comming out of that endless reservoir of angst, scientists complaining about science journalists ... and now those science journalists are lashing back. I have to say that I really like George Johnson, but over the weekend, he attacked Abbie (who blogs at ERV here at scienceblogs) for complaining about the current state of science journalism. Now George has made it clear that he didn't mean to be so nasty. But is there something that can be learned from all of this? I don't have the time to…

13 Things That Don't Make Sense, by Michael Brooks

Review by Chad Orzel, from Uncertain Principles Originally posted on: January 25, 2009, 4:18 PM Michael Brooks's 13 Things That Don't Make Sense turned up on a lot of "Best science books of 2008" lists, and the concept of a book about scientific anomalies seemed interesting, so I ordered it from Amazon. It's a quick read (a mere 210 pages, and breezily written), but ultimately a frustrating book. It took me several chapters to pin down what bugged me about the book, but it all became clear when I looked at the back cover flap, and saw that the author is a former editor of New Scientist. The…

I only read it for the comics

So John Lynch (Stranger Fruit), Chad Orzel (Uncertain Principles - edited for egregious spelling error *smacking my forehead*) and PZ (Pharyngula) already tacked up The 50 Most Loathsome People for 2007. Because of crossreadership (the Refuge begging for scraps from aforementioned blogs) or simply because every acid-hearted cynic who reads the Refuge might also be inclined to read The Beast, you've likely already perused through the list. I'd say the selection must have been rather easy for The Beast's staff. Fish in a barrel and all that jazz. The text is funny, but I'm partial to…

Acting like a professional (even when you aren't one)

In case you missed the last announcement, author Tom Levenson has been running a multi-part series on the genesis of his latest book, Newton and the Counterfeiter (Available now. Pick up a copy!). One of the most recent entries is about, to borrow from Tom's title, "writing the damn thing", to which Chad Orzel has replied. Given that I still have a helluva lot of writing to do I am in a different place than both Tom and Chad, but I think my experiences might be of interest to other neophytes who are thinking of making the blog-to-book transition. One of the greatest obstacles I had to…

Blogger Challenge 2007: how's your team doing?

The 2007 DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge is in its last few days, which means there may be enough data to start identifying trends as to which ScienceBlogs readers are the most generous: By scientific discipline: Chad Orzel of Uncertain Principles is our lone full-time physical sciences blogger with a challenge this time around. He's more than halfway to his goal, but if you physics, astronomy, chemistry, and math types think you can do better vote with your donations and give Chad a boost. Two of the brain and behavior blogs that mounted challenges actually met them (Retrospectacle and Omni…

The Coveted Uncertain Principles Endorsement Goes to...

I'm not in the general habit of endorsing candidates for state office in districts where I don't live, but I think I can make an exception in this case: In a unanimous vote, the Broome County Democratic Committee approved of Town of Triangle Councilman John Orzel to run for the state's 52nd district, currently represented by Republican Sen. Thomas W. Libous. John Orzel is my uncle, and my 10th and 12th grade Social Studies teacher back in the day. Libous is a career politician in the most negative sense of the phrase, and was one of the Republicans who orchestrated last summer's farcical…

Say 'Hi' if you see him running - Interview with Dave Munger

Dave Munger is part of the numerous North Carolinian contingent here at Scienceblogs.com. He writes the Cognitive Daily blog and runs the ResearchBlogging.org blog aggregator. At the Science Blogging Conference two weeks ago, Dave led a session on Building interactivity into your blog. Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your background? What is your Real Life job? Hi, I'm Dave Munger. My background is in writing, editing, and publishing. I've written several textbooks, most notably, Researching…

Periodic Table of the ScienceBlogs, Part 10: Blogs S-W

Stoat Categories: Planet Earth, Policy & Politics William Connolley lives in Coton, UK, and works at the British Antarctic Survey as a climate modeller. In a former life he was a mathematician at SEH. He specializes in climate change in general and Antarctica in particular. He describes himself as a long-haired, sandal-wearing, weird non-conformist dedicated to staunchly defending the science on climate change--armed with logic, facts, and reasoned arguments mostly. The stoat (Mustela erminea) is a small mammal also known as the ermine. The fur of its winter coat is associated with…

Is our children learning?

The NYTimes (also International Herald Tribune which I mentioned before) piece on book-reading, the Web and literacy of the new generation, has provoked quite a lot of interesting responses: SciCurious: But this change in internet language has happened very quickly, almost as as fast an an invading force. Is it here to stay? Is I gonna haf 2 strt riteing all my posts liek this? And is this an acceptable change to the language? Are these new grammar and spelling rules that we should teach in the schools as evidence of language evolution? Samia: My one issue with printed media is that I…

How concerned should scientists be with "framing"?

The debate about Chris Mooney and Matthew Nisbet's recent Science article has gotten quite contentious. Nisbet and Mooney contend that if scientists hope to persuade the public to value science, they must take heed of recent research on "framing." In other words, they claim, scientists are failing at presenting their message effectively. So what exactly is this "framing" stuff anyway? Matthew Nisbet might not agree that this is all there is to it, but I thought this article in the APS observer offered a nice summary of what we're talking about: People are more likely to take risks when they…

The Greatest Cognitive Science Experiment, Ever?

Chad Orzel has challenged the ScienceBloggers to come up with the greatest experiments in their respective fields. While Greta and I are reluctant to say this is the greatest experiment ever (there are so many great experiments!), we both independently came up with the same one: Roger Shepard and Jacqueline Metzler's 1971 experiment on mental rotation. It's certainly our favorite, and it's difficult to overstate its importance. The design of the experiment is simple and brilliant; yet it was not easy to execute at the time. Today researchers studying vision almost always use computers to…

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

Miscellaneous 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…

Unseemly Self-Congratulations

The final step in the tenure process here is the Very Nice Letter. I'm not sure that it's an official step, as opposed to an established tradition, but whichever it actually is, at the end of the process, a candidate who passes the tenure review gets a letter from the faculty committee that handles tenure and promotion reviews highlighting the positive things said in the course of the tenure review. As one of my colleagues noted, this is probably the only time (prior to retirement) that you get an official letter telling you how great you are, so these are to be cherished. I got my Very Nice…

Links for 2012-02-17

Xpress Reviews: Nonfiction | First Look at New Books, February 17, 2012 -- Library Journal Reviews Playing Gracie Allen to Orzel's George Burns is the endearing Emmy, the canine star of his previous book. No matter whether Emmy thinks she will be younger by pulling fast on her leash or that she will suddenly fit through a hole in the fence by running as fast as she can toward it, Orzel talks her (and readers) through the principles of relativity, including time dilation and length contraction. No prior mathematical knowledge is required for this book, but some basic knowledge in physics…

Oops -- make that "garters!" Media errors corrected

Via Kottke Regret the Error has released their annual roundup of media errors and corrections for 2008. The absurd corrections are always the best: We have been asked to point out that Stuart Kennedy, of Flat E, 38 Don Street, Aberdeen, who appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court on Monday, had 316 pink, frilly garters confiscated not 316 pink, frilly knickers. And this: A film review on Sept. 5 about "Save Me" confused some characters and actors. It is Mark, not Chad, who is sent to the Genesis House retreat for converting gay men to heterosexuality. (Mark is played by Chad Allen; there…

Hello, World Science Festival 2010 [2010 World Science Festival Blog]

You may have noticed things look a little different around here. We’ve gussied up for the 2010 iteration of our flagship festival, which officially went on sale last week. There are still a few bugs we’re ironing out on the site (please bear with us!) and a couple of exciting programs yet to be announced, but the important thing is that tickets are now on sale. And if previous years are any indication (2008 and 2009), you may want to hurry to reserve your seats. Tickets tend to sell out very quickly. There’s a LOT to be excited about this year. Let's see, where to begin... Legendary…

Ask A ScienceBlogger, Round Four: Justify My Funds?

This week, ScienceBloggers tackled the question of how much control the public ought to have over the scientific research that its tax dollars pay for. The question was phrased like so: "Since they're funded by taxpayer dollars (through the NIH, NSF, and so on), should scientists have to justify their research agendas to the public, rather than just grant-making bodies?" And the answers? Well, the answers depend on what you mean by "justify." (continued below the fold...) Most of the ScienceBloggers claim that letting the public vote directly on which specific projects will or won't receive…

Hello, World Science Festival 2010

You may have noticed things look a little different around here. We’ve gussied up for the 2010 iteration of our flagship festival, which officially went on sale last week. There are still a few bugs we’re ironing out on the site (please bear with us!) and a couple of exciting programs yet to be announced, but the important thing is that tickets are now on sale. And if previous years are any indication (2008 and 2009), you may want to hurry to reserve your seats. Tickets tend to sell out very quickly. There’s a LOT to be excited about this year. Let's see, where to begin... Legendary…

What's MSHA's Excuse this Time?

For more than two years, the Cook family has waited for answers about the coal-truck crash that took the life of Chad Cook, their son and brother.  Their long ordeal began immediately after 25-year old Chad's death, when an MSHA inspector decided that the fatal crash occurred on a public road and therefore would not be investigated.  The State followed MSHA's lead, and Chad's death was chalked up as a motor-vehicle accident, not deserving of workplace safety agencies' resources.  Too bad none of them told the Cook family.   About a year later and as a last resort, Mrs. Gay Cook…

Boskone 45 Schedule

Kate and I will be attending Boskone agains next week, and the preliminary program has been posted. Kate's posted her thoughts on what looks interesting, and mine are below the fold: Friday 7pm Otis: The Rise of Modern Science What happened in the Middle Ages which led to the rise of modern science? Why did it happen first in Europe and not elsewhere? How did science grow if the Middle Ages were really an "age of faith" without reason? Guy Consolmagno, John Farrell, Michael F. Flynn Could be interesting, if we're there. We may be visiting family that evening. Friday 8pm Consuite: Death to…

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

Even when I'm on the road, I continue to be obsessed... A nice review at Lean Left that really gets Emmy's role in the book: The dog asks clear questions and Orzel uses those interjections well. They very often serve as a way to clarify, or to bring up questions that the readers probably has, or to deal with obvious tangents. It is a very effective tactic and it serves to lighten the prose at strategic times in the discussion. The dog' voice is skeptical, wise, incredulous and smug (and bloodthirsty. Much of the time, the dog is attempting to use physics to hunt down and, one presumes,…

Sayonara

Well, Chad's back, and I guess that means that this guest-blogging stint has come to an end (free! I'm free!). I want to thank Chad again for the opportunity to play in his sandbox for a few weeks. I didn't get the chance to write every post I had planned. Real life -- or at least the closest academic imitation thereof -- does sometimes get in the way of blogging. Anyways, having seen it from the other side now, this blogging stuff isn't easy. I don't know how Chad manages to come up with two or more things to say every day, but I guess that's why he's the blogger and I'm the guest-blogger.…

Straight up, let's get real

So it seems that many bloggers here are talking about whether Pluto is a planet. Well, all I gotz to say to that is this: whose the stamp collecter now Orzel!?!?.

End of Year Self-Promotion

I will eventually do a "Year in Blog" post with a bunch of links to top posts and so on, but not until the year is actually over. At the moment, I'm too busy prepping next term's class to do all the link chasing. That doesn't mean I can't engage in a little self-promotion, though. After all, my second book, How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog will be out at the end of February. And the first pre-publication review is in, from Publishers Weekly: Physics professor Orzel follows his How to Teach Physics to Your Dog with a compact and instructive walk through Einstein's theory of relativity,…

Magpie day #1: interesting links to science careers

I've just returned from two conferences that focused on educating students for careers in science and technology and what do I find here at the home fort? There's Chad writing a very nice series on science careers! I was a little puzzled by PNAS acryonym in his titles since to me, PNAS stands for "Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists" and is a high impact scientific journal. But then I realized that Chad is a physicist and he might not know this. It's quite possible that PNAS isn't as big in the physics community as it is in biology. Anyway, this is a very nice series, so way to…

How to Keep Jellyfish in Aquariums

Chad Widmer, an aquarist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, just released a brand spanking new book on jellyfish aquarium maintenance. I volunteered under Chad (with their penguin exhibit) many years ago and shadowed him as took care of the Aquarium's jelly collection (doubtfully he remembers me with all the other volunteers). He literally had rows and rows of jellys, from the sea nettle, Chrysaora quinquecirrha to the flower hat jelly, Olindias formosa, and many others. At $25.95 (212 pages), I'm sure this book is going to be worth every penny! Chad knows his stuff and has many years experience…

Innumeracy and related academic turf-defenses....

Chad: Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos Tom: What Does the Public Really Need To Know?: Science/Math edition. Chad: The Innumeracy of Intellectuals Janet: Fear and loathing in the academy. Join in the fray....

Links for 2010-10-05

YouTube - John Orzel - Treading Water My uncle's tv ad for his NY State Senate campaign. (tags: politics video television new-york youtube) Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money - Politics - GOOD In other news, the Sun rose in the east today. (tags: class-war politics statistics society culture education math us blogs)

Boskone: Visiting Japan

The first panel I was on was travel advice for the Japanese Worldcon: 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 will this cost? Vince Docherty, Chad Orzel, Peggy Rae Sapienza The other two people on the panel turn out to be the official agents for the Nippon 2007 Worldcon for North America (PRS) and Europe (VD), making me the token guy-with-a-website. They've also been to Japan…

To Whom It May Concern

I am writing this letter in support of J. Randomstudent's application to your graduate or professional program. I have known J. since the fall of 20__, when he was a student in my introductory physics class. From the very first day of that course, J. was a constant presence on my grade roster. I assume he came to class as well, as I have quiz and homework grades for him, though I do not have any specific recollection of him participating in class. I have had many "B" students in my years as a professor, but I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that J. Randomstudent was the most…

Particle Fever and Modern Art

As mentioned last week, I was the on-hand expert for the Secret Science Club's foray into Massachusetts, a screening of the movie Particle Fever held at MASS MoCA. This worked out nicely in a lot of respects-- it gave me an excuse to visit the newly renovated Clark Art Institute in Williamstown and check out the spiffy new library at Williams (where they have my second book on the shelves, but not my first; I may need to send them an author copy in lieu of a check this year...). I also did some random nostalgia things like grabbing dinner at Colonial Pizza (now in a strip mall halfway to…

Do as he says, not as we do...

PP brings up the infamous Katz letter, and Chad furthers the discussion. It is topical, although the source is quite dated. Check out the discussion at Chad's place, I am too jaded to pontificate right now. PS: Is anyone really offering $35k for postdocs still?

Chad takes me out behind the woodshed, and I'm not totally sure that he's wrong.

(I'm not totally sure that he's right, either.) Yesterday, after looking at the first few posts that discussed things like gun control following the VT shootings, Chad put up a post that semi-politely suggested that this might be a really good time for people to sit down and shut up. I thought he was wrong, and semi-politely said so. Chad didn't like that response, and not so politely told me what I can do with it. His post is worth a read. He makes some good points there. I don't think he's right about a lot of them, but I'm not sure that he's wrong, either. Right now, I'm not really in…

Cold Fusion Still Generating Heat

Steve calls me out for not commenting on new stories about "cold fusion": Becky and I have been having much more regular access to the internet since the power was fixed. We check e-mail just about everyday and can even skim yahoo news. Or Professor Orzel's blog. I heard on BBC radio yesterday that there are people who have claimed to have evidence of cold fusion - which made me immediately think of a physics graduate who worked on sonoluminescence (bubble fusion) and of a talk given at Union last year about bubble fusion. Which made me immediately think of Professor Orzel and his skepticism…

Technology Weekly Channel Highlights

In this post: the large version of the Technology channel photo, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week. Control panel of a Soviet B-39 submarine in San Diego, California. From Flickr, by Jeff Kubina Reader comment of the week: In Memo to Windows Vista, Chad of Uncertain Principles vents his frustration with Microsoft's newest operating system. After Chad changed a setting, to prevent his computer from automatically restarting every time it required "critical" updates, he found it had mysteriously been reset. Chad leveled a threat: If this arbitrary re-setting of settings…