Having made reference to the referee system in my post about a paper being accepted, this seems like a good point to dust off an old post about the peer review system in physics. Like many of the other Classic Edition posts I’ve put up here, this one dates from July of 2002. Apparently, I… Continue reading Classic Edition: Hey, Ref!
Month: October 2006
Virtual Labs
The New York Times today has a story about Web-based classes offering virtual labs, and whether they should count for AP credit: As part of a broader audit of the thousands of high school courses that display its Advanced Placement trademark, the [College Board] has recruited panels of university professors and experts in Internet-based learning… Continue reading Virtual Labs
Having A Family Helps Your Career?
From Inside Higher Ed this morning, interesting new results on marriage and academic careers: A year ago, a graduate student in economics at Cornell University released a study showing that men who are married are more likely to finish doctoral programs than are single men. When Inside Higher Ed wrote about the study, the graduate… Continue reading Having A Family Helps Your Career?
Accepted Paper Happy Dance
I got word yesterday that the last leftover part of the work I did as a post-doc has been accepted for publication as a Rapid Communication in Physical Review A. It’s not up on the web yet, but you can find an old draft on the ArXiV that will give you the basic idea. “But… Continue reading Accepted Paper Happy Dance
Kids These Days (Student Government Edition)
Inside Higher Ed has a story about the recent student elections at Penn State, which ended up with the winning candidates being belatedly rejected after making inappropriate comments: Jay Bundy won a plurality of votes in last week’s campus election and was poised to take over leadership of the University Park Undergraduate Association, recognized by… Continue reading Kids These Days (Student Government Edition)
Exciting Technical Development!
I have discovered a marvelous proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, which is too long to fit in the Excerpt box. Which means that people reading this blog via RSS have no chance of seeing it, as the combined feed is currently showing only the excerpts. It’s not clear whether this is a glitch or a… Continue reading Exciting Technical Development!
Physics of Basketball
Well, at least, the physics of the new NBA basketball, at any rate… For those who haven’t heard the story already, the NBA is changing the style of the basketballs used in its games this season. They’re moving away from the traditional leather basketballs to a new synthetic material, which is supposed to hold up… Continue reading Physics of Basketball
Only We Can Do That to Our Pledges
It’s fraternity pledging season on campus, which means there are dozens of slightly addled sophomores wandering around being forced to do silly things by upperclassmen. This, combined with the passing mention of cable-making in the college advice post, got me thinking about scientific hazing– the sort of crap jobs that get given to first-year grad… Continue reading Only We Can Do That to Our Pledges
For Small Values of “Real”
Over at Learning Curves, Rudbeckia Hirta takes a look at the myth of the “real world”. A colleague tried to defend a zero-tolerance attendance policy by saying, “If she had a job and missed a meeting, she’d be fired.” That’s not really how it works, though: We have people who don’t show up to class,… Continue reading For Small Values of “Real”
Leaf Peeping
It’s fall, which means lots of good things: football on tv, college basketball just around the corner, apple cider donuts (mmm…. donuts…), and the leaves turning colors. One of the real highlights of living in New England is the spectacular foliage. Sadly, it tends to bring out the leaf-peepers, people from down toward New York… Continue reading Leaf Peeping