Ben over at the World’s Fair is looking for a house band for ScienceBlogs. He goes on for a while about Phish, which is kind of bizarre– you can’t be stoned enough to appreciate Phish while also retaining the ability to do math. He also suggests a few slightly more obvious nerd bands– Devo, They… Continue reading The All-Important “House Band” Question
Month: October 2006
Classic Edition: You Talkin’ to Me?
This post dates from all the way back in July of 2002, and contains a bunch of thoughts on the preparation of different types of scientific presentations. I’ve re-covered some of this ground in the previous post, but there’s enough different material to justify a separate Classic Edition post. Since posting this, I’ve given several… Continue reading Classic Edition: You Talkin’ to Me?
Two Cultures At Meetings
For some reason, I was forwarded a link to an old article from the Chronicle of Higher Education about how to give a scholarly lecture. (It’s a time-limited email link, so look quickly.) As with roughly 90% of all Chronicle pieces, it’s aimed squarely at the humanities types. The advice given thus ranges from pretty… Continue reading Two Cultures At Meetings
College Choice
Sean Carroll is offering more unsolicted advice (though it is in response to a comment, which makes it borderline solicited…), this time about choosing an undergraduate school. He breaks the options down into four categories, with two small errors that I’ll correct in copying the list over here: Liberal-Arts College (LAC), such as Williams or… Continue reading College Choice
Element 116 and 118
Both the AIP and the New York Times are reporting that elements 116 and 118 have been discovered by a collaboration between Russian and American scientists working at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. This is the second time it’s been announced that element 118 has been seen, as a previous “discovery” turned… Continue reading Element 116 and 118
Antimatter Chemstry (For Small Values of Chemistry)
The AIP Physics News service last week highlighted a new result from the Athena collaboration at CERN with the headline “First Antimatter Chemistry”. That conjures images of sticking anti-carbon atoms together to make anti-buckballs, but that’s not exactly what’s going on… The experiment in the case involves the interaction between anti-protons and molecular hydrogen ions.… Continue reading Antimatter Chemstry (For Small Values of Chemistry)
ACC Basketball Preview
Some time back, I offered the right to pick a post topic to anyone who managed to name one of the Physics Nobel laureates for 2006. Tom Renbarger won, and picked his topic: OK, with Midnight Madness on the horizon, I’ve decided to request a sort of season preview of two (trying to press my… Continue reading ACC Basketball Preview
The Problem of Prognostication
Some time back, I offered the right to pick a post topic to anyone who managed to name one of the Physics Nobel laureates for 2006. Tom Renbarger won, and picked his topic: OK, with Midnight Madness on the horizon, I’ve decided to request a sort of season preview of two (trying to press my… Continue reading The Problem of Prognostication
Whose Fault Is That Again?
Inside Higher Ed today features an opinion piece calling for more basic research funding: For the first time since we won the Cold War, other nations are mounting an aggressive challenge to the United States’ position as a world leader in science. China and India combined produce more than twice as many engineers each year… Continue reading Whose Fault Is That Again?
Cranky Book “Meme”: Voted Off the Island
Jim Henley proposes a “meme” about literature: Adrienne Aldredge has a twist on Bookish Questions I’m herewith turning into a meme: What authors have you given up on for good? And why? I’m going to stick to authors who continue to produce work, and whom I used to follow eagerly, not authors I felt obligated… Continue reading Cranky Book “Meme”: Voted Off the Island