One of my favorite experiments in physics has released a new set of results in Physical Review Letters, putting experimental limits on the size of any extra dimensions of the sort predicted by string theory: We conducted three torsion-balance experiments to test the gravitational inverse-square law at separations between 9.53 mm and 55 µm, probing… Continue reading Extra Dimensions Get Smaller
Month: January 2007
Too Much Tom Waits
I did an iTunes run recently, and picked up Tom Waits’s three-disc collection Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards, along with a couple of other albums (TV On the Radio and the Decemberists among them). As is my usual practice, I put these records into the “Party Shuffle” on iTunes, so I get a chance to… Continue reading Too Much Tom Waits
Basic Concepts
In a back-channel discussion among ScienceBloggers, John Wilkins suggested that it might be interesting to do occasional posts on really basic concepts in our fields– the sort of jargon terms that become so ingrained that we toss them around without realizing it, and end up confusing people. A lot of these terms often have a… Continue reading Basic Concepts
Math Question: Introducing the Euler Relationship
For tedious reasons, I find myself faced with giving what will basically be a pure math lecture next Friday. I need to introduce a bunch of mathematical apparatus that we will need in the coming weeks, and I know that the Math department doesn’t cover these topics in any of the classes that these students… Continue reading Math Question: Introducing the Euler Relationship
Open Pimping Thread
I get a fair number of emails from people who have blogs or other web stuff that they would like to advertise. I do look at most of the links I get sent, but I end up posting very few of them. Not because I dislike what I see, but because I just don’t have… Continue reading Open Pimping Thread
ScienceBlogs: The First Year
One year ago today, Uncertain Principles went live on ScienceBlogs. In honor of the anniversary, here’s the first year at the new site, in one graph: Well, ok, that’s not that informative. In fact, for all you know, that could be an NMR trace from a chem experiment– the little bump to the right is… Continue reading ScienceBlogs: The First Year
Hot New Trend: High-School Physics!
There’s been lots of news from the AAS meeting in Seattle this week, but the best from my perspective is that high school physics enrollments have neevr been higher: Presenting new data that encourage this outlook, [Michael] Neuschatz [senior research associate at AIP’s Statistical Research Center] will show that enrollment in high school physics classes… Continue reading Hot New Trend: High-School Physics!
Lurkers of the World Unite!
Janet reminds me that this has been declared National De-Lurking Week. If you’re in the habit of reading this blog, but don’t usually comment, here’s a made-up holiday you can celebrate by leaving a comment here. You’ll need to put in a name (it needn’t be yours) and an email address (I promise it won’t… Continue reading Lurkers of the World Unite!
Adventures in Faculty Searching
The last time I talked about our job search, I got a lot of comments of the form “Why does the process take so damn long?” As the first of our short list candidates shows up today for a campus visit/ interview, I thought I’d go through a sketch of what we do, and why… Continue reading Adventures in Faculty Searching
Blogging is the Answer
PhysicsWeb provides me with yet another blog post topic today, posting a lament about the death of letter writing, which makes life more difficult for historians: Now that e-mail has replaced letter writing as the principal means of informal communication, one has to feel sorry for future science historians, who will be unable to use… Continue reading Blogging is the Answer