I got a rather odd email yesterday, with the Subject: header Help me identify a youtube video and solve my grandfather’s mysterious death. That’s eye-catching, to say the least, and the text of the message was also interesting: There’s a youtube video involved in my grandfather’s odd circumstances of death. Please take a look at… Continue reading Goldstein Collection: New Viral Marketing Game?
Month: October 2007
Institute of Physics Awards 2007
The Institute of Physics is the UK’s main organization of physicists (sort of like the American Physical Society), and yesterday, they announced their awards for 2007. The full list of winners is only available as a Word file, for some odd reason, but it’s a distinguished group. The prizes are headed by the brand-new Isaac… Continue reading Institute of Physics Awards 2007
links for 2007-10-04
Stopping atoms A “coil-gun” method for slowing atomic beams without lasers, from the Raizen group at Texas (tags: physics low-temperature science atoms) Confessions of a Community College Dean: An Open Letter to Mayor Richard M. Daley The Dean Dad is less polite to Hizzoner than I was (tags: academia stupid education) Finance Blog – Market… Continue reading links for 2007-10-04
Research Early, Research Often
Inside Higher Ed has an article about a HHMI initiative to encourage more students to pursue science careers: Until now, calls for action to bolster Americans’ science aptitude and increase the number of graduates who move on to scientific research have focused on nurturing individual students, improving teacher education and collaborating with industry, among other… Continue reading Research Early, Research Often
Social Networks: What Are They Good For?
So, in a fit of procrastinatory behavior, I’ve spent a bunch of time over the last few days playing with Facebook. I have to say, I can understand how this would get to be addictive– I’m inordinately amused by the fact that I can go to a web page and get a little message telling… Continue reading Social Networks: What Are They Good For?
The ISS: What Are They Doing Up There?
The new issue of Physics World is out, and features a bunch of Sputnik-anniversary stories. Among them is a long piece on science on the International Space Station: Exponentially over budget, plagued by technical glitches and some seven years behind schedule, critics have always found the International Space Station (ISS) to be an easy target.… Continue reading The ISS: What Are They Doing Up There?
Blog Maintenance Update
You may notice, a couple of posts down, a post with the title “Links for 2007-10-03,” with a bunch of, well, links in it. This was auto-generated by del.icio.us, and is the main reason why I started using that service this week– the idea is to give me a way to collect together the sort… Continue reading Blog Maintenance Update
Open Access Physics
This is more Bora’s thing than mine, but I should note that the new open access journal PMC Physics A has published their first articles as freely available PDF’s. They also have a video interview with the editor up on the site. Of course, with titles like “Dilaton and off-shell (non-critical string) effects in Boltzmann… Continue reading Open Access Physics
links for 2007-10-03
School cheating scandal divides New Hampshire community – International Herald Tribune At some point, wouldn’t it actually be easier to learn stuff, rather than breaking into the school to steal the exams? (tags: stupid education) PhysMath Central takes off with a big bang (tags: physics journals academia open-access) Are women being scared away from math,… Continue reading links for 2007-10-03
Bump Hunting 2: The Big Tease
Speaking of cryptic particle physcis results, noted rumor-monger Tommaso Dorigo has a rather long post about the ongoing Higgs search. It basically boils down to “There are new results due to be released soon, and I’m not going to talk about them,” which wouldn’t seem to require 2000 words, but there you go. Anyway, if… Continue reading Bump Hunting 2: The Big Tease