In one of his March Meeting posts, Doug Natelson writes about laser cooling experiments that explore condensed matter phenomena: While the ultracold gases provide an exquisitely clean, tunable environment for studying some physics problems, it’s increasingly clear to me that they also have some significant restrictions; for example, while optical lattices enable simulations of some… Continue reading Lab Visit Report: Unusual Lattices
Month: March 2008
Ignominy
For the first time in forever, the NCAA Tournament will start this weekend, and I won’t have a clear rooting interest. Neither Syracuse nor Maryland made the field of 65. This is, of course, karmic blowback from the Giants winning the Super Bowl– the last time they won, Syracuse became the first #2 seed ever… Continue reading Ignominy
Reforming Intro Labs
Over at Physics and Physicists, ZapperZ is thinking about the intro curriculum, and offers a suggestion: I believe that we should have a more open-ended experiment to be given to the students. So I’ll give an example. Note that while thing is something that I’ve thought about for a while, I’m still writing this off… Continue reading Reforming Intro Labs
links for 2008-03-17
Jacks of Science â A Large Hadron Leprechaun Hunt Leprechauns have infested the ATLAS detector. Get the hose. (tags: physics silly pictures) Crooked Timber » » A Primer on Irish Culture Three gifted singers who have kissed the Blarney Stone. (tags: music silly video youtube) Swans on Tea » Lab Pix: All (Well, Some) Things,… Continue reading links for 2008-03-17
What Kind of Blogging Brings the Most Traffic?
A little while back, there was some discussion of what science blogging should be, where the question of what draws the most traffic came up. A couple of people said they see more traffic from “real” science posts than from other trivia, in contrast to my claim that I see more traffic from other stuff.… Continue reading What Kind of Blogging Brings the Most Traffic?
Conference Tournament Madness
Today is “Selection Sunday,” when the field for the NCAA basketball championships will be announced, and everybody will start filling out their office-pool bracket sheets. I’m going to be in the weird position of watching the tournament without a rooting interest, as both my teams stink, and won’t be in the field. But I can… Continue reading Conference Tournament Madness
links for 2008-03-16
I Watched This On Purpose: Hitman | The A.V. Club “[A] new feature that will explore the impulse to spend time with entertainments that are unlikely to reward us in any meaningful way, or sometimes any way at all.” (tags: movies stupid) Bad Movie Physics: A Report Card “We rated 18 movies based on how… Continue reading links for 2008-03-16
Interstellar Economics
Paul Krugman is now a famour economist, but many years ago, he was “an oppressed assistant professor, caught up in the academic rat race.” So, he did what any good academic would do in that situation: he wrote a silly paper to cheer himself up. In this case, a paper discussing the issues that arise… Continue reading Interstellar Economics
FutureBaby Playlist: T-Z
We had an appointment yesterday for a fetal echocardiogram, to look for heart problems that might’ve caused the scary first trimester screen result back in January. This was basically a high-resolution ultrasound focussed on the heart (with Doppler velocity imaging to look at blood flow), and after half an hour of looking at FutureBaby’s heart… Continue reading FutureBaby Playlist: T-Z
links for 2008-03-15
Alpha Centauri might harbour an ‘Earth’ – physicsworld.com SF fans and space enthusiasts worldwide commence drooling. (tags: science astronomy planets space news SF) NPR: It Isn’t Rocket Science: How Best to Board a Plane Science explains why Southwest is more efficient than other airlines. (tags: science math computing travel) The World’s Smallest Diamond Ring —… Continue reading links for 2008-03-15