Roe vs. Wade? Bush vs. Gore? What are the worst Supreme Court decisions? – Los Angeles Times Legal experts weigh in. (tags: law politics us history society) Quantum Hyperion | Cosmic Variance Is Saturn’s moon there when nobody’s looking? (tags: science quantum physics astronomy planets) …My heart’s in Accra » Woices, and weird windows on […]
Month: October 2008
Optimism and the Depression
This week’s department colloquium was Roel Snieder of the Colorado School of Mines on The Global Energy Challenge. I have to admit, I was somewhat rude, and spent a lot of the talk futzing with my tablet, but really, while his presentation of the material was very good, the material itself wasn’t new to me– […]
Dark Matter Doesn’t Exist?
Claims of the non-existence of dark matter are a staple of astro-kookery, but Physics World today has a news story with the provocative title “Galaxy survey casts doubts on cold dark matter,” which makes it sound like people from reputable collaborations are questioning the existence of dark matter. So what’s the deal? Well, here’s the […]
Science Escape 2008
Chris Mooney visited Union on Wednesday, talking to two classes (one Environmental Studies class, and one class on presidential politics), and giving an evening lecture titled “Science Escape 2008.” He’s an excellent speaker, so if you’re looking for someone to give a talk about science and politics, you could do a whole lot worse. I […]
links for 2008-10-24
Good Math, Bad Math : Credit Default Swaps: Gambling as Insurance "Credit default swaps are interesting – in the same way that a Rube Goldberg device is interesting. They are in a fundamental sense very simple, but the structure that’s built up around them is so bizarre, so ridiculous on the face of it, that […]
Thursday Baby Blogging 102308
Your weekly picture of SteelyKid with Appa: She’s getting big enough that it’s starting to be difficult to keep them both in the frame, at least in the porta-crib bassinet thing. I may need to change the way I’m taking these. On the developmental front, Kate reports hearing SteelyKid laugh on several occasions. I still […]
DonorsChoose: Young Scientist on the Move
As part of my intermittent series of posts highlighting particular individual projects, here’s a request for basic scientific equipment for a school in Manhattan: You will make it possible for my students to develop a greater understanding of the nature and the process of science by contributing these basic materials for my science class. The […]
God’s Atom
Doug Natelson is thinking about fortuitous physics, inspired by some solid state examples: Every now and then you stumble across a piece of physics, some detail about how the universe works, that is extremely lucky in some sense. For example, it’s very convenient that Si is a great semiconductor, and at the same time SiO2 […]
DonorsChoose Payoff: “Favorite” Book
Another question from a generous donor, in this case Natalie, who asks: As for my question, how about “who is your favorite author, and why?” or, if you’d rather, “what’s your favorite book, and why?” This is a difficult question, because it’s subject to a sort of quantum projection noise. That is, my “favorite book” […]
Quantum Computing Candidates: Ion Traps
Some time back, I wrote about what you need to make a quantum computer. Given that it’s election season, I thought I’d revisit the topic by looking in detail at the candidate technologies for quantum computing. The first up is Ion Trap Quantum Computing, probably the most well-established of any of the candidates. The field […]