Star Formation "This blog is for the Physics and Astronomy Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR, the sort of acronym that takes some real self esteem to embrace) to communicate with CUR members, the wider scientific community, and the general public." (tags: science academia education blogs) Salt Office Life » 10 Ways to… Continue reading links for 2009-07-07
Month: July 2009
Making Materials Cool
Having repeatedly called for more popular-audience discussion of condensed matter physics (which is not my own field, but is the largest single division within the American Physical Society), I would be remiss if I failed to note a couple of really good efforts in this direction. The first is last week’s NOVA ScienceNOW segment on… Continue reading Making Materials Cool
Popularization Is Its Own Reward?
One of the major problems contributing to the dire situation described in Unscientific America is that the incentives of academia don’t align very well with the public interest. Academic scientists are rewarded– with tenure, promotion, and salary increases– for producing technical, scholarly articles, and not for writing for a general audience. There is very little… Continue reading Popularization Is Its Own Reward?
Why Traditional Publishing Is Better Than Blogging
There’s another round of “science blogs will make traditional journalism obsolete!” going on in connection with last week’s World Conference of Science Journalists— see Mad Mike, for example. This wouldn’t be interesting except that it happened to collide with my reading Unscientific America, and it struck me that the book is, in many ways, one… Continue reading Why Traditional Publishing Is Better Than Blogging
Unscientific America by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum
Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future is the new book by Chris and Sheril of The Intersection (formerly on ScienceBlogs, now at Discover), and they were kind enough to include me on the list of people getting review copies. It turned up on Friday (after I’d already started Newton and the Counterfeiter). I… Continue reading Unscientific America by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum
links for 2009-07-06
Field-sensitive addressing and control of field-insensitive neutral-atom qubits : Abstract : Nature Physics "Here, we demonstrate the selection of individual qubits with external fields, while the qubits are in field-insensitive superpositions. We use a spatially inhomogeneous external field to map selected qubits to a different field-insensitive superposition, minimally perturbing unselected qubits, despite the fact that… Continue reading links for 2009-07-06
Genesis 11:1-9 (Slight Variation)
A reading from the Book of Genesis: 1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to,… Continue reading Genesis 11:1-9 (Slight Variation)
Death to the Un-Noted Endnote
This is a rare weekend in which I’ve completed two serious books– the aforementioned Newton and the Couterfeiter and Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum’s Unscientific America (a review copy showed up Friday, thanks guys), about which more later. They’re very different books, but both excellent in their own way. While they have very different subjects,… Continue reading Death to the Un-Noted Endnote
Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson
I’ve been enjoying Tom Levenson’s “Diary of a Trade Book” series quite a bit (the latest post is on cover art), so when I say a stack of copies of Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist at the bookstore the other day, I snapped one up. As the… Continue reading Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson
links for 2009-07-05
slacktivist: The short straw "Tony Perkins looks nervous, unsure if he should be glad he gets to go first. He reaches out and makes his choice. Grinning broadly, he holds up the long straw for the others to see and, chuckling to himself, makes his way to the back of the room. âItâs not fair,â… Continue reading links for 2009-07-05