Month: May 2011

Links for 2011-05-28

Bob Dylan is turning 70: Let’s take a look at some of the weird shit he’s done | Music | The A.V. Club Twin Cities “Dylan’s musical brilliance is already a solidified fact, his onstage antics have already been covered, and plenty more ink has been spilled about his standing as a prickly interview subject, so… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-28

Calendrical Innovation

Union operates on a trimester calendar, with three ten-week terms (September-November, January-March, April-June), rather than the two 14-15 week semesters used by most other colleges and universities. This has some advantages in terms of flexibility– even science and engineering students get to take terms abroad, which is harder to swing in a semester system– and… Continue reading Calendrical Innovation

What Goes Around Is Really Round: “Improved measurement of the shape of the electron”

The big physics story of the week is undoubtedly the new limit on the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the electron from Ed Hinds’s group at Imperial College in the UK. As this is something I wrote a long article on for Physics World, I’m pretty psyched to see this getting lots of media attention,… Continue reading What Goes Around Is Really Round: “Improved measurement of the shape of the electron”

PNAS: Richard Lobinske, Hazardous Waste Manager

(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Richard Lobinske, a Hazardous Waste Manager (meaning he handles chemicals, such as these decades-old pesticides, not particularly noxious low-level employees). The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options… Continue reading PNAS: Richard Lobinske, Hazardous Waste Manager

Links for 2011-05-27

The Power of Hunger and Stairs: House of Stairs | tor.com | Science fiction and fantasy | Blog posts “House of Stairs may be one of the most disturbing and memorable young adult science fiction books ever. I first encountered it in junior high, and it left a chill that has never completely left. Written… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-27

The Test(ing) of Time: Measuring the Performance of a Stopwatch

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m schedule to teach a class on “A Brief History of Timekeeping” next winter term as part of the Scholars Research Seminar program. Even though I have a hundred other things to do, I continue to think about this a lot. One of the goals of the course is to introduce… Continue reading The Test(ing) of Time: Measuring the Performance of a Stopwatch

PNAS: Darren Anderson, Start-Up Chief Technology Officer

(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Darren Anderson, the Chief Technology Officer for Vive Nano. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their future careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.–post-doc–academic-job track.) 1) What is your non-academic… Continue reading PNAS: Darren Anderson, Start-Up Chief Technology Officer

Links for 2011-05-26

Career Advice: 10 Tips for Junior Faculty – Inside Higher Ed The usual mix of sound general advice and “Thank God I don’t work at a big university/ in the humanities.” (tags: academia jobs tenure inside-higher-ed) 6 Civil War Myths Everyone Believes (That Are Total B.S.) | Cracked.com “Now, we know what you’re thinking: What… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-26