I learned today that the National Georgraphic Channel video I mentioned last week has actually already aired on the network. It was last week’s episode of the series “Naked Science,” titled Living in a Parallel Universe. I haven’t seen it, obviously, but it’s running again, tomorrow (the 26th), at 4pm (Eastern (US) time). Set your […]
Month: May 2011
You Will Never Die
If I ever decided to abandon any pretense of integrity or credibility, and just shoot for making a bazillion dollars peddling quantum hokum, the particular brand of quantum philosophy I would peddle has already been laid out, in Robert Charles Wilson’s Divided by Infinity. In the story, the narrator is given a copy of a […]
PNAS: Will Hendrick, (Former) Biomedical Technician
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Will Hendrick, who worked as a lab tech before returning to school. (This may seem like an odd inclusion, but there are people who do this sort of thing forever, so I think it’s valid.) The goal is […]
Links for 2011-05-25
News: Major Decisions – Inside Higher Ed “For 15 broad categories of majors, such as engineering, physical science, and business, the report explores the median and quartile pay, the percentage of the major comprising women and minorities, and the percentage of individuals from that major who went on to get graduate degrees. The report also […]
Lessons in Applied Data Archaeology
I’m teaching our upper-level lab course this term, where I do a two-part experiment on laser spectroscopy. The first part is to calibrate the free spectral range of a homemade Fabry-Perot interferometer, and the second part is to use that Fabry-Perot as a frequency marker to calibrate a diode laser scan across the rubidium hyperfine […]
PNAS: Amy Young, Saponifier
(This post is part of the new round of interviews of non-academic scientists, giving the responses of Amy Young, who runs her own soap-making business. The goal is to provide some additional information for science students thinking about their fiuture careers, describing options beyond the assumed default Ph.D.–post-doc–academic-job track.) 1) What is your non-academic job? […]
Links for 2011-05-24
Is the Launch Speed in Angry Birds Constant? | Wired Science | Wired.com “Does the Bird’s Launch Speed Depend on the Angle? If the bird is indeed shot from an elastic cord, then technically the bird should go faster when shot horizontally than when it is shot straight up. Why? Physics.” (tags: science physics education blogs […]
When Aliens Attack
As I have admitted previously, I have a fondness for tv shows about UFO’s, the loonier the better. So, when I learned that there was a show called When Aliens Attack airing last night on the National Geographic channel, I was all over that. I’m happy to report that it did not disappoint– it brought […]
Links for 2011-05-23
Matt McIrvin’s Steam-Operated World of Yesteryear – Children’s/science museums north of Boston “Boston has lots of great places to take kids to see/interact with cool stuff; there’s the New England Aquarium, the Museum of Science, and the Boston Children’s Museum, all of which are justly famous. But they’re a long enough trip for us that […]
Links for 2011-05-22
con_or_bust: Con or Bust NOW taking requests for July-September cons! “Con or Bust is pleased to announce that as of this very moment, and through May 31, fans of color/non-white fans may request assistance to attend SFF cons in July, August, and September 2011. Because there was no advance notice that we’d be taking requests, […]