Back when I was an undergrad, we did a lab in the junior-level quantum class that involved making a dye laser. We had a small pulsed nitrogen laser in the lab, and were given a glass cell of dye and some optics and asked to make it lase in the visible range of the spectrum.… Continue reading The Evil Professor Magic Trick
Month: May 2011
Links for 2011-05-13
Writing About Science, and Liking It. In the Pipeline: “I remember William Rusher, who used to publish National Review, writing about how he had to tell a colleague that “there is no concept so simple that I can fail to understand it when presented as a graph”. That made me feel the two cultures divide,… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-13
Thursday Toddler Blogging 051211
Tonight’s Toddler Blogging features SteelyKid taking a picture of me taking a picture of her, while Appa does the forced perspective thing again: The “camera” in this case is the salt shaker that came with her kitchen playset. Which is a versatile object, serving also as a drinking cup:
Welcome to the Information Supercollider
The title is a .signature line that somebody– Emmet O’Brien, I think, but I’m not sure– used to use on Usenet, back in the mid-to-late 90’s, when some people referred to the Internet as the “Information Superhighway.” I’ve always thought it was pretty apt, especially as I’ve moved into blogdom, where a lot of what… Continue reading Welcome to the Information Supercollider
Links for 2011-05-12
Atomic clock is smallest on the market – physicsworld.com “Researchers in the US have developed the world’s smallest commercial atomic clock. Known as the SA.45s Chip Size Atomic Clock (CSAC), it could be yours for just $1500. The clock, initially developed for military use, is about the size of a matchbox, weighs about 35 grams and… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-12
The Real Point of Zero Point
While Kenneth Ford’s 101 Quantum Questions was generally good, there was one really regrettable bit, in Question 23: What is a “state of motion?” When giving examples of states, Ford defines the ground state as the lowest-energy state of a nucleus, then notes that its energy is not zero. He then writes: An object brought… Continue reading The Real Point of Zero Point
Links for 2011-05-11
Scientific Study Links Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking – ProPublica “The group tested 68 drinking water wells in the Marcellus and Utica shale drilling areas in northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York State. Sixty of those wells were tested for dissolved gas. While most of the wells had some methane, the water samples taken closest… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-11
A Question of Ethics
If I get a review copy of a book that sounded interesting from a publicist, but it turns out I kind of hate the book, am I still obliged to read it and write it up for the blog? I’m not talking about the totally unsolicited review copies that turn up unannounced in my mail–… Continue reading A Question of Ethics
Why So Many Theorists?
When I was looking over the Great Discoveries series titles for writing yesterday’s Quantum Man review, I was struck again by how the Rutherford biography by Richard Reeves is an oddity. Not only is Rutherford a relatively happy fellow– the book is really lacking in the salacious gossip that is usually a staple of biography,… Continue reading Why So Many Theorists?
Links for 2011-05-10
Shit My Students Write “Macbeth couldn’t have loved Lady Macbeth because he was crazy and too busy hallucinating witches and stuff. Also, crazy people can’t do it without going crazy midway through.” (tags: academia education internet silly blogs literature) Budget Mix-Up Provides Nation’s Schools With Enough Money To Properly Educate Students | The Onion –… Continue reading Links for 2011-05-10